The “Air Power over Hampton Roads” airshow at the Joint Base Langley-Eustis was held on 19-20 May, 2018. It is one of the rare chances to visit an airshow at a base being home of the awesome F-22A Raptor. Also the 2018 edition was the event for the USAF Thunderbirds to be back on scene after a tragic accident earlier that year. Saturday of the show, unfortunately, was a complete wash-out caused by thunderstorms hitting the area.

Where? Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, USA
When? 19-20 May 2018

AirPower Over Hampton Roads 2018

“AirPower Over Hampton Roads” in Virginia takes place at the Joint Base Langley-Eustis. This airbase is home of the 1st Fighter Wing (1 FW), which was the first USAF unit to be equipped with the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor air superiority “Stealth Fighter” in 2005. As such, a visit of this airshow promised to be a great opportunity to see this otherwise elusive jet fighter.

USAF F-22A Raptor Demo Team

Apart from the USAF F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team having the chance to perform in front of the home crowd, the event furthermore featured a number of other aerial acts including the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds or the U.S. Army Golden Knights. In addition to the aerial acts there was a variety of static displays. This included the U.S. Air Force B-1 Lancer, F-16 Fighting Falcon, T-38 Talon, V-22 Osprey or a NASA OV-10 Bronco.

Thunder(storm) struck

The visit to this airshow was an alternative to the “Warbirds over the Beach” event, which was scheduled the same week-end, but saw all flying activities canceled due to adverse weather conditions.

Unfortunately, bad luck also struck “Air Power over Hampton Roads”. Heavy thunderstorms rolled in on Saturday, which led also to the cancellation of nearly the whole flying display at Langley. Only some aerobatic displays were flown, and ‘Shockwave’ made runs on the runway.

Airshow Static Display

Therefore, this short report features only some impressions from the static display. Under these circumstances it was obviously beneficial for the aircraft to be protected by the sunshade shelters on the flightline, a method nowadays very common for airshows in the US.

Sadly such an arrangement of a static display is very unfavorable for good photo opportunities, but under these conditions, there was not much to make out of it anyhow.