Posted on July 14, 2009
Honolulu, HI–Visitors to Ford Island will be greeted by the F-14 Tomcat on the tarmac and the AT-6 Advanced Trainer plane in front of the red and white control tower as Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum presents the 2nd “Biggest Little Airshow on Ford Island,” Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 10am to 4pm. The Birds of Paradise will pilot their massive remote controlled 1 to 5 scale planes for dog fights, candy “bombing,” aerial stunts, and more. The Airshow is free with paid Museum admission. Due to the popularity of the initial event in March, the August show has been expanded, adding many more planes, lots of dogfights, and two big days of fun, food, prize drawings and festivities. At the event some lucky visitors will win a chance to pilot a remote control aircraft. There will be tours of the Restoration Hangar that still bears the bullet holes of the December 7, 1941 attack. Inside, they’ll see helicopters, fighter planes, and a 1941 machine shop busy restoring the Museum’s aircraft. Visitors can also explore the Museum Gallery in Hangar 37, fly Combat Flight Simulators, and enter to win prizes such as airline tickets on go! Hawaii’s low fare airline, helicopter rides, a Limited Edition signed F-4 Phantom II model plane, Museum tickets, and Airshow logo wear. The event is sponsored in part by Clear Channel Radio. The Flight line opens at 10am with a traditional military color guard and all aircraft on display. The aerial demonstrations are 11am to 4pm. Visitors can see 1/5-scale motorized-flyable models of military aircraft dating from WWII to the present, and period military vehicles courtesy of the Hawaii Historic Arms Association and the Hawaii Military Vehicle Preservation Association. Expected to be a big draw on the tarmac will be the Museum’s F-14 Tomcat, a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat fighter aircraft that has a unique variable geometry wing. Made famous by the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun, it was designed for air combat in Vietnam against the Russian MiG aircraft. At the Museum, the fighter is awaiting restoration in Hangar 79, the next battlefield hangar to undergo restoration as the Museum engages in Phase II of its conservation of the standing buildings from the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
