Pilots and would-be pilots sat in groups, talking about maneuvering tactics.
Bikers sat on their motorcycles drinking beer, wishing their wheels could have the speed of the winged beasts.
Then orange flames leapt from the ground and the chatter stopped.
The bomb simulation portion of Saturday’s air show at the Temple airport had started.
Engines thundered. A dark green plane with the image of a scantily clad woman painted on its nose led the way for a loud “boom” - a sound like the one that meant “more wounded” for the doctors on the TV show “M.A.S.H.”
After the boom, the plane immediately jerked its nose upward, shot for the heavens and then circled back for another attack.
The schedule called the afternoon performance, “European Theater,” a simulation of major World War II bombings.
“In the words of Franklin Roosevelt, America is truly the arsenal of democracy,” said the voice on the loudspeaker. “And America became the arsenal of victory.”
Waving U.S. flags, everyone cheered.
Say what?
“AT6, was it?”
“No, R4D. I think, the B25. Ah, it makes sense for it to be the AT6es.”
The two retired pilots spoke their aviatic lingo - one that seemed to be ruled by short sequences of letters and numbers.
Bill Boyd and Ken Fraser, both of Waco, stood away from the crowd, gesturing to various planes as they swapped “Well, when I was young” stories.
They were watching a reproduction of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
“But there’s not enough airplanes for it to be like the real deal,” Boyd said. “There’d be a lot more racket.”
His comment made his buddy laugh.
“Hey, I know airplanes,” Boyd said. “I’ve owned 12 of them.”
Fraser just shook his head. Looking like Willy Nelson, the man with long gray hair wore black leather pants and a blue bandana. For his career, he worked as crew chief on a helicopter.
Their favorite plane at the air show was the WWII-era Bear Cat.
“It had high performance,” Boyd said. “But the war was over before we could use it.”
Submarine sinker
This plane was built in 1944 in Oklahoma City.
It sank submarines in World War II and flew in the Berlin Air Lift at the start of the Cold War. Then it fought fires in Florida as a smoke-jumping plane in Florida until 1982.
Cared for by the volunteer corps of the Commemorative Air Force, the Navy R4D still flies today. Col. Jay Hauteman said the plane flew from its base in Lancaster to Temple Friday afternoon.
“It takes a lot of work to keep her in such good shape,” Hauteman said to the group of people touring the 63-year-old plane.
Even the buttons in the cockpit were authentic.
All the way from Shreveport, La., history buff Kathy Kubli was aboard the Navy R4D talking to Hauteman about patrol patterns of WWII planes.
“My dad was a pilot in the war. His plane sank a Japanese submarine,” Ms. Kubli said. “And I just wonder if it was a plane like this.”
She examined the four submarine sinkers that Hauteman said would carry out an attack like the one Ms. Kubli had described.
“It’s like seeing history,” she said, as her fingers felt the tips of the detonators.
ntlunsford@temple-telegram.com
