“Mitchell Madness” was the theme of this year’s Thunder Over Michigan Airshow hosted by the Yankee Air Museum on July 7-8 at the Willow Run Airport. The show has a reputation as being one of the best warbird shows in the mid-West, if not the country. This year’s show was certainly no exception.

Each of the past several years, the organizers have used a theme to plan their annual show. This year’s theme brought together fifteen B-25 Mitchell medium-bombers to salute the Doolittle Raiders, and the Blue Angels to headline the show.

In addition to the Blues, the show brought in the USAF F-16 Viper (East) demo team, Sean Tucker, and crafted mini-themes for the warbird displays.  The additional themes included a salute to World War Two era fighter aircraft, vintage jet warbirds, and a downed pilot rescue.

The WWII era fighters that participated in the flying portion of the show included several P-51D Mustangs, a P-40E Warhawk, an FG-1 Corsair, and three P-47 Thunderbolts. These days, having three Thunderbolts in the sky at one time is a rare opportunity, and an incredible sight. The Thunderbolts included Tom Duffy’s “No Guts No Glory”, American Airpower Museum’s “Jacky’s Revenge”, and Butch Schroeder’s “Hairless Joe”.

Vintage jets were well represented also. The Warbird Aviation Heritage Foundation flew both their F-86 Sabre and their rare T-2B Buckeye. Tim Brutsche flew his L-39C, and Paul Keppeler piloted his T-33 Shooting Star. The only Vietnam era jet warbird to participate was Will Ward’s black MiG-17.

The downed pilot re-enactment was a change of pace, and well received by the audience. A marvelously restored Sikorsky UH-34D Seahorse painted in Marine markings was used as the rescue helo. Several O-2s located the downed airmen, and guided the chopper to them. While one O-2 was searching, the others were making simulated “willie pete” smoke rocket runs to mark the target or to keep the bad guys at bay.

Maj. Jason “Buzzer” Koltes put the USAF F-16 Viper though its paces then participated in the Heritage Flight with Brad Hood’s P-51 Mustang “Shangrila”. Sunday’s Heritage Flight was a special 4-ship formation that included Dale Snodgrass in the P-51 “Excaliber” and Vlado Lenoch in P-51 “Moonbeam McSwine” in addition to the Viper and “Shangrila”.

The Thunder Over Michigan airshow was created to showcase the Yankee Air Museum’s aircraft, and those of fellow warbird enthusiasts. In October, 2004, the entire Yankee Air Museum was consumed by fire. Luckily their air worthy aircraft survived, but their priceless collection of memorabilia and artifacts were totally destroyed. Since 2005, the proceeds of their airshow have been used to fund rebuilding of their museum. Thanks to several generous private donors, and the success of events like the Thunder Over Michigan airshows, the re-building process has slowly begun.