On 6th and 7th September, Zeltweg airport hosted AirPower 2024, one of the most important airshows in continental Europe, even though this edition was a bit underwhelming considering the level of past editions.
Friday morning was very rainy, with several cancelled displays, followed by a sunny afternoon. Weather on saturday was good, with just some passing clouds.
Traditionally, the show is opened by an heart-shaped hot air balloon advertising Styria, “the green heart of Austria”, and another one advertising the Austrian Armed Forces:
Followed by Red Bull skydivers:
Diamond Aircraft Industries formation, with DA-50, DA-42 and DA-62:
Czech Air Force PZL W-3 Sokol, which performed quite some tight maneuvers:
Skytexters takeoff:
Czech Flying Bulls flying 4 XtremeAir XA-42 Sbach 342:
In formation with a Czech Air Force Gripen with special livery:
Which then performed a solo display:
Horsemen Flight Team, the only display team flying P-51 Mustang:
Real-size replica of a Messerschmitt Me 262 WW2 jet fighter built according to original plans, except for avionics and engines (the original ones, if they did not catch fire when used incorrectly, lasted only 25 hours. Well, actually the planes were usually shot down before reaching the end of their life, especially late in the war):
Luftwaffe Eurofighter Typhoon:
Italian Air Force Reparto Sperimentale Volo C-27J Spartan, wearing a special tail to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the wing (as also did the T-346 and the Typhoon):
Swiss Air Force F-18 Hornet:
Dario Costa flying a Zivko Edge 540 (purpose built for Red Bull Air Race, with which in 2021 he flew through 2 highway tunnels in Turkey) and Luke Czepiela flying a Cub Crafters Carbon Cub (STOL plane based on the Piper Cub, with which in 2023 he landed and took off from the Burj Al Arab helipad):
Spanish display team Patrulla Aguila:
Pilatus PC-7 and Diamond DA-40 trainers formation:
Solo display by the PC-7 wearing the 30th Anniversary special livery (…which was painted 11 years ago!)
Reparto Sperimentale Volo T-346:
Simulated intercept of a C-130 by two Typhoons:
The Typhoons, both wearing special tails, then simulated a dogfight:
S-70 Black Hawk:
Blanix Team L-13 Blanik gliders:
USAF Vermont Air National Guard F-35A Lightning II, temporarily redeployed in Austria for an exercise, flown by Captain Melanie “Mach” Kluesner:
The friday morning moist weather created interesting condensation effects:
Heritage flight with Horsemen Flight Team:
Slovenian Air Force Pilatus PC-9:
Red Bull helicopters: AH-1 Cobra…
…and two Bo 105:
Flypast and touch-and-go by an Austrian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner. At full capacity, it burns 2,5 l of fuel per passenger per 100 km, thus being less pollutant than the SUVs with which activists drive to the airport to block polluting planes.
Hellenic Air Force F-16:
Croatian Air Force display team Krila Oluje/Wings of Storm:
Hungarian Air Force Gripen:
German Army Eurocopter Tiger:
Finnish Air Force F-18 Hornet:
Luftwaffe Airbus A400M:
Patrouille Suisse:
Reparto Sperimentale Volo Typhoon:
German Army NH-90:
Flying Bulls, flying B-25 Mitchell, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair, T-28 Trojan and two Alpha Jet:
And finally the contested finale of the airshow: the Argonaut display.
The only upside is that it showed almost all Austrian Air Force assets.
Tiger-livery Typhoon:
Bell 206 (the only one wearing this camo livery):
Agusta-Bell AB.212:
Recently delivered AgustaWestland AW169M LUH:
Pilatus PC-6:
In firefighting configuration…
…and a rarely seen target-towing configuration (only after the airshow I discovered that the target symbolized the Golden Fleece):
I’m sorry, but I have to post these pictures. You have to endure this stuff as I had to. When I told my friends that “I was at the airshow when these guys arrived with a Fiat 500 like the one driven by Lupin the 3rd towing a sailboat and they spoke to Aphrodite then a digger carrying a Greek helmet passed and then a guy with a sword fought against a digger with a flaming bucket” they thought I was doing drugs.
