FHC planes get dirty in Seafair fun

After about five hours in the air over Seafair weekend, the FHC’s F6F Hellcat and the other planes in the performance were pretty dirty. A mixture of oil and exhaust make a dull, dark mess over the aircraft. In combat, mechanics sometimes washed their planes — all of that grime could actually cut down of speed and fuel efficiency. B-29 crews in the Pacific washed and sometimes even waxed their aircraft, getting every slippery mile and mile-per-hour out of the long trip to Japan and back. Right now, FHC mechanics are busy scrubbing all of the weekend’s adventures off the skin of our planes. This photo shows a side of the Hellcat they haven’t gotten to yet.