Thunderbirds “America Strong” Flyover from the H and H Factory Roof, 13 May 2020
Looking north from the roof of the 1932 Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. factory on the afternoon of 13 May 2020, the rust-brown tops of the plant’s coffee-silo headhouses — catwalk rails, raised deck, cage ladder, and conveyor housing — fill the lower-left foreground. Beyond them the green canopy of the neighborhoods between the factory and downtown stretches across the middle distance, and the San Antonio skyline rises above the trees: the Tower of the Americas at center (the 1968 HemisFair tower with its circular observation deck), the Grand Hyatt and Marriott Rivercenter hotels immediately to its right, the tiered fabric roof of the Alamodome at far right, and the dome of the Bexar County Courthouse just breaking above the trees to the left.
High in the sky above the Tower, six F-16 Fighting Falcons of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team stream bright white contrails in a tight tactical delta formation, with the team’s solo ship running independently higher and to the upper-left of the frame. This is the Thunderbirds’ “America Strong” salute flyover — the series of flyovers the Thunderbirds (and their Navy counterparts, the Blue Angels) flew over American cities during the spring of 2020 to honor frontline healthcare workers and essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The San Antonio flyover on 13 May 2020 passed over Joint Base San Antonio, the South Texas Medical Center, University Hospital, and downtown San Antonio; this frame catches the downtown leg as the formation runs north past the Tower of the Americas.
The factory’s rooftop has been a recurring vantage in the gallery — the 4th of July dusk view looks out across the same skyline at a different hour and in a different key. This one anchors the same roof to a specific, well-documented moment in the city’s history, and keeps a characteristic piece of the plant — the silo headhouses — in the frame as the foreground that places the photograph on the property.
