GENERAL NOTE: If you use a TV and DVD player or a PC to watch this DVD you have several “navigation” options. Depending upon your DVD or PC functionality, the use of a DVD lets you go directly to chosen scenes or skip though to the desired items/scenes. A DVD lets you freeze-frame with excellent screen clarity and also vary the play speed for more detailed examination of the subjects. 

Is there a more exciting aspect of model aviation than watching a fully armed (simulated of course) “Heavy Metal” aircraft roaring out of a dive and racing across the field? Whenever non-modelers think about model airplanes, it is always the fighting Mustangs and the roaring jets that they picture in their minds. Most non-modelers just don’t seem to appreciate the value of an Ultra Stik, ElectriStar or a great sport airplane like the Sig 4-Star 60. Nope, it is always the Warbirds they think about.

And Warbirds is what this video is all about. Warbirds are scale models of military aircraft, armed fighters and unarmed (C-47 or L-19 anyone?) targets. For a true fighter aircraft lover, there are only fighters and targets. Both types were well represented at one of the best model Warbird events in the country – Warbirds over Delaware.

The Warbirds over Delaware 2006 event was held at Lums Pond State Park in Kirkwood, Delaware. Warbirds Over Delaware welcomes pilots and aircraft from across the country. This year’s event brought fun and excitement to thousands of spectators. Featured pilots and aircraft include: P.J. Ash’s MB-5 , Greg Hahn’s D7, Bill Fillmore’s P-51, Steve Gallop’s P-47 and Carl Bachhuber’s huge four-engined Constellation featuring inflight footage using Connie cams! Plus lots, lots more. The video’s Run Time is 90 min.

There are 26 chapters on this DVD to choose from. Each one has a wonderful Warbird, or Warbird related airplane for you to view. There is also a bonus chapter where you can feast on the “Connie” in action using on-board cameras.

The DVD opens with 1920’s music and a black and white rendition of a WWI fighter airplane in flight that switches to present-day color. The 88” span SE 5 from a Balsa USA kit, was built and flown by Willis Lewis. This airplane really looked like it should have been in a Howard Hughes movie!

The Video has great up-close detail of the business end of a Martin Baker MB5. Low passes and super flying with these big airplanes are crowd pleasers and make for some pretty good viewing. The low passes and close-in aerobatics makes the DVD “watcher” almost fell there, right on the runway’s edge.

SKS’s camera work is very good and allows the viewer plenty of time to absorb the realistic look of these models in action. Michael Vaughn from Hillsboro, NC came up north to show his Topflight P-47 with a G-62 gas engine to pull it through the air. It may have had a better climb rate than the full-size T-Bolt.

A Goethe G5A, which was the first strategic bomber to bomb England during WWI, taxis out to fly. The Goethe was soon followed by a WWII vintage fighter pilot trainer. The video identifies this as a PT-17 Stearman (soon to be Boeing) Kaydet, the trainer that taught a whole generation to fly combat in WW II.

But it just doesn’t look like a PT-17 to me. It might have been one powered by either a Jacobs (PT-18) or Lycoming (PT-13) radial instead of the usual Continental R-670 engine. That might account for the differently shaped lower nose and the cowling could have been added later by the Coast Guard. But it is an attractive airplane no matter what it may be and the pilot says that it is over 30 years old. It flies well too.