![\"F-16](\"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/images\/F16_and_littlefriend.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe P-51’s wingman is, of course, an F-16 Fighting Falcon, which was the first plane I learned to recognize by type. (When the Falcons were first brought to Utah’s Hill Air Force Base in 1979, my parents took me to see the public flight demonstration; we were all flabbergasted at the way this plane could roar down the runway, then seem to suddenly rock back on its tail and blast straight up at the sky like a rocket. I had a poster on my bedroom wall for years…)<\/p>\n The F-16 in the shot above is from Hill AFB, incidentally; you can see the markings on the tail. I believe it’s also part of the Viper West<\/a> demonstration group, which is stationed at Hill. (Apparently, pilots have taken to calling their F-16s “Vipers,” in honor of the starfighter craft<\/a> on Battlestar Galactica<\/i>. The new Galactica<\/i>, no doubt, since the kids flying for our country today wouldn’t know a daggit if it stole all their mushies… grumble grumble grumble…)<\/p>\n
\nIn case you don’t know your aircraft, the prop-job is a P-51 Mustang<\/a>, which was the fastest thing in the skies back in 1944 and is still, I believe, one of the swiftest propeller-driven planes ever built. The P-51s became famous in their day as the “little friends” that flew escort duty alongside the B-17s and B-24s, greatly improving the survival rates of the bombers and their crews.<\/p>\n