mustangdriver wrote:
As far as the cost of it, I agree that we in the US spend money flying folks around for dumb reasons. If our government felt like hiring the CAf or Berlin Airlift guys to do something, I would not be upset.
Who pays for warbirds to attend military airshows? I'm really looking forward to seeing FiFi and Diamond ... er, Ol'927 at the Andrews AFB/DoD Open House in late May. I don't think DoD allows paying passenger flights from it's facilities ... and would think that in lieu of that there was some kind of payment to offset the costs associated with flying them in (or maybe just performing?)
Also, who pays for the occasional warbird flyovers at military funerals or other military-related events? I remember that there was a B-25 flyover at Jimmy Doolittle's funeral/internment at Arlington, and also that there were warbird flyovers when the USAF Memorial was dedicated a few years back. There was one time when my departure from Reagan-National was delayed due to two P-51s doing a funeral flyby over Arlington as well.
I don't see any issue whatsoever with the BoBMF doing this sort of thing. At the very least the associated expenses can be written off as training/currency flights. But I WAS disappointed that the XH558 didn't make an appearance as well (I think she's still down for maintenance, right?)