Great New England Air Show

Chicopee, Massachusetts is home to the Westover Air Reserve Base. Every couple of years they host the Great New England Air Show. It is free to get in, which is awesome! And all day long they have very amazing air demonstrations. There were also several planes, helicopters and other vehicles on display to look at, climb in, and explore.

So, we went last Saturday with the kids and some friends of ours (and about 250,000 other people). We stayed for six hours, despite tired kids and ominous rain clouds overhead. Luckily, the rain held off until the very end of the show, and all of the scheduled demonstrations were able to proceed even with the low clouds. Dustin was armed with our digital camera and took over 800 pictures!!! He was having WAY too much fun. Here are some of the better shots. I tried my best to remember the names of all the planes, but alas, I am "aircraft name challenged" to say the least. But I looked up some of the names on the Westover Air Reserve Base website.

Under the wing of a C-5 cargo plane, or "Galaxy". It is the largest aircraft in the Air Force and Westover has several of these. The cargo area can hold 6 greyhound buses!

Click on the picture and look at the guy in the open side door. You'll get a better sense of the size of these planes.


Ok, this IS a biplane, and there is a crazy lady doing stunts on top of the wings.



This might be an F-18??? It was loud and fast, that's all I remember.

Here it is making a cool looking jet stream.


This is a Harrier Jump Jet. It can take off and land vertically. It was the LOUDEST plane I've ever heard, but amazing.

Here is the Harrier landing behind the Thunderbirds.


The Thunderbirds flying in diamond formation.

This was the final show of the day, and worth waiting six hours for.


I don't think I'm cut out for the military life.

Owen finally got to "fly" a coppabaydown a.k.a. helicopter!

Cute, tired, boys. Their favorite part of the day, believe it or not, was playing in a large puddle next to one of the parked airplanes.

I took this video with my camera phone. Not the best image quality, but still proves the point that my kids prefer a good puddle to ANYTHING else.