[Photo] F-22 Raptor zooming through the clouds during demo training

An F-22 Raptor during an annual demo training at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

The annual Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course is an annual four-day training event for civilian and military pilots who are given the opportunity to practice flying in formation together for the upcoming air show season.

Held at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, since 2001, the course is attended by pilots of historic aircraft, like the P-51 Mustang, the P-40 Warhawk, the P-38 Lightning, the P-47 Thunderbolt and the F-86 Sabre, as well as fighter jocks with their F-16 Fighting Falcon or F-22 Raptor.

Specific training is required to perform formation flying, even more so when several aircraft types with much different performance are involved.

On top of this article you can see an interesting photograph of a Raptor cutting through the clouds during a demo training flight.

Here below you can see the aircaft flying in formation over Davis-Monthan AFB on Feb. 26.

Heritage flight

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

 

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.