Welcome to Airshow Traveler Magazine's Newsletter, Air Show Weekly, where we take a look at upcoming airshows and showcase current aviation topics. All air show information listed is accurate as we know it. Still, it is best to check with the individual air show to see if there are any changes. Even then, scheduled aircraft may not appear due to bad weather en route, or because of mechanical breakdown. | | MCAS Beaufort Air Show, May 16-17 | Location: MCAS Beaufort, SC Website: http://www.beaufortairshow.com/index.html
MCAS Beaufort is home to Marine Air Group 31 (MAG-31) which is comprised of six Hornet squadrons. It is also home to the Navy squadron, VFA-86, which also flies the Hornet. The base is known as Fightertown East. Two years ago, a Blue Angel crash here took the life of LCDR Kevin Davis. Hopefully, this year's show will go off with no incidents.
This year's show is highlighted by the Blue Angels, Skip Stewart, a Hornet and Strike Eagle demo, and the queen of the skies, Patty Wagstaff. And there will be plenty of kabooms on hand with Rich's Incredible Pyro set to blow things up. Skip Stewart will be performing with his Prometheus (009, N540S) which is a heavily modified Pitts S2S. This photo was taken at the 2007 Dayton air show just prior to Skip losing his partner, Jim Leroy. 
| Performers | Static | | Blue Angels | Nanchang CJ-6 | | Patty Wagstaff and her Extra 300 | SNJ-5 Texan | | Skip Stewart and his Pitts | Classic Car Festival | | Jurgis Kairys and his Sukhoi | Yak-52 | | F-15E Strike Eagle Demo | AH-64D Apache | | CF-18 Hornet Demo | B-52 Stratofortress | | AFRC Jet Dragster | CH-53E Super Stallion | | Sky Soldiers UH-1 'Huey' | AH-1W Cobra | | Rich's Incredible Pyro | UH-1N Iroquois 'Huey' | | Virtual Army Experience | C-45 Expeditor | | | EA-6B Prowler | | | BAC Jet Provost | | | Gulfstream IV | | | PT-17 Stearman | | | Waco Taperwing |
| | Andrews AFB Air Show, May 16-17 | Location: Andrews AFB, Morningside, MD Parking: FedEx Field Only, Take Free Shuttle to Base Website: http://www.jsoh.org/
Andrews is always a great show headlined this year by the USAF Thunderbirds. More than that, they always have a great collection of static displays. These displays are not limited to aircraft, for you will see tanks, armored personnel carriers, and Patriot missile launchers just to name a few. And if you're lucky, you may see the President fly in on Marine One, and fly out on Air Force One, for this is where most of the presidential aircraft are kept.
The AC-47 Spooky Gunship pictured below will be on display at Andrews. This aircraft is famous due to the Medal of Honor awardee who served on her - John Levitow. Despite having more than 40 shrapnel wounds from a mortar attack that hit the plane, Levitow managed to pull one of his injured comrades from an open door. Then he tossed an armed flare out the open door just as it ignited. The flare would have touched off 20,000 rounds of ammo on board, and it would have surely burned holes in the wooden floorboards. 
| Performers | Static | | USAF Thunderbirds | F/A-18 Hornet | | US Army Golden Knights | C-17A Globemaster III | | A-10 Thunderbolt II Demo | C-130 Super Hercules | | Liberty Jump Team | F-16 Fighting Falcon | | F/A-18F Super Hornet Demo | A-10 Thunderbolt II | | Greg Poe and his MX-2 | B-1B Lancer | | Team McGowan Jump Team | B-52H Stratofortress | | 82nd Airborne Mass Team Jump | KC-135 Stratotanker | | Geico Skytypers | KC-10 Extender | | Sean Tucker and his Pitts | JSTARS | | F-22 Raptor Demo | F-15C Eagle | | USAF Heritage Flight: F-22, A-10, P-51 | F-15E Strike Eagle | | | UH-1N Iroquois 'Huey' | | | T-6A Texan II | | | C-5 Galaxy | | | T-1 Jayhawk | | | HH-60G Pave Hawk | | | F-35 Joint Strike Fighter | | | P-3C Orion | | | EA-6B Prowler | | | C-2A Greyhound | | | E-2C Hawkeye | | | MH-53 Sea Dragon | | | T-38 Talon | | | AH-1W Super Cobra | | | AV-6B Harrier | | | CH-46 Sea Knight | | | CH-53 Super Stallion | | | MV-22 Osprey | | | A-1 Skyraider | | | AC-47 Spooky Gunship | | | B-17 'Memphis Belle' | | | BAC-167 Strikemaster | | | B-24 Liberator | | | B-25 Mitchell | | | C-123 Provider | | | C-54 'Spirit of Freedom' | | | F4U Corsair | | | Focke-Wulf FW-149 | | | TBM Avenger | | | P-40 Warhawk | | | P-47 Thunderbolt | | | SBD Dauntless | | | T-6 Mosquito | | | Yak 3-M | | | Yak 52 | | | Spitfire |
| | MCAS Cherry Point Air Show, May 16-17 | Location: MCAS Cherry Point, NC Admission: Free
Gates Open: 8AM US Marine Corps aviation has two major air bases. On the west coast it's MCAS Miramar, while on the east coast it's MCAS Cherry Point. The landing strip is so large at Cherry Point, that it is an alternate emergency landing strip for the space shuttle. The base is the home of Marine Air Wing Two (2nd MAW). A variety of aircraft are flown here including Hornets, CH-46 and CH-53 helicopters, AV-8 Harriers, EA-6B Prowlers, and five squadrons of tilt rotor aircraft, the MV-22 Osprey. This is a great show highlighted by the Marine assault which incorporates all the different type of aircraft flown here. And of course there will be plenty of 'splosions. It looks more and more like UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are here to stay. This is evident at Cherry Point which is home to VMU-2 which flies the RQ-7 Shadow, an aerial surveillance UAV. 
| Performers | Static | | Snowbirds | V-22 Osprey | | MAGTF Marine Assault | AV-8B Harrier | | P-51D Mustang 'Gunfighter' | EA-6B Prowler | | AV-8B Harrier | F-15 Eagle | | Trojan Horsemen | KC-130 Hercules | | Super Shockwave Jet Truck | F/A-18 Hornet | | Bob Carlton and his TJ-100 Jet Sailplane | UH-72 Lakota | | Red Eagle Air Sports | L-39 Albatross | | Mike Goulian and his CAP 232 | CH-53E Super Stallion | | Gene Soucy and Wingwalker Teresa Stokes | CH-46E Sea Knight | | Kent Pietsch and his Cadet | UH-1N Twin Huey | | Bill Leff and his T-6 Texan | B-25 Mitchell 'Panchito' | | | BAC 167 Strikemaster | | | L-29 Delfin | | | Stinson A-19 Reliant | | | C-130 Hercules | | | KC-135 Stratotanker | | | Cessna Skymaster | | | C-182 Cessna | | | P-3 Orion | | | C-17A Globemaster III | | | T-1 Jayhawk | | | C-54 Skymaster | | | C-123 Provider | | | A-1E Skyraider | | | HU-25 Falcon Jet | | | OV-1 Mohawk | | | A-10 Thunderbolt II | | | F4U Corsair | | | T-6 Texan II | | | T-34 Mentor | | | T-39 Sabreliner | | | Focke-Wulf FW-190 |
| | Planes of Fame Air Show, May 16-17 | Admission, Adults: $16 in advance, $20 at gate Admission, Children Ages 5-11: $5 Admission, Children Under Age of 5: Free
Gates Open: 8AM In our opinion, there is no finer warbird show in the country than the Planes of Fame Air Show in Chino, CA. That's because they have such a large colletion of flyable warbirds in house. When we visited there two years ago, their grand finale had 27 aircraft in the air at the same time. Then each individual warbird would do three photo passes before landing. Awesome! All you have to do is look at the lineup below to be impressed. And there are even more on static display. Too many to list in fact. The only problem at the show is photographing the performances. Chino is situated in a valley. In the morning, it is very hazy. By the time it starts to burn off at noon, the sun is directly overhead making for terrible contrast. Then the winds pick up in the afternoon, so beware of dust infiltrating your camera. How many places can you see two P-38 Lightnings fly together. And there was actually a third one not seen in this photo. The aircraft at the bottom of the photo is the P-38F 'Glacier Girl' (41-7630, NL7723C) while the other plane is the P-38L '23 Skidoo' (44-26981, NX17630). 
| Performers | | Silver Wings Wingwalking | | Rob Harrison and his Tumbling Bear | | F3F | | F4F Wildcat | | F6F Hellcat | | F7F Tigercat | | F8F Bearcat | | TBM Avenger | | J2F Duck | | T-6 Texan | | T-33 Shooting Star | | F-86 Sabre | | Mig-15 | | Skyraider | | Sea Fury | | T-28 Trojan | | SBD Dauntless | | F4U Corsair | | Zero | | P-40 Warhawk | | P-38 Lightning | | P-51 Mustang | | B-25 Mitchell | | A-26 Invader | | Yak-3 | | A-10 Thunderbolt II Demo | | USAF Heritage Flight: A-10, P-38, P-47, P-51 | | C-17A Globemaster III Demo |
| | Warbirds over the Beach, May 16-17 | Location: Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, VA Admission, Adults: $25
Admission, Children 6-18: $12.50 Admission, Children 5 and under: Free
Gates Open: 9AM The Military Aviation Museum, located just south of Virginia Beach, VA has a great collection of WWII Warbirds, so it's no wonder they would put on their own air show. This weekend is their inaugural show and it looks like this will become an annual event. It's obvious that the planners for this show studied the WWII Weekend show in Reading, PA. In fact, many of the stage performers from that show will perform here. They even have the pair who do the Abbott and Costello routines. Great stuff. So, if you enjoy going to the Reading show, you will love this event. Though there is no performance schedule listed on the show's website, you can expect to see the likes of a P-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair, TBM Avenger, and many more, including one of our favorites, their PBY Catalina 5A (48294, N9521C) as shown below. 
| | Museum News | | Note: Clicking on the Museum Name will take you to their website. March 31-May 6: Berlin Airlift Exhibit The museum will host a traveling exhibit honoring the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. When a blockade of Berlin was imposed by the Soviet Union from June 1948 to May 1949, the US and Great Britain began an airdrop of much needed food and supplies to the city's residents. US aircraft included the C-47 and C-54. The two countries managed to fly 278,228 missions delivering 326,406 tons of food and supplies. Though the blockade ended in May, flights continued through September 1949. June 7: Fly-In Pancake Breakfast Wow, pancakes, eggs, ham, sausage, juice other beverages for $6 adults and $3 for kids 6-10. If only I were closer to Geneseo. Hey it's a six-hour drive. Any way, it's June 7 from 7-11AM. For more information click on the link above, or by phone at (585) 243-2100, or send them an email at office@1941hag.org. | | Special Events | | The National Museum of the United States Air Force has announced their dates for their annual Dawn Patrol Rendezvous. What started out to be a bi-annual one day affair has turned into a three day annual event. This year's dates are September 25-27. As Event Coordinator David C. Thomas puts it, "...we honor the memory of our WWI troops with the same spirit and patriotism that these early aviators displayed in defense of our countries." For more information click on the link above. Osprey Publishing to Host D-Day Veteran Ed Shames Osprey has published a new book titled, Tonight We Die As Men. It's a story of one of the forgotten battalions on D-Day, the 3rd Batallion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (3/506 PIR). To promote their new book, they will have a booth at WWII Weekend in Reading, PA, June 5-7, with Ed Shames in attendance. Shames was a staff sergeant for the 3/506 during D-DAY and then received a commission to 2nd Lieutenant. Mr. Shames is a veteran of the 3/506 and wrote the forward to the book. | | Looking Ahead | May 23-24: Jones Beach Air Show, NY
May 23-24: Patuxent River, MD May 23-24: Millville Air Show, NJ May 23-24: Salute to Veterans Air Show, Columbia, MO
Blue Angels: May 16-17: MCAS Beaufort, SC May 23-24: NAS Patuxent River, MD May 30-31: Janesville, WI Jun 6-7: Indianapolis Air Show, IN May 15-17: Andrews AFB, MD May 23-24: Jones Beach, NY May 30-31: Ellsworth AFB, SD Jun 6-7: Hill AFB Air Show, UT May 16-17: MCAS Cherry Point, NC May 23-24: Jones Beach, NY May 27: Kingston, ON, Canada Jun 6-7: Portage, ON, Canada | | Thank You | Thank you for reading the latest issue of our newsletter. God Bless Us Everyone, Wayne Matusiak, Publisher
Airshow Traveler Magazine | | | | | Visit Our Sponsors | | American Airpower Museum: Republic Airport, Farmingdale, NY. Great aircraft and warm, friendly people. Very knowledgeable staff. A great place to visit any time of year. We thank them for their support over the years. Warbirds Over Long Island: With the passing of Bob Baranaskas we are uncertain of the future of this top notch outfit. Hopefully, Bob's oldest son Chris will continue his Dad's vision, but whatever he and his family decide, we support them 100%. These are trying times for the Baranaskas family so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. | | See Your Sidebar Ad Here for as Little as $12.50/Issue | | | |
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