Daredevils Grounded, but Plane Show Isn’t : Aircraft: Concerns over safety and noise keep aerial stunts off the program, but the first day of the two-day event is considered a success.

For the first time, there were no daredevil stunts or other aerial flying displays at Saturday’s Aviation Expo ’90 and some who attended bemoaned the possibility that this year’s show might be the last after 28 years at Van Nuys Airport.

But, otherwise, the sponsors pronounced this year’s event a success, as thousands braved temperatures in the 90s to view more than 50 aircraft, ranging from vintage propeller-driven planes to multimillion-dollar jet fighters. The event also gained a powerful ally in Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs.

“Some people are trying to stop this show, but I am going to work to keep it,” Wachs said during a ceremony to honor the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black squadron of fighter pilots who gained a reputation for brilliant flying in World War II.

Usually, Wachs said, he is an ally of homeowner organizations who contended in the past that the air show’s aerial stunts were noisy and dangerous and that their neighborhoods were disrupted by the traffic the event attracted. But in this case, Wachs said, he is on the other side.

“It’s only one weekend a year and I think it’s a wonderful, wholesome family event,” he said of the air show. “We need it.”

Los Angeles airport commissioners voted in April to ground the planes this year and to open remote parking lots and arrange for shuttle buses in an attempt to reduce the number of cars parking in nearby residential neighborhoods.

Airport Manager Donald Zieman said commissioners voted in April to make this the last air show. “It will be our last one unless we can gain some support,” Zieman said. “It’s too bad, too. This is the largest free family-oriented event in the San Fernando Valley.”

Don Schultz, president of Ban Airport Noise, a residents group that frequently criticizes the airport, said in April that with the new restrictions he could “live with and support” the event.

But on Saturday, Schultz, who is also president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., said he wasn’t so sure. “I’ll be talking to people after two days of this,” he said. “But I have a hunch that it didn’t solve the problem for the neighbors. There should not be any parking in residential areas for the air show and I believe there was quite a bit.”

To airplane buffs such as Harry Sokol of Encino, the air show lacked, as he put it, “pizazz” without the flying demonstrations.

“It’s silly,” he said of the prohibition. “I’m disappointed. They’re such a thrill for the kids.”

But others were pleased they could chat with pilots, buy souvenirs and show their children the aircraft, including many World War II planes and top military jets in current use such as the F-14 fighter.

“I just like airplanes,” said Don Campbell of Glendale, who brought his sons, Jeremy, 9, and Luke, 7. Both boys said they liked climbing into the cockpits of the planes, but Jeremy had another treat he preferred. “I liked the M&M;’s and the Cokes,” he said.

Max Hengst of Temple City carried his 8-month-old daughter, Courtney, in a backpack.

“I take her to all the air shows,” he said. “I love the World War II planes. The humming of their engines just take you back in history.”

For many, such as Bonnie Jordan of Van Nuys and John Hicks of Montgomery, Ala., the main attraction was the Tuskegee Airmen. The Airmen, 2,300 of whom are still living, were among the vanguard of black servicemen who not only raised the status of black military personnel from menial enlisted jobs to the officers corps, but played a key role in destroying the American military’s segregation policies.

Both Jordan and Hicks watched attentively as Wachs presented Jim Crowder, president of the group’s Los Angeles chapter, with a scroll. “I got a lump in my throat when I read about these guys,” Wachs said. “These guys represented this country in a very special way.”

He called the black pilots “living remembrances of what it really takes to become an American.”

Jordan said she had never before attended an air show, and came specifically to meet the Tuskegee pilots. “I came to get this autographed,” she said, holding up a book called “Lonely Eagles,” a history of the group.

Hicks, an ex-Air Force pilot, said he read a news article about the Tuskegee pilots being honored on his way through Los Angeles to Fairfield, Calif. “I just decided to stop by and meet them,” he said.

He, too, circulated among the pilots for autographs.

“I wish my dad could be here,” said Mark Broadnax of Los Angeles, whose father, Paul, flew with the black squadron. “He lives in the East. He would be so proud.”

Crowder, 65, said he is happy the group is receiving so much recognition. Some of the black pilots were so young when he flew with them in World War II that they learned how to fly airplanes before they learned to drive cars, he said. “I think our main purpose of being together now is to motivate the young kids, the ones in the third and fourth grades, to show them they can be achievers.”

Los Angeles police reported that the show caused traffic in the area to be heavy but that there were no other problems. Police estimated that about 60,000 people attended Saturday’s event and predicted that the crowd would be even bigger today. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The show is sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Airports, the Greater Van Nuys Area Chamber of Commerce and Anheuser-Busch Inc.

Van Nuys Airport spokeswoman Diane Sayre said that the air shows began in 1962 and estimated that more than 150,000 people attended the event last year.

“We’re hoping we get a lot of support,” she said.