Arsenal of Democracy Flyover Event

[Mayhemxpc]

The day after...

Good publicity and public interest generated a huge turn-out today. Almost all of the advertising (excuse, me "public information") only mentioned that aircraft from the fly-over would be on display at Udvar-Hazy today. The four bombers, however, are still at Manassas and three of them: the B-29, the B-24, and the EAA B-17 are available for tours and flights. Somehow, there was enough awareness that hundreds of people showed up at Manassas today. In fact, 89 seats had pre-booked on Aluminum Overcast alone for the time it is here, and all seats for all scheduled flights today were pre-sold. Overflow parking was a very serious problem. Despite the size, the crowd was friendly and cooperative. This was especially important as low clouds delayed the start of flying by two hours. I played tour guide for Overcast (one of several). I was amazed by the number of people there whose fathers had flown on fortresses. Many brought memorabilia, such as their A-2 jackets, hats, other uniform items, and medals. All wanted to see the position their father (or grandfather) sat in on a B-17 and have their picture taken. It was wonderful to be able to help out. Overcast, Diamond Lil, and FiF will be available at Manassas through Wednesday -- although I can't imagine that tomorrow will be as busy as today. (Hey honey, to celebrate Mother's Day, the boys and I are taking you to the airport to see some real WW2 bombers!)

The value of flying history is clear when you see things like this. The ability for these flying memorials to come to where the public is, the ability for them to see these machines, touch them, have their questions answered is a necessary supplement to the fine museums where people can go to see examples in, well, museum quality preservation.

Unfortunately, I was too busy today and forgot to take photos.

Edit: Actually, I did take one picture.

Diamond Lil arriving at the end of the last passenger flight of the day. Shot enroute to the EAA 186 Chapter House for a barbecue for the bomber crews. CAF's Texas Raiders was still on the ground, so they were able to come over, too. I heard that huge crowds went to NASM Udvar Hazy on Saturday. Unfortunately, because of the weather, only one airplane, a C-47 -- made it from CJR to IAD.

I saw that AOPA has a couple of very nice slideshows of what was going on at CJR and over the Mall.

[Zack Baughman]

The value of flying history is clear when you see things like this. The ability for these flying memorials to come to where the public is, the ability for them to see these machines, touch them, have their questions answered is a necessary supplement to the fine museums where people can go to see examples in, well, museum quality preservation.

Spot on assessment! Couldn't have wrote it any better.

[FlyingRon]

Someone (and not the Smithsonian) was giving out bogus information if they said "all the planes" were to be at Dulles. That was NEVER the case. The bombers were always going to be at HEF because they operate their revenue-generating activities (mostly rides) all weekend. The Smithsonian doesn't permit that. As of Friday afternoon, 23 planes indicated intent to come to Udvar-Hazy on Saturday. Blame the EAA and the people operating the other bombers for not getting the word out that their revenue-generating operations were at HEF.

The weather was crap. It was low IFR at CJR until the afternoon. Even IAD didn't go marginal until around noon. The only plane willing and able to come in IFR to Dulles was the C-47 and they got there on time. The Smithsonian and MWAA kept the option for other arrivals well past what people were told (and the crews new this). A few more (including the Marauder) got in right before closing time. Still the center had record crowds and finally after cramming cars every place they could (including on the ramp space that wasn't occupied by aircraft) they finally had to shut down the exit from Route 28 as traffic was snarling.

The Smithsonian has been lucky over the years that they never got a bad weather day on days they were trying to bring flying aircraft (we did have marginal conditions one morning for pilot day but even then IAD was offering special VFR for the show planes). The luck ran out the day they had some really interesting stuff scheduled to show up.

[Mayhemxpc]

Ron, I checked my posts very carefully and I never said that anyone claimed that ALL of the planes would be there. Neither do I blame the Smithsonian for not advertising a CAF/EAA event. The plan to have some planes at Dulles was their exhibition and they have no obligation to mention that some planes would also be available elsewhere. In fact, EAA did advertise the the continued presence of the bombers at KHEF and I heard several spots on the radio. The AoD flyover website (which is not the Smithsonian) did not mention continued presence at KHEF, they only mentioned that "an assortment of planes" would be at Udvar Hazy on Saturday. Every non-EAA email I received only referenced the AoD website. Others may have had a different experience.

My only intended point was that given such limited exposure I was amazed at how many people came to Manassas on Saturday. Being decisively engaged there, I do not know what Culpepper was like on Saturday (other than low clouds.) I can only report on those that I was involved with…4 of the 75 (or so) planes that participated. (5 if you include the CAF C-45, which split its time between HEF and CJR.)

Sunday was busy, too. I guess people DID want to celebrate Mothers' Day by going to see the bombers. Yesterday was quiet. Nonetheless, both EAA and CAF added extra flights thru Thursday morning to the schedule to accommodate the demand. All in all it was quite heartening to see the public interest.