Excitement in the Air

The annual air show at this famed Air Force landmark featured thrill fliers, a fighter attack simulation and the historic U-2 spy plane.

But the star of the show never left the ground.

The sleek F-22 Raptor fighter jet, which one military official described as “21st century vintage,” was shown for the first time to the public at the air show on Saturday.

“I’ve just been able to read about it so far, and it’s really great to get to see it up close,” said aircraft enthusiast Dale Maltman, 32, of Tarzana. “It’s cutting edge technology and it’s standing right there.”

The green and gray F-22, with its double tail design and smooth wings mounted on a rounded body, will eventually replace the Air Force’s current primary fighter, the F-15. With its weapons tucked inside its fuselage to make radar detection difficult, the F-22 looks more like a piece of aviation art than a lethal fighting machine.

“It’s a beautiful plane,” Maltman said.

Many of the 70,000 visitors had come to the air show, whose theme this year was “Air Supremacy Through the Jet Age,” to see the F-22 and other examples of high-tech air power. But also on display were aviation wonders of the past.

Jim Falconer, 57, who was visiting from Florida, sat in the front gunner’s position in a B-25 bomber and got a notion of the intensity World War II fliers must have felt while looking for their targets.

“It’s a beautiful view, but you’re sure taking your life into your own hands sitting behind all that glass and exposed like that,” said Falconer. “That’s quite a plane, but I wouldn’t want to be caught in a war in it.”

Also on display was one of two 747s that NASA has converted to carry the space shuttle.

“It makes you realize that the space shuttle is really not that big when it sits atop this plane,” said Ben Dale, 31, who lives on the base, after touring the massive jet.

The display of a Russian MIG-15 brought on emotions in sharp contrast to the air show’s mostly upbeat tone. A man looking at the MIG broke down in tears and had to be escorted away by friends.

His friends later said the man was a veteran of the Korean War.

In addition to the aircraft on display, there was a show overhead featuring six hours of nearly continuous in-flight demonstrations. It began with jets breaking the sound barrier to create sonic booms--a reminder that the very first faster-than-sound flight occurred at Edwards.

Then came aircraft as high-tech as the B-2 bomber and F-117 Stealth fighter, and as low-tech as a glider.

“I like the part where it came right in front of me and turned real sharp,” said Kevin Clark, 11, of Lancaster, after watching the F-16 Fighting Falcon do a series of loops, flips and rolls.

“I really like it when the planes fly really close to the ground,” said Stephen Carr, 11, of West Los Angeles.

The only hitches in the otherwise smooth-running show were the last-minute cancellation of the Army Golden Knights parachute team, which could not perform because of windy conditions, and the scrubbing of a flight by a Russian SU-27 fighter because of an engine fire that was extinguished without incident.