2001 Ft. Lauderdale Since 1996, the Ft. Lauderdale Air & Sea Show has been entertaining crowds with displays of military and civilian flight teams and water craft. The 2001 show, held on May 5th and 6th, was the largest yet, drawing over 4 million people and making it one of the most attended events in the US. A wide range of ships and aircraft took part... here are but a few of the participants who were photographed from the beach and road. Bombers were well represented at the air show, starting off with a pair of B-1B Lancers. The roar from their four 30,000-plus pound General Electric turbofan engines actually shook the beach. America's latest and greatest stealth bomber, the B-2 Spirit is quite a sight flying overhead... and unlike the B-1Bs, it hardly made a sound. The old workhorse of the Strategic Air Command, the vendible B-52H Stratofortress can be seen approaching from miles away as its eight Pratt & Whitney engines leave a thick black exhaust trail in the clear blue sky. Among the big planes, American Airlines showed off their new Boeing 777. You know those commercial pilots must love the opportunity to fly low over the beach and then power-up to climb high into the sky for a quick departure. Fighters were also flown at the show... seen here is an F-14 Tomcat making a slow pass. In addition to the Cats, F-15 Strike Eagles, F-18 Hornets, F-16 Fighting Falcons and even a vintage F-4 Phantom made fly-bys. There was even a surprise visit by a vintage Russian MiG! Acrobatic flight demonstrations were presented by Ian Groom in a Sukhoi SU-31, Fred Cabanas in a vintage WACO Biplane and champion pilot Sean Tucker, shown above. Red Baron Pizza is the sponsor of the World War I open-cockpit Stearman biplane squadron... masters of precise close formation flying. As you can see from their smoke trails, these guys are all over the place. The Lima Lima Flight Team is the only civilian six-airplane formation aerobatic team in the world. Here you can see them flying the "missing man" formation overhead and directly into the hot south Florida sun. The Air Force Reserve Command 920th Rescue Group gave a demonstration of combat search and rescue. As one HH-60 helicopter pulled a downed pilot from the ocean, another HH-60 kept the people on shore at bey by firing blanks (we think they were blanks) from their door gunner position. Having completed their mission, the two HH-60s rendezvous with a HC-130 tanker for a quick sip of av fuel to get them back to base. Not to be upstaged by their military conterparts, the U.S. Coast Guard demonstrated an air and sea rescue with the combined use of a Falcon jet, H-60 Black Hawk and HH-65 Dauphin helicopters. Click here for page two. 2002 Ft. Lauderdale Air & Sea Show Photos Photo Album Menu  •  Main Menu 2001 Ft. Lauderdale Air and Sea Show Photos Copyright © 2001 by Thomas R. Pasawicz. All rights reserved.