Guest Post: Kansas City Airshow Brings Blue Angels, Thunderbirds and Top Aerial Performers to the Midwest

Guest Post: The Aero Experience thanks our friend Duane Cooley of DRC Images for contributing this coverage of the Kansas City Airshow held July 3-4 at New Century AirCenter in Johnson County, KS. Here we feature a sample of the airshow performers. 

U.S.Navy Blue Angels Super Hornets and US Marine Corps C-130J Fat Albert 

U.S.Air Force Thunderbirds F-16 Fighting Falcons

U.S. Army Golden Knights DeHavilland C-147A and Jumpers

U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, Joint Base Charleston, SC

US. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier, VMA-542 MCAS Cherry Point, NC

Geico Skytypers Airshow Team, AT-6 Texans 

Class of ’45 F4U Corsair Korean War Hero flown by Jim Tobul, and P-51D Mustang Quick Silver flown by Scott “Scooter” Yoak

P-51C Mustang Tuskegee Airmen, CAF Minnesota Wing, and P-40 Warhawk, CAF Dallas, TX

Younkin Airshows, Beech 18 Magic by Moonlight

KC Flight Formation Team

Jet Provost flown by Pilot Rich Dawe of Racing Jets, Inc. 

Kirby Chambliss, Red Bull Team Chambliss 

Shetterly Squadron, Greg, Jeff and Joe Shetterly

Yak 110 flown by Jeff Boerboon 

MiniJet Airshows, SubSonex flown by Tom Larkin 

Michael Goulian, Extra 330SC

Shockwave Jet Truck driven by Chris Darnell

MBB-105 CBS4 Helicopter flown by Chuck Aaron

 

The Aero Experience Editorial: Sequestration - Don't Let It Stop Aviation Dreams

The Aero Experience Editorial, by "Mr. Airshow" Leo Cachat

By Leo Cachet

With sequestration taking place, many airshows throughout the country have cancelled their events, and the list keeps growing. At The Aero Experience, we strive to provide top quality aviation-related stories, events and media material complete with pictures and sometimes video. We try to keep everything as positive as we can because aviation is great, and I'd even reach out and say it is a magical thing. It's the closest we can get to heaven and the stars while still enjoying life - and what can be negative about that?

This leads me to ask this question, "Why are cities cancelling their airshows?" Now, I know the obvious reason, the removal of military jet teams, which really draw in crowds and in turn generates revenue. Here's the problem I have with that: after attending innumerable airshows, it has NOT been my experience that people will sit in the sun for hours JUST to see a military jet team. There are so many great individual aerobatic pilots on the circuit, along with many civilian formation aerobatic teams, to draw an audience.  Also, let's not forget the predecessors to the military planes of today, the warbirds of years past. Sean D. Tucker, Julie Clark, Skip Stewart, John Mohr, Kyle Franklin, Matt Younkin, Patty Wagstaff, Aeroshell Aerobatic Team, Lima Lima Aerobatic Team, Team Aerodynamix, B-29, B-24, B-17's, P-51's, F-4U's, P-40's, B-25's, P-38's, T-6's, SNJ's, TBM's, Skyraiders, T-34's, Stearmans, WACOs.  These are just some of the performers and aircraft that come to my mind when thinking about airshows, there are many more. Yet, a lot of people will miss out on seeing these unbelievable performers/artists just because the military has grounded the Thunderbirds, Blue Angels and some of the tactical fighter teams.

I enjoy the modern aircraft immensely, the noise, the power, the speed.  But were there not airshows before the jet age arrived?  Millions of people have headed out to Reno for years to see different aircraft race and perform, and will continue to go whether there is a military jet demonstration team there or not.  A good example of this was yesterday at the St. Louis Science Center where we attended a showing of the Air Racers movie. The theater was filled and it was the second weekend they were showing it.  The audience was not there to see a military jet demonstration team, they were there to enjoy the magic that is aviation. My advice to those organizers of airshows nationwide: Promote your shows as throwbacks to the glory days of aviation, where barnstorming and tales of the aces of WWII captivated audiences and taught people the history of how aviation evolved to what it is today. Bring people into the world of aviation, rather than cancelling shows that may captivate and consume a boy or a girl like it did me many years ago.