2019 World War II Weekend that was held at Reading Regional Airport, Reading PA. The event took place on June 6,7,8 2019 and is sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.
This is a collection of photographs from both Friday and Saturday’s air show portion, along with the pay for a ride flights that were held throughout the day.
I bought tickets for two days, (of course day three I had to work and that was the best sky for shooting airplanes because of the bright blue skies with wispy clouds).
I had planned to go in to the event on Friday to explore the whole site before the advertised air show at 2PM. Well plans change and I wound up outside the event on a hill overlooking the taxi-way and main runway.
The light was much better from outside the event and there were a few big lenses outside too. On day two I went in to the event. Of course I had to park in a satellite parking lot on the inner loop. Actually it was Lot #16 and it was right off PA RT183 by the St. Joe / Penn State medical center.
The day two air show started at 12:30 and was supposed to go to 4:30 pm. Well I arrived at 10:30 to the parking lot, by the time I got to the front gate, it was 11:15. I got to the place where I wanted to watch the show around 11:30. They, closed off that section with the exception of the row I was in because of FAA regulations while the Advanced Trainers did their thing. That didn’t leave much time to walk around at the 100’s of displays of WWII life so I will leave that for another year.
OK let’s get to some pictures… All photographs were taken with a Nikon D850 with a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens on top of a Manfrotto XPRO Aluminum Monopod with Fluid Video Head. People always ask where I got the monopod from. The answer is Adorama.com (Manfrotto Part Number MVMXPRO500US).
I will put the airplane pictures in order from Saturday’s Airshow lineup.
2019 WWII Weekend – L-Birds
The L stands for Liaison. L-birds were the smallest and lightest airplanes of the war. They were used as effective artillery spotters. Other roles included search and rescue, intelligence gathering, courier service, transport and ferry service, supply delivery, casualty evacuation, photo recon, and dropping leaflets.
Aeronca L-3C
Piper L-4B Grasshopper
Taylorcraft L-2
Aeronca L-16
Stinson 10 / L-5
2019 WWII Weekend – Primary Trainers
Primary trainers were the first airplanes that pilots got a hold of to learn the basics of flight. They were slow and forgiving.
Fairchild PT-26 / M-62-A
Fairchild PT-19
2019 WWII Weekend – Advanced Trainers
The next step up after the smaller lighter trainers were the advanced trainers. The mainstay being the North American Aviation T-6 Texan. These aircraft were bigger, heavier, faster with much larger engines.
2019 WWII Weekend – Transports
Troop transport and heavy lifting of equipment was represented by two of the workhorses of WWII.
The 1944 Curtiss Wright C-46F “The Tinker Belle” 44-78774
The 1944 Douglas C-47 “The Hairless Joe”
2019 WWII Weekend – Sea Planes
It was interesting to see flying boats at the airshow. There was a representative of the Grunman G-44 Widgeon and the Consolidated PBY Catalina.
Grunman G-44 Widgeon
It was used by the Navy, Coast Guard, Army Air Force and the Civil Air Patrol for patrol and even carried a couple of depth charges. Civil Air Patrol is credited with the sinking of a German U-boat 1942 using a G-44.
Consolidated PBY Catalina
It was one of the most widely used flying boats in WWII history. Their primary uses included search and rescue, anti-submarine warfare, maritime patrol.
2019 WWII Weekend – Fighters & Torpedo aircraft
Fighter aircraft from both the European and Pacific Theater’s were present and flying.
1943 Curtiss Wright P-40N
“The Jackie C II” Serial Number 27483 is painted with the Shark’s Mouth Paint scheme indicative of the Flying Tigers.
North American P-51 Mustang
North American P-51 “Tiger’s Revenge”
FG-1D Corsair
Grumman F-6F Hellcat
Grunmann TBF Avenger
It is technically a torpedo bomber however since it was primarily launched from a carrier; I am grouping the TBM Avenger and the Japanese torpedo bombers under the fighters / torpedo bomber section.
The Japanese Aircraft
The A6M2 Mitsubishi Reisen “Zero” Replica
Nakajima B5 “Kate” Replica
Naichi D3A-1 “Val” replica
Mitsubishi Zero
A replica built for the movie “Tora, Tora, Tora”
2019 WWII Weekend – Bombers
The star of the show in my opinion was the medium and large bombers. There were representatives from both theater’s.
The North American B-25 Mitchell- Medium bomber. Claim to fame is that it was used in the first bombing attack on the Japanese mainland after Pearl Harbor. The bombers were stripped down and launched off of an aircraft carrier. There were two representatives of B-25’s for World War II Weekend.
B-25 “Panchito”
B-25 “Yankee Warrior”
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator
The most produced heavy bomber in U.S. history. World War II Weekend featured B-24 Liberator “Diamond Lil”.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
The most romanticized of the heavy bombers, it was portrayed in the Major Motion Picture “Memphis Belle”. World War II Weekend featured a B-17 “Yankee Lady”
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The last of the great bombers of World War II, it is most famous for delivering the Atomic bomb strikes to Japan. FIFI which was flying above the World War II Weekend is one of only two B-29’s to be currently airworthy.
World War II Weekend 2020 will be held on June 5, 6, and 7 2020. Hope to see everyone next year.
Also I am not an aircraft identification expert. I looked up many of the aircraft via their tail numbers. So if there is an error let me know and I will correct it.
