Alliance Aviation Expo Was Huge In Fort Worth, Texas – Just Plane Nuts

What a weekend, what an air show. This was my first time attending the show at the Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, and other than a little parking confusion, it was a great time for your "Just Plane Nuts" reporter. 

The full name is the AllianceTexas Aviation Expo presented by Bell. You know Bell, the helicopter people, makers of the Bell Jet Ranger, the Huey, the V-22 Osprey and many others. They demoed their new Bell 505 at this show, talk about a smooth ride.

By the way, a smooth ride was not an easy thing to do on Saturday, October 22, as the wind was out of the south at about 30 knots, straight up runway 34R but the demo pilots made it all look smooth as glass.

Alliance Airport, also known these days as Perot Field (nice Texarkana connection there), has changed a lot since the last time I stopped in a number of years ago, with major updates, new hangers, offices, and a new control tower. It looks great. The fact that it's an Amazon Prime Air Hub may have something to do with that... just a guess.  If you have ever been to Texas Motor Speedway, and I know a lot of you have, then you probably drove right past Alliance just off I35-W.

If it weren't so windy the day would have been perfect for an air show, a little warm as the temps climbed to about 91 late afternoon. Ain't nothing but a thang, we're Texans, we're used to it.

The Flightline, booths, and static displays opened at about 9 AM so you could buy stuff, take pictures with flight crews and demo teams, and get handsy with a lot of aircraft. They also had an area called the "Landing Zone" which has all kinds of vendors and food booths, souvenirs, experiences, photo ops and stuff. I unfortunately never made it over there. So I have no pictures or experiences to share from that part of the show. It looked like fun though.

My "Just Plane Nuts" interest is directly on the tarmac when attending an airshow and I spent the vast majority of my time out there, with wings, blades, rotors and fans... and cars. Did I mention the car show?

They cleared that area of spectators at 2 PM and the demo flying began at 3. We saw the Bell 505, the F-35 Demo Team, which is an amazing plane by the way, what that thing can do is just sick. Sidenote, the Airforce thunderbirds are getting a major upgrade to F-35s in a couple more years. They are currently still flying those F-16s that used to be made right there in Fort Worth. They still make F-16s, brand new ones rolling off the production line in another state, Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth is building the F-35s now.

After the F-22 and P51 did formation flybys it was the Airforce Thunderbirds' turn to impress us, and that they did. I have video to share, hopefully, I haven't looked at it yet but cross your fingers. For now, I hope you enjoy some of the static display pics I have for you.

Stay up to date with the show by signing up for their email, this is one you should see if you can, ATXAviationExpo.com. I will definitely be back because I'm...
"Just Plane Nuts."

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