Chicago 2002
The annual Chicago Air Show is held a few hundred yards away from the downtown above Lake Michigan. The aircraft of one of the sponsors, an American Eagle Embraer, opened the show by flying over the beach. Another plane passed by the shore during the opening, an all-white CASA-212 Aviocar, which belongs to the 6th SOS, USAF. Then a parachutist arrived with the Stars and Stripes in front of the VIP-grandstand. A civilian acrobatic team followed him - there were altogether three such spectacles during the day. Two civilian solo acrobatic displays were also performed, the pilot of the Sukhoi Su-26 made 40 rolls in sequence.
The military performance started with three AH-64As. The Apaches not only hovered above the water, but sometimes flew among the skyscrapers! The two B-1B "Bones" came from the direction of the city and their demonstration ended with spectacular break-off. A similar number of A-10A simulated an attack against one of the piers, which included explosions on the ground.
The C-5A Galaxy (fourth series) deployed to Chicago O'Hare during the show, like the B-1Bs. The big transport plane had a malfunction; it couldn't retract the front starboard main undercarriage and it flew its display with landing gears down all the way There was a more peaceful aircraft from the Air Forces: the ANG KC-135E which had its refuelling boom extended during its pass. The F-117A arrived from the direction of the city and had to dodge one of the skyscrapers near the shore. Its turning radius was surprisingly wide, especially when comparing to today's fighters. The B-2A Spirit, the second generation stealth bomber, flew only on the first day in heavy rain. However the bad weather didn't prevent the demonstration of its manoeuvrability. The Air Force showed a sense of tradition as more passes were flown in mixed formation which consisted of an F-16 and a WWII P-51 Mustang. At the end of the last pass the Fighting Falcon selected full afterburner and steeply climbed away from the old piston fighter.
In an unexciting demonstration, two camouflaged T-38 Talons made aerobatics-free passes. The only change in the display from the previous year was the colour of the planes which were white. There were two Search-and-Rescue displays, one of them a civilian Bell 412EP and the other an HH-65A Dolphin of the Coast Guard. A Marine Corps F/A-18 and a Navy F-14 represented the carrier-borne fighters.
A foreign fighter had its display also - the red coloured MiG-17F showed that it had been an agile, tough adversary when in good hands. The US armed forces were represented by two formations. The Army parachutist team, the Golden Knights, jumped from a Fokker F-27. The transport plane of the Blue Angels, Fat Albert C-130 couldn't show its JATO start. However, the very precise formation flight demonstration of the six blue F/A-18s compensated for the loss. The Hornets flew between the skyscrapers three times! Overall there was a very fine air show on the shore of Lake Michigan in 2002. The only weakness was the lack of static display which was balanced by the excellent displays, the rare aircraft, and the perfect formation demos.
