My Serbu 50A is serial number "50BMG". I have a thing for guns where the serial number matches the caliber. 40S&W, 38SUPER, 9x19, 9MM, etc.
Mark Serbu may be the only general aviation pilot who called the FAA to ask if there was any law or regulation against strafing the ocean. I think there is a video of it somewhere on Utube.
Of course Mark probably intended to put a real gun in the wing of his plane.
Back when I had a small 2 seat aerobatic plane, there were some local people who enjoyed dog fighting.
One was a guy with an AT-6 out of Westerly and a P51 out of Nantucket. We'd meet just outside of Newport harbor, play around a bit, then decide on somewhere to go to breakfast. A couple of them were bouncing around the idea of mounting airsoft guns on the wings and actually shooting at each other in dogfights.
It was more of an idea than a plan. But then 9/11 happened and the idea became . . . impractical.
The Sunday after 9/11 the AT-6 and I were flying in formation along Westerly beach. I think it was Sunday. Anyway, the weather was nice and there were a bunch of people on the beach. Like he had done before, the AT-6 driver turned on the smoke to give a bit of a show.
Unlike before, it caused a panic. 20 minutes later when I called called Groton/New London tower "Groton Tower AT-6 flight of two landing with Bravo" to land for breakfast, the controller asked us to "call the tower when you're on the ground".
He then very calmly explained that the difference between September 10th and September 16th was that when people saw a plane trailing a plume of white smoke, they no longer thought it was cool. They thought it was a terrorist trying to gas them. So no more smoke over the beach. Ha.
Sorry for the long winded post. You just brought up some very fond memories.