If you didn't know Thursday April 18th marked the 70th anniversary of the "Doolittle Raid" on Japan.  On the morning of April 18th, 1942, 16 North American B-25B Mitchell bombers launched a daring raid on the Japanese home islands.  Trying the unheard of technique of launching their B-25's from the deck of an aircraft carrier (USS Hornet, CV-8), the raiders dealt the first blow to Japan since the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Led by the legendary Lt. Col Jimmy Doolittle, the 80 airmen had to depart the Hornet some 170 nautical miles from their intended launch position due to Hornet's task force sighting the Japanese picket boat Nitto Maru.  The aircraft went on to strike targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka.  15 of the 16 bombers proceeded to China and either ditched or crashed, with one Mitchell bomber landing in the Soviet Union near Vladivostok.  This daring raid, while doing little physical damage to Japan's war efforts was a huge boost to the American morale after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor.       

Here are a couple of images I processed for the Doolittle Raid anniversary from the 2010 Airpower over Arkansas airshow and the DAV's B-25....enjoy. 

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The second part of this blog entry is photo editing.  If you're a fan of aviation photography and you haven't visited Fencecheck.com, you need to.  It's a great place to enjoy some great images, and learn some useful tips.  Several "how to" threads have been started dealing with various photo editing topics, I thought our audience might enjoy these:  

Some "quick fixes" when opening an image. 

Tutorial on curves for contrast. 

Tutorial on using exposure sliders (JPEG and RAW). 

Reducing noise in images (JPEG and RAW).

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The 2012 Airpower Arkansas airshow is shaping up to be one of the best airshows in the US this year.  In spite of the US Air Force reducing its single ship demo teams, Airpower Arkansas will have an awesome line up.

The airshow line up to date:

US Navy Blue Angels

US Navy Super Hornet Demonstration

Canadian Forces CF-18 Demonstration

C-130 J Demonstrations

C-130 Capabilities Demonstration (Mass Paratrooper Drop)

John Klatt and Max Adrenaline Air National Guard Team

DAV B-25

USAF Heritage Flight (F-4/P-47/P-51) or (F-16/P-47/P-51)

If you’re a fan of the Hornet (like I am) this show is for you.  Not to mention seeing the C-130 CAPEX where the skies above Little Rock Air Force base are darkened by hundreds of paratroopers of the US Army’s 82^nd Airborne. 

From an aviation photographers stand point, this is one of the best airshows with respect to lighting.  The sun is at your back the whole day as the crowd faces north. 

Stay tuned for more details……..

While we wait for the weekend of September 8^th to roll around, enjoy some images from  previous Airpower Arkansas airshows:

2008 Airpower Arkansas 

2010 Airpower Arkansas