Air Power in the Air Capital

The McConnell AFB annual open house was this weekend, so we made the trek across town to check it out. It was well worth the trip.

Getting through security just to get on base was an experience in and of itself. I expected our bags to be searched, but we also had to demonstrate our digital camera, I had to take a sip of Colin's apple juice that was in his bag, our stroller was thoroughly inspected, and Scott's cell phone was partially deconstructed. And finally, we had to walk thru the metal detector. I was very impressed, though, even with all of the extra measures, the lines moved very quickly and not once did we encounter someone who was unpleasant.

Here are a couple of random things we saw that were neat.

A B-1 bomber:

This is a Corsair.

I thought it was cool the way the wings folded up. Scott said it is so the plane can fit onto an aircraft carrier.

There was also an actual flight demonstration portion of the activities which ended with a performance by the Thunderbirds. We didn't stay for all of the flight demonstration though. Colin wasn't very keen on using ear protection and the fighter jet was just too loud. We were starting to push our limits where naptime was concerned anyway, so I think it was for the best that we left when we did.