Free acrobatic flying show

Sometimes flying alone, other times in tight wing-to-wing formation, executing 180-degree turns at full speed, diving low, killing prey ruthlessly without warning, then instantly gone from sight.

Marine Corps F-35s fighter planes killing ISIS terrorists in Middle Eastern wastelands?

No.

These USAF F-35s, seen cavorting over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, cost about $100-million each and can fly about 35 times their own body length each second.

These astonishing flying machines are called dragonflies (Odonata Anisoptera). They fly at speeds 100 times their own body length per second.

The F35, at $100-million each, flies at just 35 times its 51-foot body length each second when at its operational speed of 1,200 mph.

The dragonflies perform their flying acrobatics on warm afternoons in an open storm sewer in downtown New Albany.

Their victims are the thousands of disease-carrying mosquitoes hatching in the stagnant water of a 550-foot-long ditch that runs from Main Street along the edge of the Union County Library Parking lot to Carter Avenue.

Wildlife photographers employed by the state of Texas got a far better dragonfly shot in east Texas than the one NAnewsweb.com took in New Albany.

The dramatic flying circus is free of charge every summer afternoon, but don’t fall into the ditch.

Thanks to a $100-thousand grant awarded last week the City of New Albany has the money to rid itself of this eyesore and health hazard, while creating an addition to the city’s biking and hiking trails.

The new trail will connect the 44-mile-long Tanglefoot Trail to the trails in the Park-Along-the-River and to the Biscuits & Jam Farmers’ Market.

For more about that mosquito-killing grant, see: “Century Ride” coming closer

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