Saw a few high speed flybys.
German civilians had packed the flight line at our base on Armed Forces day in 1961. Free beer, bratwurst, and airplanes drew Germans like flies. We had our missile static display set up along with many US Air Force aircraft and Army weapons systems. The Italian Air Force was there with their aerobatic team for the main event, but to end the show we would get see a "century series" flyby.
The first plane by was an F-101. It made a low altitude, leisurely pass down the full length of the runway. Then came the faster F-102, followed by and F-104 and a new-to-Europe F-105. Everyone oohed and aahed, and then went back to drinking their beer. I mentioned to my buddy that is was strange that the F-100 didn't make a pass, especially since they were the main fighter stationed at our base, but they had done some formation flying earlier, so we thought that was it. At about that time, we looked toward the end of the runway and could see that big oval intake of an F-100 approaching through the distortion of a shock wave. He had it firewalled at 50 feet off the ground and his pass was meant to surprise everyone...and it certainly did.
The plane and the sound arrived at the viewing area about the same time and the afterburner blast as he pointed the nose up was only exceeded by the screams of the crowd. Beer flew in every direction, people ran in circles and we laughed our butts off.
I was a fine finale to the air show.
