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What's that noise? Memorial Day 2015 marked by cross-city flyover of WW2 squadron
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President Chris Rushing of the Condor Squadron, a group that includes pilots who fly AT-6's often in formation for special occasions, photographed at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Calif. on Friday, May 22, 2015.
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Susanica Tam for KPCC
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The AT-6 plane, also known as the Texan, photographed at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Calif. on Friday, May 22, 2015. The plane belongs to Chris Rushing who flies with the Condor Squad, often in formation for special occasions.
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Susanica Tam for KPCC
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The controls of the AT-6 plane photographed at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Calif. on Friday, May 22, 2015.
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Susanica Tam for KPCC
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Current members of the Condor Squadron are shown in black-framed photographs (deceased members are in the gold frames) at the Condor Squadron office at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Calif. on Friday, May 22, 2015.
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Susanica Tam for KPCC
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President Chris Rushing of the Condor Squadron, a group of pilots that fly AT-6's often in formation for special occasions, photographed at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Calif. on Friday, May 22, 2015.
(
Susanica Tam for KPCC
)
If you're hearing any loud rumbling in the sky this morning, you may be in the path of a family of vintage World War Two planes flying in tight formation over L.A. to mark Memorial Day.
Few of the men who learned to fly in these AT-6, “advanced trainer” planes are alive today. A younger generation of pilots keep the planes in the air as a tribute to those World War Two airmen, performing flyovers at parades, memorials and patriotic events.
"It's a lot of new young people, young guys who are flying these 70 year-old airplanes," said Condor Squadron president Chris Rushing, adding that the new pilots "totally respect who sat in those seat" before them, including the World War Two fighter pilots who formed the nonprofit group in the mid-60s.
Often the group’s flyovers form a "missing-man formation" at a veterans' memorial services, where one of the planes veers west into the sunset, leaving a gap in the formation.
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All the Condor Squadron pilots are volunteers and the squadron itself is funded through fundraisers and donations.
The restored planes are based at Van Nuys Airport, where the group also maintains a museum site. Another memorial, titled the "Portal of The Folded Wings Shrine," exists over at Valhalla Cemetery in Burbank.
Caption: Tulaca Lake resident Chris Rushing of the Condor Squadron, a group of pilots that fly AT-6's often in formation for special occasions, photographed at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Calif. on Friday, May 22, 2015. (Photo: Susanica Tam for KPCC)
You can catch the public air show at these times around the LA area:
First Flight:
- 9:45 a.m.: Take off
- 10:00 a.m.: Eternal Valley - Newhall
- 10:30 a.m.: Live Oak - Monrovia
- 10:30 a.m.: LA National Cemetery - West LA
- 11:01 a.m.: Burbank War Memorial
- 12:10 a.m.: Woodlawn Cemetery - Santa Monica
Second Flight
- 10:25 a.m.: Take off
- 10:45 a.m.: Rose Hills Memorial Park - Whittier
- 11:35 a.m.: Mt. View Mortuary and Cemetery - San Bernardino
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