Tora pilots give media bird’s-eye view of air show
July 17, 2009 Filed in: Air shows
Friday, July 17, 2009
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VANDALIA, Ohio — Members of Tora Tora Tora – an air show act that re-enacts the attack on Pearl Harbor with Japanese warplane lookalikes – had a busy day today as they gave flights to news media for a view of their performance from the cockpit.
Their flights were just a part of the aerial activity that took place on Dayton International Airport as military and civilian pilots rehearsed their performances for this weekend's Vectren Dayton Air Show.
Mike Burke
gave AviationDayton.com
a ride in
his Japanese Zero lookalike, originally a North
American AT-6 trainer modified to resemble a World
War II Japanese fighter.
Under a cloudy Friday morning sky, Burke formed up with three other members of the nine-ship team that will re-create – with the help of mock bomb blasts on the ground – Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, which drew the United States into the war.
The airplanes were made to resemble Japanese warplanes for the 1970 film “Tora! Tora! Tora!” The Commemorative Air Force, a nonprofit group that preserves and flies historic warplanes, obtained the airplanes after the film and began flying them at air shows in 1972.
“We do not glorify war. It’s a history lesson,” Burke said of the act his team will perform Saturday and Sunday at the air show. According to its website, Tora Tora Tora seeks to remind people that war inflicts pain indiscriminately. It says the Tora group has worked with Japanese historians and filmmakers in the production of numerous documentaries about World War II.
Burke is a second-generation Tora pilot. He said his father was one of the CAF pilots who began flying the planes after the film. He said he flew his first air show as a backseat gunner in a Kate lookalike in 1976. “I’ve done this act over 450 times, he said.
He said he has flown in Dayton Air Show “five or six times” and always enjoys them. He said this year is especially pleasant because of relatively cool weather. Temperatures were topping 100 degrees at his home in Galveston, Texas, when he left to come here, he said.
The National Weather Service predicts mild temperatures this weekend, with a high of 69 on Saturday and 74 on Sunday. The forecast calls for a slight chance of showers each day.
A brief shower on the airport had no effect on the grounds or the day’s practice flights, Air Show General Manager Brenda Kerfoot said. Preparations have gone well, she said. “We haven’t hit any snags.”
(Disclosure: The publisher of AviationDayton.com is a volunteer trustee of the United States Air and Trade Show.)
Under a cloudy Friday morning sky, Burke formed up with three other members of the nine-ship team that will re-create – with the help of mock bomb blasts on the ground – Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, which drew the United States into the war.
The airplanes were made to resemble Japanese warplanes for the 1970 film “Tora! Tora! Tora!” The Commemorative Air Force, a nonprofit group that preserves and flies historic warplanes, obtained the airplanes after the film and began flying them at air shows in 1972.
“We do not glorify war. It’s a history lesson,” Burke said of the act his team will perform Saturday and Sunday at the air show. According to its website, Tora Tora Tora seeks to remind people that war inflicts pain indiscriminately. It says the Tora group has worked with Japanese historians and filmmakers in the production of numerous documentaries about World War II.
Burke is a second-generation Tora pilot. He said his father was one of the CAF pilots who began flying the planes after the film. He said he flew his first air show as a backseat gunner in a Kate lookalike in 1976. “I’ve done this act over 450 times, he said.
He said he has flown in Dayton Air Show “five or six times” and always enjoys them. He said this year is especially pleasant because of relatively cool weather. Temperatures were topping 100 degrees at his home in Galveston, Texas, when he left to come here, he said.
The National Weather Service predicts mild temperatures this weekend, with a high of 69 on Saturday and 74 on Sunday. The forecast calls for a slight chance of showers each day.
A brief shower on the airport had no effect on the grounds or the day’s practice flights, Air Show General Manager Brenda Kerfoot said. Preparations have gone well, she said. “We haven’t hit any snags.”
(Disclosure: The publisher of AviationDayton.com is a volunteer trustee of the United States Air and Trade Show.)
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