Planes of Fame Airshow 2015: WW2 Pacific Theatre Warbirds

Continuing the en masse warbird flying displays of the Planes of Fame Airshow 2015 were aircraft that flew in the Pacific Theatre of World War Two. These included a Douglas SBD Dauntless, Grumman F4F Wildcat, Grumman TBM Avenger, Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero and North American B-25 Mitchell. Former fighters of the US Navy naturally dominated the flying displays including two of the greatest fighters of World War Two, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair which together decimated Imperial Japanese Navy and Army aircraft in the Pacific Theatre (5,163 air victories to the Hellcat which was 56% of all US Navy/Marine Corps air victories of the war and 2,140 to the Corsair).

Grumman F4F Wildcat – the primary US Navy fighter at the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941

Grumman F6F Hellcat

Vought F4U Corsair

North American B-25 Mitchell – the first bomber to strike the Japanese homeland in WW2 during the famous April 18th, 1942 “Doolittle Raid”

The Grumman TBM Avenger was one of the finest torpedo bombers of WW2

A view no Imperial Japanese Navy ship captain wanted to see – a Grumman TBM Avenger bearing down on them!

The Douglas SBD Dauntless was a deadly US Navy dive bomber and proved its mettle at the Battle of Midway in 1942 where they attacked and sank or fatally damaged all 4 Japanese carriers present at the battle!

Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero

The Mitsubishi Zero was a mainstay fighter for the Japanese Imperial Navy from 1940 to 1945

Vultee BT-18 Tora Tora Tora movie conversion to look like a Japanese Aichi D3A Val dive bomber