Let’s see what flew over DC on Fourth of July event.
After being inspired by France’s Bastille Day parade, American President Donald Trump had longed to hold a similar military focused celebration in Washington D.C.
The year before Trump had tried to conduct such a parade, but was thwarted when the estimated cost was over $90 million. Keeping tight security on the cost involved, limiting the show to a flyover and four static armored vehicles, this year Trump was able to pull off his celebration on July 4th, America’s Independence Day.
Dubbed the “Salute to America”, the President sought to honor all branches of the United States military. Regardless of the politics involved and afternoon thunderstorms the flyover took place and was timed to Trump’s speech. When the aerial demonstration commenced, the rain was light though the cloud cover was rather thick. Subsequently the light was not that good and it was a challenge to record the best of images.
The flyover started with a low pass by a VC-25A, aka Air Force One when the President is on board. Then in waves, formations of aircraft over flew the Washington Mall, with each group of planes representing their branch of the military. Multiple stealth aircraft took part, including the B-2 bomber, F-22 Raptor, and the F-35C Lightning II. U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters took part in the flyover as well.
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The U.S. Navy Blue Angels concluded the flyover by making two passes, with the second pass taking the crowd by surprise. All in all it was a brief, yet impressive display of the most modern American military aircraft.
