Wing Ding: Air Fiesta marks 20th years with vintage aircraft and modern, aerial reenactments

The skies over Brownsville are about to get a lot more interesting, as the rumble of World War II vintage warbirds mingles with the shriek of jet fighters this weekend at the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport.

Saturday and Sunday, March 13-14, marks the 20th year for Air Fiesta, Brownsville’s annual airshow. The event is staged by volunteers with the Commemorative Air Force Rio Grande Valley Wing, headquartered in Brownsville. Proceeds from ticket sales help keep the RGV Wing museum in operation and its fleet of rare, vintage aircraft flying.

Headlining Air Fiesta this year is the AeroShell Aerobatic Team, which flies four World War II-era AT-6 “Texan” trainers in precision formation aerobatics. More than 15,000 AT-6s were manufactured by North American Aviation during World War II and into the 1950s as advanced trainers for the U.S. Army Air Forces (later, the U.S. Air Force), the Navy and the British Royal Air Force.

“We had (the Aeroshell team) last year but they couldn’t fly because the weather was so bad,” said longtime Air Fiesta chairman David Hughston. “They felt real bad about that and they encouraged us to let them come back this year.”

Weather reports are forecasting perfect airshow weather this weekend — clear skies with highs in the 70s.

Also returning to Air Fiesta this year is Paul Fiala, a Corpus Christi native and chief pilot for King Ranch, who performs aerobatics in his bright yellow Great Lakes biplane. The airshow also will feature Mike Gallaway in his “Wolf Pitts,” a modified Pitts Special aerobatic biplane; Ray Kinney in the CAF’s vintage Curtiss P-40 Warhawk; and the “Tora, Tora, Tora” warbirds reenacting the bombing of Pearl Harbor — a spectacle involving earthshaking explosions and a “big wall of fire,” Hughston said.

Also on hand will be a North American B-25 “Mitchell” bomber. Fun fact: The B-25 and Billy Mitchell Boulevard in Brownsville both are named for Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell, considered the father of the Air Force.

Modern military aircraft will be represented by an A-10 “Warthog” tank-buster and an F-18 “Super Hornet” Navy fighter. Children’s activities will be available. Sunday will feature the Budweiser Clydesdales.

Asked why he thinks Air Fiesta and airshows in general are such perpetual crowd-pleasers, Hughston speculates that it’s the fascination of being “up close and personal” with machines that fly and the people who fly them.

“Mankind has always had a fascination with flight,” he said. “To see airplanes where they belong — and that’s in the air flying — I think satisfies a basic human yearning. And when you see the things that airplanes can do, it’s even more exciting.”

Air Fiesta’s gates open at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday and the flying starts about noon. Advance tickets are $12 for adults and are available at Cameron County Stripes stores, the Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce, the CAF RGV Wing Museum and, in McAllen, the Mail Pak Your Box Store. Advance tickets are available until midnight Thursday. Tickets are $15 at the gate. Kids under 12 get in free. Food and beverages will be available. For more information call 541-8585 or visit www.airfiesta.org.