WWII National Capital Flyover – May 8, 2015

[Starduster]

One of my music friends will be filming this (old expression, lol) in 4K. I’ll share here when he posts it.

[Tania]

We have a 12th floor south-facing rooftop at metro center and had prime viewing. Once I got back to my desk and read the stats about each plane (and learned that is the only flying B-29), I wished I’d paid more attention to this event beforehand. Super cool.

[Mikey]

My coworkers and I at the navy yard rode our bikes to the center of the Douglas Bridge, and were able to see their entire flight. As they got closer, we saw them bank to the south and fly directly overhead – very cool!

[PotomacCyclist]

I took plenty of pictures with the digital camera. The camera has WiFi but I haven’t tried to transfer any of the photos yet. If I figure it out this afternoon, I’ll start posting some here. If I don’t figure it out right away, I’ll post photos by the weekend.

The Washington Monument grounds were very crowded with onlookers. Office workers, some veterans? (but probably not WWII veterans, because they would be in their late 80s or 90s now), tourists and even the Border Patrol out on their lunch break. I’d say there were probably thousands of people there, plus many more at the WWII Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial.

[bentbike33]

@PotomacCyclist 115312 wrote:

I would mention the name of the highest-scoring U.S. ace, who flew all his missions in the P-38. But I think I might get banned for doing so. Let’s just say that his nickname (which is a regular nickname) plus his last name make for a very unusual phrase. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bong

The aforementioned ace was from Wisconsin, and in his honor, the state has named a recreation area for him. I rode a mountain bike there once. Not terribly interesting terrain. It’s more of a hunting ground really. But the road sign is outstanding.

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[CaseyKane50]

The MVT was jammed from the Memorial Bridge to Gravlley Point. Lots of bikes carefully weaving through the throngs. Cars were parking on the grass, as well as on the parkway. The river also had lots of boats, including many kayaks. It also appeared from my vantage point that the Memorial Bridge was jammed with viewers.

As I was coming up the trail at Jones Point, I did see one veteran who was most certainly old enough to have been in WWII.

It was great to see all the planes and the crowds that came to view the flyover.

[PotomacCyclist]

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[PotomacCyclist]

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The last airworthy Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, named “Fifi.”

[PotomacCyclist]

NOTE: Some of the planes will be available for viewing at the Udvar-Hazy Center (the Air and Space Museum at Dulles). Tomorrow from 10 to 2:15.

http://airandspace.si.edu/events/detail.cfm?id=16029

[vvill]

That was a pretty awesome event. I walked over with some work colleagues. We started off north of the monument which wasn’t ideal for photos but we walked around to try to get a better angle. I always loved reading WWII history when I was growing up, I liked building model airplanes (and ships) and there was a short time in life where I learned to spot RAAF aircraft…

Kind of surprised I didn’t run into someone from bikeDC that I knew but then again it was really packed.

If you’re on Instagram there are some awesome photos under the “ww2flyover” hashtag, including one from a cockpit (posted by Honeywell).

[Starduster]

Here ya go (photos courtesy Richard Taylor): https://www.facebook.com/RichardTaylorTV/posts/10153310608288734?pnref=story

As soon as Richard Taylor TV has the video, I will share it.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Me and 12 other people had the two baseball diamonds near South Cap and I St SW all to ourselves. It was a great spot because the planes banked south right around us. The P-51s really hit that turn with power. Awesome display.

[Author]

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