“We want to see the Raptor fly,” Jim Sr., 53, of Georgetown, Ky., said. “He’s never seen it and I have. Pretty incredible.”
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Jim Jr., 29, of Dayton, said he “read a lot” about the stealth jet before making the pilgrimage to the spectator’s flight line.
Joanne Dinkdacker had another high-speed plane of choice: The Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet.
“Saw it yesterday,” the 52-year-old Dayton resident said. “Back to see it again today.”
The F-22 and F/A-18 were the high velocity stars that shared the flight line with about a dozen acts, including the Navy Leapfrogs, civilian acrobatic pilots Sean D. Tucker and Patty Wagstaff and nine Commemorative Air Force planes that staged an explosive and smoke-filled re-enactment of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Air show organizers were expected to release attendance estimates today.
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The twin-tailed Super Hornet was added to the air show along with the Cincinnati-based Redline Airshows duo after a tragic crash claimed the life of a Blue Angels pilot, Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, in Tennessee on June 2 and caused the flight team to cancel an appearance in Dayton. The F/A-18 demonstration paid tribute to the fallen aviator during the air show.
On the ground, a virtual mini air force of military and civilian aircraft covered acres of pavement under brilliant blue skies and temperatures in the 80s.
Stephen E. Jacobson was one of two pilots who flew the historic DC-3 Flagship Detroit to Dayton. A steady line of people waited to climb aboard for a look inside history.
The 79-year-old plane which once flew with American Airlines was older than its 72-year-old pilot who once flew Boeing 777s for the airline.
“This is flying like it used to be,” said Jacobson, of Fort Worth, Texas. “This is really the cat’s meow.”
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Peggy Fairchild, 67, a retired flight attendant, came along for the trip and dressed in a 1940s-era stewardess uniform as she told “passengers” about the aircraft.
“I just love it because it’s the glory days and it’s a thrill,” the Jupiter, Fla., resident said.
Mixed among the helicopters, fighter jets, a cargo plane, an aerial tanker, a NASA research jet and civilian aircraft was a Textron Airland Scorpion, a $20 million multi-mission jet with a “V” shaped twin tail making its first trip to Dayton.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind new airplane,” said Dave Sitz, who piloted the aircraft from Wichita, Kan., noting it’s appeared at air shows in France and England, too.
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Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Deanna J. Dickey, 26, wanted to be at the air show to come home. The Dayton native was trained to listen for submarines as she flies aboard a P-3C Orion over the seas.
“I found out Wednesday that we were bringing up our plane to the Dayton Air Show and I said, ‘Hey, let me go back home,’ ” said the 2007 graduate of Stivers School for the Arts now stationed in Jacksonville, Fla. She gave tours to her mother, grandmother, nieces and nephews. “This will be pretty much the only time in my career that they’ll be able to come up and see me work so it was great to have them meet me here and tell them about my plane and show them what I do.”
Richard Stepler, 70, of Spring Valley, flew the Wright “B” Flyer, based at Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport, to open the air show on a biplane with an “attitude” that takes full concentration to fly. The pilot instructor said he wanted to “reinvigorate“ interest in “two guys from Dayton that changed the world.”
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