Air Force Announces Flyover To Salute Amarillo Healthcare Workers
You have probably seen the pictures all over social media of flyovers happening in large cities. The Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds have been conducting flyovers to salute healthcare workers on the frontlines of fighting Covid-19. Unfortunately, Amarillo is a city with a big heart, but not a big population. That means we were not going to be destined for a flyover no matter how many times we tweeted and emailed to get one.
This is where the U.S. Air Force’s Operation American Resolve Salute has stepped up to make sure Amarillo does not go unnoticed. On May 15, the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron will be flying a B-1 Bomber over the Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center here in Amarillo as well as the Lubbock VA Clinic down in Lubbock. In Amarillo, look to the sky around 11:21am to see the impressive B-1 flying our skies. The bomber will then head south to Lubbock for their flyover at 11:40am.
The B-1 is assigned to Dyess AFB, located in Abilene, Texas, and is part of a regularly scheduled test sortie for the 337th. The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It is commonly called the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers in the U.S. Air Force fleet as of 2020, the other two being the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress.