This past weekend I attended the 2016 Syracuse Air Show and the first photograph of the day ended up being a snow plow! No one should really be surprised. I would say that about 1/4 of the reason I attended was in hope that at least a portion of the snow fighting arsenal would be on display. My snow plow faith was rewarded with a lineup right by the front gate.
The Syracuse Hancock International airport is no stranger to snow, receiving on average 124 inches per season. Despite the high total Hancock has a closure rate of less than 24 hours annually thanks to the skilled ground crews and the machines shown here.
The vehicles on display this past weekend are just a small portion of the fleet. Behind the maintenance building and out of range of my tired legs, an army of loaders with massive blades were parked in organized rows. A few other big trucks were mixed into this fleet that are responsible for plowing that many roads serving the airport. Also seen but not photographed were massive cabover snow blowers similar in style to this one.
While I enjoyed seeing all the aircraft on display I couldn’t help but think that it would be cool to see a formation of these truck motoring down a runway. Maybe they could have been led off by this crash truck as it sprayed water and made high speed maneuvers.
Below, a few more angles plus a shot of some militarized Freightliner Columbia trucks of the United States Navy.
