Navy plane started arriving on the Kentucky Air Nationwide Guard Base right here at the moment for this weekend’s Thunder Over Louisville air present, together with the U.S. Air Pressure F-22 Raptor Demo Group. The 2-ship staff will likely be among the many highlights of this 12 months’s air present, to be held on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Louisville on April 23. The occasion, which celebrates the Seventy fifth anniversary of the USA Air Pressure, is slated to function greater than 30 army and civilian plane, together with the B-2 Spirit, C-17 Globemaster III, CH-53 Sea Stallion, CV-22 Osprey, F-16 Viper, and UH-60 Blackhawk, along with historic warbirds just like the B-24 Liberator, B-29 Superfortress and P-51 Mustang.
“The C-130J Tremendous Hercules options many enhancements over its predecessor, together with trendy instrumentation, extra environment friendly engines and a stretched fuselage for extra payload capability. It’s among the many most versatile plane ever constructed, supporting a broad vary of missions from particular operations to air cargo with legendary capabilities,” Maj. Penn Brown, commander of the one hundred and sixty fifth Airlift Squadron stated.
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“We’re arrange for the very best Thunder we’ve ever had,” stated Lt. Col. Josh Ketterer, air present coordinator for the Kentucky Air Guard. “It’s going to be a implausible Seventy fifth-anniversary salute, given all the present and historic Air Pressure planes on show.”
The air present will kick off at 3 p.m. when 10 Airmen from the Kentucky Air Guard’s 123rd Particular Ways Squadron parachute into the Ohio River from a Kentucky Air Guard C-130J Tremendous Hercules, touchdown in entrance of the Nice Garden at Waterfront Park. The leap staff, which options pararescuemen; fight controllers; and a search, evasion, resistance and escape specialist, will carry out a high-altitude, low-opening leap from about 5,000 toes whereas descending with an American and Kentucky flag, stated Maj. Nate Tingle, the squadron’s fight rescue officer. The demonstration will showcase methods utilized by Air Pressure particular operators to insert themselves behind enemy strains or into difficult environments for fight operations, rescue missions or different contingencies.
Later within the present, aircrews from the Kentucky Air Guard’s one hundred and sixty fifth Airlift Squadron will carry out a two-ship aerial demonstration of the unit’s new C-130J Tremendous Hercules plane. The plane, which started arriving on the unit in November, will change a fleet of eight C-130H Hercules transports courting to the early Nineties. As soon as once more, the Kentucky Air Guard is serving as the bottom of operations for Thunder’s army plane, offering logistical and upkeep help from its services at Louisville Muhammad Ali Worldwide Airport. This 12 months, Thunder marks its return to downtown after a two-year absence. The air present and night fireworks show, which has drawn as much as 1 million spectators to the waterfront in previous years, was cancelled outright in 2020 due to COVID-19. A scaled-down air present with no public attendance was telecast from Bowman Discipline in 2021, whereas fireworks shows have been staged at numerous areas across the neighborhood slightly than downtown.
