Air Show Boasting Biggest, Fastest Planes Is Set for Takeoff

Air/Space America, which will bring the world’s largest operational aircraft and the world’s fastest passenger airplane to San Diego’s Brown Field, takes off today with a visit by Vice President George Bush and a two-hour air armada that is designed to showcase the nation’s aviation industry.

Today’s scheduled events--which are open to invited guests only--will include an aerial parade that show promoters hope will include representative military and civilian aircraft that have been manufactured in this country since World War II.

The flyby is expected to include a state-of-the-art B1-B bomber, a World War II-vintage B-17 bomber and a handful of F-106 jets. A large number of civilian aircraft will be featured, as will military aircraft flown by National Guard units from around the country.

The first Air/Space America show will open its gates to the public Saturday with the first of four daylong programs that will run this weekend and next. Promoters expect as many as 100,000 spectators to jam the little-used former U.S. Navy airfield during each of the shows.

The weekend program will be highlighted by the presence of the Soviet Union’s massive, four-engine AH-124 heavy-transport aircraft and the sleek Concorde SST passenger plane.

Air/Space America will have a decidedly Russian flavor. The lumbering AH-124 transport that arrived Wednesday afternoon carried in its belly an MI-34 sport aerobatic helicopter and an Su-26M aerobatic airplane. The three aircraft will be on display on the ground and in the air during the weekend shows.

Additionally, the Soviets have sent along a 65-person contingent, some of whom were made available to the media Thursday during a morning press conference at the air field.

The Concorde will carry paying passengers--at $985 per ticket--halfway to Hawaii. During the champagne flights, the jet will reach 1,401 m.p.h.--twice the speed of sound.

Airplane enthusiasts who lack the $985 will be able to watch the Concorde take off and land during the weekend shows.

Thunderbirds and Snowbirds

Weather permitting, the four weekend shows will include performances by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and Canada’s Snowbirds, two premier precision aerial teams.

A variety of commercial and military planes and helicopters will be featured, both on the ground and in the air. Military aircraft that are scheduled to perform flybys include an Air Force F-15, a U.S. Navy F-18, two Air Force tankers; a Marine Corp Harrier jump jet, and a variety of U.S. and foreign helicopters.

The weekend shows will also feature dozens of civilian aircraft.

Daily Formula 1 races will be held around a course at the field.

Air/Space America got a much-needed boost last year when Congress--following an extensive lobbying effort by show supporters--ordered the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to make aircraft available for display at Brown Field.

Sandwiched between the weekend shows will be the meat of Air/Space America: a five-day international aerial and aerospace trade show that will feature more than 350 aviation, aerospace and electronics parts manufacturers.

On Thursday, crews were scrambling to finish roadways, parking lots and exhibit halls at the field in time for today’s opening. Road graders were still pushing gravel and dirt to create parking lots for the anticipated weekend crowds.

Inside massive white tents that have been assembled at the field, additional crews were piecing together aeronautic and avionic exhibits that will be displayed during the five-day trade show.

The exposition will draw 20,000 daily attendees, according to Air/Space America Chairman Bob Wilson, a former congressman from San Diego who founded the not-for-profit organization that is sponsoring the show.

Additionally, Air/Space America expects about 200 reporters from the United States and around the world to attend.

But the exposition’s promoters have been unable to attract such significant major airframe manufacturers as Boeing Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas Corp., Lockheed Corp. and Europe’s Airbus consortium. Those manufacturers prefer to concentrate their marketing through established air shows, largely because of the heavy costs associated with such expositions.

In the past, Wilson has claimed to be unconcerned about that lack of support from the major manufacturers. He also has dismissed critics who doubted that aircraft manufacturers who already exhibit their wares at several established air shows would support an unproven show.

Exhibits Domestic and Foreign

Air/Space America will feature at least a dozen exhibitors from overseas, according to spokesman Dub Allen. And it has promised that exhibitors that foreign buyers--from countries such as Italy, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Great Britain and Canada--will be in attendance.

The majority of the show’s exhibits will showcase aviation and electronics products manufactured by California-based companies, many of which would not be able to afford participating in expensive foreign shows, according to Wilson.

The Palo Alto-based American Electronics Assn. has taken an active role in promoting the show among its members. Nearly 100 AEA member companies are expected to have exhibits at the trade show.

Additionally, Defense Science, a Campbell, Calif.-based magazine with a circulation of 60,000, is conducting a symposium that will include the presentation of 72 wide-ranging professional papers.

When Wilson introduced the show in 1986, he described plans for a $25.3-million complex at Brown Field that would include corporate chalets, facilities, shops and support outlets. That plan called for the construction of several permanent buildings at the airport.

But Air/Space America eventually was forced to trim its budget. The organization has spent $4 million to build a smaller, temporary complex that will be removed after the show ends. That village includes several large exhibition tents, 22 corporate chalets and a commissary.

Wilson has described the $4 million as “adequate” to fund a first-class air show.

Air/Hughes Aircraft, General Dynamics, Martin Marietta, Teledyne, Aerojet General and Ferranti International Signal Space America have each made $100,000 donations to the show. Several other organizations, including SAIC, Cubic Corp. and the Ryan Foundation, have donated $25,000 each to Air/Space America, and American Airlines made a $25,000 contribution to become the show’s official airline.

Air/Space America will use the donations, along with revenue raised during the weekend shows, to pay its bills. The organization plans to host its second air show in 1990 at Brown Field.