Spectators enjoy the Cleveland National Air Show on Saturday at Burke Lakefront Airport.
Joshua Gunter/cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio— The Cleveland sky on Saturday, deep blue with wispy white clouds, was as perfect a canvas as any artist could ask.
The artists over the Labor Day weekend, however, are not painters. They’re pilots.
And their medium is not brushes and paint, but airplanes and jets.
The Cleveland Airshow returned to Burke Lakefront airport during the Labor Day weekend for a dazzling display of American aviation innovation.
Thousands of aviation fans were on site Saturday to watch the artistry in action.
Headlining this year’s show was the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, in their iconic red, white and blue F-16 Fighting Falcons. During their roughly 50-minute show, pilots roared across the Cleveland skies at upward of 700 miles per hour and in formations that sometimes put them within 18 inches of one another.
Other jet demonstrations over the weekend included the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor, the U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier, the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Air National Guard F-15 Eagle. Non-jet (but just as entertaining) demonstrations included the AeroShell Acrobatic Team, a C-130 demonstrations, the Hot Streak II Jet truck and U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team.
On the ground, visitors roamed an aviation “theme park.” They were able to go inside military, vintage and commercial planes as well as meet experienced pilots.
Unique planes included a WWII B-25, U.S. Marine Corps Harrier and U.S. Air Force C-5M Super Galaxy. Commercial planes on the grounds ranged from a small Cessna used by flight schools to a large United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
