Air show packs power, speed, sound

The sound of thunder will reverberate across the Flathead Valley this week.

This is thunder of the manmade variety as the Mountain Madness '05 Air Show takes flight.

Saturday and Sunday are the big days for the main events at Glacier Park International Airport, but the excitement already is building as aircraft begin to arrive for the show.

It was hard to miss the arrival Wednesday afternoon of the Blue Angels, the centerpieces of the air show. As they practice over the next couple of days, their aerial routines are sure to be traffic stoppers across the valley.

Plane traffic converging on the airport will continue to increase before Saturday until almost a billion dollars' worth of military equipment will be in place. That includes the big one - the gargantuan C-5 Galaxy cargo plane - that is due to lumber in on Friday morning.

It's all part of the biggest spectator event of the year in Northwest Montana, with as many as 50,000 people expected to attend the air shows.

There's something uniquely compelling about air shows from a spectator's viewpoint. The combination of power, speed and sound is an unmatched experience for people young and old.

If you've never felt the visceral surge when an F/A-18 jet goes vertical, or experienced the sudden shock when a Blue Angel roars up on the crowd from behind, then you need to see the show.

It's also a wondrous sight to watch the precision of the Blue Angels performing intricate maneuvers - some at speeds of up to 700 mph - and marvel at the synthesis of man and machine. And these machines can climb 30,000 feet in one minute!

There's more in store, too: the Air Force F-15 demonstration team, stunt flying from two different outfits plus another Air Force flying team.

In all, there will be no shortage of aerial entertainment this weekend.

For ground-based excitement, there's the Super Shockwave jet truck that zooms along the runway at slightly higher-than-Interstate speeds (350 mph).

And there will be plenty of other attractions on the ground, from gazing into the maw of the giant C-5 plane to viewing the 25 other planes and assorted military equipment.

Come and see the show: It promises to be a memorable one.