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Bill Walton
Bill Walton is a life-long aviation enthusiast and expert in aircraft recognition. As a teenager Bill helped his engineer father build an award-winning T-18 homebuilt airplane in their Wisconsin basement. Bill is a freelance writer, an avid sailor, engineer, announcer, husband, father, uncle, mentor, coach, and Navy veteran. Bill lives north of Houston TX with his wife and son under the approach path to KDWH runway 17R, which means they get to look up at a lot of airplanes. A very good thing.
Latest stories
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in BlogBREAKING: USAF F-15C Eagle Fighter Crashes Near Okinawa- Pilot Injured But Safe
On Sunday June 10th at 0636 local time (1936 Eastern Time in the United States) a United States Air Force (USAF) McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle fighter jet crashed into the Philippine Sea approximately 50 miles south of Naha, Okinawa, Japan. The pilot of the jet ejected successfully from the stricken aircraft and was rescued by […] More
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So Much Warthog: Watch TAC Putting the A-10 Through the Wringer
Produced by the United States Air Force (USAF) during 1977, the film “A-10 Capabilities and Sortie Surge 1977” stars the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II and documents an exercise conducted during February of 1977 to investigate the capabilities of the new (at the time) aircraft and her crews and maintainers. The exercise, conducted at the […] More
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Memorial Day: Remembering Why We Remember Our Fallen Heroes
Memorial Day first became an American tradition as Decoration Day during the 1860s to memorialize those who died in battle during the American Civil War and place flowers at their graves. There is some debate about exactly when and where the observance was first proclaimed, but suffice it to say that Memorial Day was, and […] More
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Miramar Looked Like This When TOP GUN Was Just Getting Off the Ground
In 1970 the Pacific Fleet Combat Camera Group produced the film “Seaview” for Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar, located near San Diego in California, to portray the history and then-current utilization of the station. Now a Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), Miramar was of course home to the Pacific Fleet fighter and Airborne Early Warning […] More
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BREAKING: C-130H Hercules Crashes in Georgia; No Survivors Reported
SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES On Wednesday May 2nd 2018 at approximately 1130 local time, a Puerto Rico Air National Guard (ANG) Lockheed C-130H Hercules airlifter crashed near Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (KSAV) in Georgia. The stricken aircraft came to rest on Highway 21 at Crossgate Road but no injuries to those on the ground or property […] More
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Watch and Listen as 70 Years of US Navy Blue Angels History Come Alive
This Blue Angels retrospective was produced by the Blue Angels Association to celebrate the team’s 70th Anniversary in 2016. The video intermixes performance footage tracing all the way back to the team’s original Grumman F6F Hellcat aircraft and personnel with music from the eras during which each aircraft was flown by the team along with […] More
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Watch as B-52 BUFFs Roar Past Low and Slow at Barksdale AFB
Everybody loves the BUFF. Boeing’s B-52H Stratofortress is still a front line weapons system more than sixty years after it entered United States Air Force (USAF) service. Today many of the remaining USAF B-52Hs are based at Barksdale Air Force Base at Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana and Minot AFB at Minot near the Canadian […] More
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The Crusader: The Last Gunfighter Was One Impressive Engineering Triumph
When Vought produced this retrospective film about their F8U-1 and F8U-2 Crusader fighter the days of the Last Gunfighter serving in frontline fleet squadrons were numbered. Their other fighter design of the period, the XF8U-3 Crusader III, was intended not only to compete with the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II but to keep the company […] More
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USS Harry S Truman and CVW-1 Are Loaded For Bear and Ready For Trouble
On April 11th 2018 the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) departed Norfolk for the ship’s latest deployment. The carrier and her crew of 6,500 sailors, along with the attendant Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG), is headed to the Mediterranean Sea and points Middle East. Escorted by several guided missile destroyers, the carrier’s primary […] More
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Tigershark: When What Might Have Been Became What Never Was
When this promotional film was produced during the early 1980s to extoll the virtues of the Northrop F-5G (F-20) Tigershark, the jet was in competition with the likes of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. Though it was an evolutionary development of Northrop’s by-then successful F-5E Tiger fighter bomber, the Tigershark was much more than […] More
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BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: US Air Force F-16 Viper Jet Down In Nevada Desert
UPDATE: According to this Air Force statement released by Nellis Public Affairs, the F-16 that crashed in Nevada on Wednesday 4/4/2018 belonged to the Thunderbirds: NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. – A U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds pilot was killed when his F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed over the Nevada Test and Training Range today at approximately 10:30 […] More
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Watch When Jet Engines Were Very Young and Expectations Were Sky High
Made in 1952, the film “Jet Propulsion” was produced by Encyclopaedia Britannica along with the Illinois Institute of Technology. At this point in aviation history, jet engines were still behind the power curve. The jet engine would of course go on to become a reliable and efficient power plant, but when the film was made, […] More
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