CAPE GIRARDEAU READIES FOR AIR FESTIVAL

Bruce Loy scurried around the tarmac at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport in a golf cart Friday, directing last-minute preparations for this weekend's air festival amid landings by World War II bombers and aerobatic biplanes readying for the show.

Loy, the city's airport director, expects about 30 planes to be involved in the Heroes and Legends air show.

"We are really trying to pay tribute to our vets," said Loy. The air festival today and Sunday, will include a re-enactment of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Tokyo raid of 1942.

Gates open at 9 a.m. Helicopter and airplane rides will be available for a fee. Concession stands will be set up at the airport. The air show starts at 1 p.m. both days and will last about three hours, Loy said.

An Air Force Stealth bomber will fly over the airport around noon today and around 1 p.m. Sunday.

This year's festival will feature two massive B-25 bombers, which will fly a re-enactment of the Tokyo raid. The real raid involved 16 B-25s.

Loy said the air festival couldn't afford to bring in more than two of the planes.

Hopes to break even

Loy said corporate sponsors and the city are spending $90,000 to $100,000 on this year's air festival. "I hope to break even," said Loy.

The cost is worth it to aviation enthusiasts and pilots like Mark Seesing. "I love this," said Seesing as he gazed at the vintage planes parked on the concrete pavement Friday afternoon.

Eddie Merchant of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, brought his shiny black McLeod USA biplane to the airport. The plane, with a different pilot, will perform barrel rolls, tail slides and other stunts this weekend.

"We do about 12 different shows a year," said Merchant, who has been doing aerial acrobatics since he was in high school.

Merchant said he and other stunt pilots aren't just joy riding in the sky. "It is very well thought out," he said.

Mike Rettke, a retired Delta Airlines pilot, flew in from Atlanta in the Confederate Air Force's 1943 Dauntless dive bomber, one of only three such planes still flying.

"It's a good flying airplane," he said. The plane is one of about 160 World War II planes owned by the Confederate Air Force, a nationwide "flying museum," Rettke said.

Rettke loves the dive bomber, but he admits it's a gas guzzler. "We are burning about 62 gallons an hour. It's a thirsty engine," he said.

Want to go?

* WHAT: Heroes and Legends air show

* WHEN: 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

* WHERE: Cape Girardeau Regional Airport just off I-55 near Scott City.

* FEE: Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for children 7 to 12 years of age. Children 6 and under admitted free.

* INFORMATION: Gates open at 9 a.m. Helicopter and airplane rides will be available for a fee. Concession stands will be set up at the airport.