Cape Air Festival will thrill and mesmerize

Business Today

Take ground transportation to Cape Girardeau Regional Airport on July 9-11 and enjoy the aerial onslaught. This year's air festival is billed as "Heroes and Legends: A Salute to Those Who Serve."

As part of this year's outstanding festival, the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team will be featured. It's a formation aerobatics team flying World War II North American Advanced Trainers, the aircraft that launched thousands of cadets on flying careers generations ago. The planes will thrill audiences as pilots take these valiant old birds through a series of precision formation aerobatic maneuvers.

The team combines the skill, competence and flair of these pilots with the roar and billowing smoke of the powerful 600-horsepower Pratt and Whitney engines. Performing a series of precision formation aerobatic maneuvers, including their bomb burst, vertical rejoin, avalanche and the breathtaking "Switch Blade," along with graceful loops and rolls, the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team is sure to be a crowd favorite.

This year's show will also feature the United States Navy Seals Leap Frogs Parachute Team. A typical performance consists of 14 jumpers leaping out of an aircraft at an altitude of 12,500 feet. During free fall, jumpers reach speeds of 120 mph and can accelerate up to 180 mph by pulling their arms to their sides and straightening their legs into what is called a "track."

The jumpers typically open their parachutes at about 5,000 feet by releasing a smaller pilot chute that deploys their main blue-and-gold canopy. After deploying their chutes, the Leap Frogs fly their canopies together to build dramatic canopy-relative work formations.

The festival will also feature an Air Force F-15, the super-fast Dodge Ram Jet, the Turbo Shark and a WW II United States versus Germany ground warfare reenactment. Many historical warbirds will be there -- the P-38 Lightning, the P-40 Warhawk, the P-51 Mustang, the B-25 Bomber and the TBM.

Mark your calendars and plan to attend this year's show at the airport. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Friday and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.