Festival Presents Love, Lore of Flying: See Historic Airplanes, Stunt Pilots at This Weekend’s Wichita Flight Festival.
By Chris Shull, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.
Aug. 24–Bob Blanton loves to fly airplanes.
He thinks the Wichita Flight Festival tonight through Sunday at Jabara Airport is the perfect place to pass on the lore of the sport.
The Flight Festival will feature air shows and flying demonstrations by more than a dozen of the nation’s most respected pilots. Also on tap will be informative seminars on flying and aviation history; displays outlining aviation in Kansas; and parked displays of more than 40 aircraft, including an A-26 and B-25 bomber from World War II and a Cold war era MiG 17 fighter jet from the Soviet Union.
The Flight Festival will kick off this evening at Jabara Airport with a party and concert by 1970s soul band the Commodores.
Blanton, 57, who works at Cargill Meat Solutions, has been a pilot since he was 17. He and his brother, Dave Blanton, will have four of his family’s aircraft on display at the festival — a 1928 Curtiss Robin restored in 1961; a Champion Citabria light sports plane; and two Wichawk bi planes designed by Blanton’s father, David Blanton.
(The Wichawk airplane is unique, Blanton explained, because the pilots sit side-by-side in an open cockpit instead of one-behind-the-other, as in most biplanes. It was designed and built from the ground up and first flew in 1971. Blanton estimates that 25 Wichawks have been built to David Blanton’s plans.)
“People have always been intrigued with flying,” Blanton said. He said that the Flight Festival allows visitors to get close to the elation and glamour of flight.
“It’s an exciting thing to see pilots doing aerobatics and maneuvers that you don’t see on a regular basis,” Blanton said.
“It’s special to see classic airplanes and warbirds — airplanes that are very rare and unique. And to get to meet and talk with people that fly the airplanes and built the airplanes.”
The main attraction of the Wichita Flight Festival is an air show, to be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (and at 7:45 p.m. today before the Commodores concert.)
Airborne entertainers include stunt pilots Patty Wagstaff, Skip Stewart and John Mohr who will perform aerobatics; Red Eagle Air Sports, which will do precision and low-level formation flying ; the X-Team Masters of Disaster, which will perform high-speed tricks and race a jet-powered semi truck; and the Red Baron Pizza Squadron, four skilled pilots who will re-create the daredevil stunts of the barnstorming era in four high-powered biplanes.
Visitors will come face-to-face with aviation history by viewing World War II-era bombers and a Soviet MiG jet fighter, and hear the story of the WASP pilots of World War II — women who tested and flew combat aircraft around the United States. A veteran WASP pilot, Betty Jo Reed, will recount her experiences at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in Hangar 2 at Jabara.
There are also museum displays of aviation history, and lectures about the latest in aviation technology.
“Flying is a burning desire for a lot of people,” Blanton said.
Blanton and others hope to pass it on at Jabara Airport this weekend.
Chris Shull can identify many World War II airplanes. Reach him at 316-268-6264 or cshull@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:cshull@wichitaeagle.com].
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.
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