Air Expo 2011 delights crowd with history, high-tech and aerial acrobatics

Brad Nettles // The Post and Courier

An estimated 80,000-plus people attended the Air Expo 2011 on Saturday at the Charleston Air Force Base.

Air Expo 2011 at the Charleston Air Force Base proved the adage that there always will be a need for speed.

America's aviation arsenal was on display under glaringly sunny skies Saturday in a celebration of the best in flight, featuring planes from more than 60 years old up to the most modern in the U.S. command.

The day's highlight was a flawless performance by the Thunderbirds, the Air Force's elite aerial demonstration unit. For about an hour, the six F-16 Fighting Falcons flew precision stunts and loops, sometimes traveling a mere 18 inches apart.

Beyond the T-Birds, more than a dozen aerial acts dominated the skies over the North Area.

One of the crowd favorites was the "Tora Tora Tora" dramatization of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. Eight planes made to look like Japanese war planes, including AT-6 Texans converted to look like Zero fighters, made repeated attacks over a grassy area of the base.

Accompanying the "attacks" were multiple 40-foot-tall orange flash explosions and curls of black acrid smoke.

The planes were used in the 1970s movie of the same name about the attack on Pearl Harbor. To some in the audience, it was close to real.

Charleston resident Buck Morris, 89, was on a destroyer in the original battle and said the only shortcoming Saturday was that the flash fires didn't linger nearly as long as the real fires did that day.

"But I thought it was very impressive," he added.

The initial crowd estimate for Saturday was that more than 80,000 people attended the event.

That figure could go up after officials finalize their head and car counts.

Col. Martha Meeker, commander of the 628th Air Base Wing, called the day a success.

"We have good weather, we have great acts and we have a great community," she said. The day-long show finished ahead of the threat of inclement weather.

Sgt. Darnell Thompson, who is in the Army and lives in Mount Pleasant, took his 4-year-old son, Caleb, to the show to expose him to the size of real airplanes.

"He likes the C-17 (cargo plane) because it's so big," Thompson said after touring the insides.

Not all the attendees enjoyed the day. The direct sun took a toll on some as more than 40 people sought first aid, mostly for dehydration but some for heat exhaustion.

Three people had to be transported to the hospital, including one person reported to have suffered a heart attack. Their condition was not immediately known.

Otherwise, crowds of people tried to escape the direct sun by planting their chairs under the wings of giant aircraft for temporary shade.

Saturday's expo was billed as a chance for the military to show off its goods, and plenty of recruiters were on hand. An Air Force Reserve spokesperson said they might pick up two recruits from the event.

An Army recruiter said the advantage of the expo is that foot traffic may elicit inquiries from potential recruits who otherwise might be too intimidated to walk into an office.

Others said they attended the show to get close to the different- era planes, performance and power.

"It's almost at eye level," Melissa Allan of Hanahan said, as a Corsair prop plane from World War II zipped past at high speed while still running very low to the ground.