What’s even cooler than owning a superyacht?
Try a private collection of World War 2 fighter aircraft, in pristine working condition and still up for overseas strafing missions.
A daily air show is a feature of the St Barths Bucket superyacht regatta, courtesy of the owner of the Andre Hoek-designed 180ft ketch Marie. This is his collection of war birds, and this year he again brought them from the US, piloted by the Texas Flying Legends, a group of US pilots.
Every day they fly in formation over the island of St Barths and make a strafing-style fly-past of the airport, which is in any case one of the most dangerous in the world with a steep descent though the notch between two hills. The warbirds come in at speed, swoop to propeller altitude before climbing steeply back out round the back.
And marine photographer Tim Wright got great photos of the aircraft that really capture how low they fly.
To get here, the planes have to fly 2,200 miles from their US base to St Maarten. They join forces with four additional Warbirds from Lewis Air Legends of San Antonio, Texas and their journey is be one of the largest fleets of warbirds to travel overseas since World War II ended.
The bureaucracy that had to be overcome to get them here is a story in itself: permission from four different countries and reputedly an Act of Congress, not to allow them to leave the US, but to permit these ‘instruments of war’ to re-enter the country again afterwards.
The planes include:
A B-25J Mitchell Bomber, made famous by the Doolittle Raiders attack on mainland Japan four months after the Japanese attacked the US at Pearl Harbour
A TBM Avenger 3E torpedo bomber, once flown by Houston native and former US President George Bush
An FG-1D Corsair, the powerful carrier-based fighter that greatly reduced enemy airpower during World War 2, a P-40K Warhawk
An A6-M2 Model 21 Japanese Zero, one of only a few Japanese Zeros left flying in the world that was the symbol of Japanese airpower in World War 2
Story, photo gallery and video: http://www.yachtingworld.com
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