The 2010 version of the Atlantic City Airshow took place on Wednesday August 25.  This year the show truly became international with the first Mid Atlantic East Coast visit of the Brazilian Air Force Demonstration Team Esquadrilha Da Fumaca, or in English, Smoke Squadron.  With the Tuesday practice show being a rain out, there was a conservative side flown for safety by almost everyone on Wednesday, but this never stops the fun of Thunder Over the Boardwalk.  Once again David Schultz Airshows LLC was able to obtain a large group of military hardware, and even in the low ceiling cloudy skies, Atlantic City ROCKED! 

   This airshow has built a tradition of opening the show with what I like to laughingly call high speed blimp passes of the Horizon blimp.  Normally the Army Golden Knights would have done their flag jump with national anthems, but due to the low ceilings they had to cancel.  The blimp passes were then followed by a 4 ship F-16 flyby of the 177th FW NJ ANG.  Then Team McGuire was represented by a KC-135 tanker which after their pass circles to join 2 of the F-16’s for a refueling flyby.  That was followed by a McGuire C-17 Globemaster III.  That’s just the opening folks, then it’s time to rock the house.  These military flybys are always heavy at Atlantic City with 2010 being no exception.  This year included flybys of a B-52 from Barksdale AFB, and a Rhode Island ANG C-130J.

    The 2010 show was heavily tilted towards military demos and flybys.  However, that doesn’t mean what civilian acts there were lame.  Jim Beasley Jr. gave an aerobatic demonstration in his Spitfire MKXVIII, one of only 3 or 4 Mark XVIII’s in the world!  Rob Holland, 2008 World Advanced Aerobatic Champion, sliced and diced his way through the gray skies in his Window World sponsored MX2.  The FAA was represented by 3 Bombardier & Convair aircraft making passes.  Jason Flood, from New Jersey, flew in just his second airshow ever in his Pitts Special.  The highlight of all this was Tom Duffy in his B-25 making several passes before opening the bomb bay doors to bomb the invisible enemy below with watermelons.  Everyone got a big kick out of that.

   Military demos this year were performed by 2 USCG Dauphin helicopters doing a SAR demonstration, the Navy’s Super Hornet East Coast Demo Team, the USMC Harrier II East Coast Demo Team, the USAF A-10 East Coast Demo Team, and the USAF Viper East Demo Team.  The traditional closing of the Atlantic City Airshow: Thunder Over the Boardwalk was the USAF Thunderbirds.

   Even with gray skies, nobody’s spirits were down, and all that could be heard was talk of the 2011 Atlantic City Airshow.