HIO Event Set to Dazzle

The organizers of the Oregon International Air Show have announced the upcoming 2023 event will host a veritable squadron of classic, WWII era warbirds deriving primarily of the collections of Erickson Aircraft and Planes of Fame.

By virtue of their respective and remarkable dedication to the preservation of rare and historic aircraft, Erickson and Planes of Fame will presently afford airshow fans opportunity to witness firsthand the spectacle of Second World War Allied air-power thundering gloriously through the skies of 21st Century Western Oregon—righteously terrifying throngs of stoned hippies below.

The aircraft slated to appear from 19 through 21 May at Hillsboro Airport (HIO) include Vought’s fearsome Corsair, to which Imperial Japanese forces referred as whistling death; Lockheed’s iconic P-38, known to the Japanese aviators against which it squared off in the War’s Pacific Theater as the two fighters with one pilot; and Douglas’s immortal Skyraider, the service life of which stretched from 1946 into the early 1980s and the wing planform of which informed the design of Fairchild Republic’s famed A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Also slated to appear at 2023’s Oregon International Air Show is a specimen of Grumman’s splendid F8F Bearcat, a late entry in the Second World War which, had the war gone on another year or two, would likely be remembered as the conflict’s definitive air-superiority fighter.

The F8F’s design philosophy was simple; wrap the smallest and lightest possible airframe around the most powerful available engine. The formula was a good one, resulting in a 7,650-pound (empty weight) machine impelled skyward by a 2,250-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2800-30W Double Wasp 18-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine. In a standard atmosphere, Grumman’s Bearcat loped along at 395-knots and got to its FL410 service-ceiling at an initial climb-rate of 4,500-feet-per-minute. Decked out for battle, the machine sported a quartet of twenty-millimeter cannons, four High Velocity Aircraft Rockets (HVAR), and a one-thousand-pound conventional bomb.

The F8F’s scalpel-like maneuverability is evinced by the Blue Angels’ 1946 selection of the aircraft as the team’s second-ever demonstration aircraft.

Modified versions of the Bearcat have repeatedly broken speed records for piston-engined aircraft—Rare Bear, for example.

Founded in 1987 by former U.S. Naval Aviator Jim Osbourne, the Oregon International Air Show is a three day event guided by a mission statement calling for a safe family event that promotes aviation, honors American military veterans, involves local communities, and contributes to Oregon charities. In 1988, having been given the proverbial green light by the Portland, Oregon Rose Festival Association, Mr. Osbourne got immediately and passionately about the business of rounding up the United States’ top aerobatic acts. True to his Navy roots, Osbourne enlisted the help of the U.S. Navy’s Recruiting Command to secure the Blue Angels to headline the show’s 1988 debut.

In 1989, the show drew some 125,000 spectators. The 1992 show featured both the Blue Angels and the Russian Knights in their Su-27s—thereby occasioning history’s first joint performance of Western and Eastern military demonstration teams.

In recent years, the Oregon International Air Show has featured such acts as the USAF’s Thunderbirds, F-35A Lightning II Demo Team, and F-16 Viper Demo; the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Rhino Demo; the Breitling Jet Team; and the Patriots Jet Team.

In 2023, the Blue Angels will return to the show after an eight-year hiatus.

FMI: www.oregonairshow.com