Mid-Atlantic Air Museum World War II Weekend

Reading, PA June 1-3, 2007

Story and photography by Rich Kolasa

  The 2007 version of the Mid Atlantic Air Museum’s World War 2 weekend was again dogged by less-than-stellar weather, but still managed to be an outstanding, ever-growing event. The weather contributed to keeping at least one notable aircraft, the ME-109 from the Russell Group, from attending, and also facilitated the early departure of most visiting aircraft before the end of Sunday’s program.

  This airshow and living history weekend grew from a small gathering to one of the most interesting and sizable warbird shows in America since its inception in the early 1990s. This year’s show once again welcomed many heroes of the Second World War, including ME-109 pilot Walter Schuck and the P-51 pilot who shot him down, Joe Peterburs. Of course, they were seated next to one another at the guest tables in the hangar. Col. Gail Halvorsen was another notable guest, though he made history after World War II, at the start of the Cold War. Col. Halverson recreated his service by flying right seat in the B.A.H.F. C-54, recreating a Berlin candy-drop.

  U.S. Marine and well-known Hollywood veteran R. Lee Ermey was back, along with many of the nicer aircraft and vehicle restorations in the Northeast and Midwest.

  This years show offered a new layout, which was part “return to roots”, using the north-south runway as the focal point of the flying portion of the days. The downside to this was that the crowd didn’t get the usual close-in views of taxiing aircraft that past events had offered. 

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

  Poor weather on Friday kept arriving aircraft below expectations, and made Airboss Greg Witmer’s job a bit more challenging on Saturday. Greg managed to work in a number of arrivals during Saturdays flying, the most notable being the Hawker Hurricane from the Russell Group in Canada. It’s companion, the BF-109E, unfortunately did not make the event. Kudos to Greg, the FAA official on-hand, and the Hurricane pilot who worked together to get the Hurricane into the show on Saturday.

  For the historically large crowd on Saturday, it was a lucky turn of events, as a sizable weather system moved in early on Sunday, facilitating a premature exit for many of the performing aircraft. By mid-Sunday, a light steady rain was falling, and activities went from “on schedule” to “ad-libbed” at best.

  For many, the “heavy iron” is what brings them to the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania the first weekend of each June. Returning aircraft included the B-17G “Yankee Lady”, and C-47 from the Yankee Air Force, Tom Duffy’s TBM (flown by Terry Rush), the P-51D and P-40 of father and son Bob and Chris Baranaskas, the P-40 “Jacky C” flown by Dan Dameo, Sean Carroll’s YAK, the rare PBY Catalina from the Fighter Factory in Virginia Beach, VA, and the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation’s C-54. The Mid Atlantic Museum’s TBM, SNJ, and B-25 also participated once again in the flying, as did a pair of “Tora Tora Tora” replica Japanese aircraft.

  New to this year’s show was the Russell Group’s Hurricane and Tom Duffy’s newly acquired P-47 “No Guts, No Glory”. The show also featured more than half a dozen SNJ/AT-6 trainers, numerous PTs and L-birds, many unique military vehicles, and hundreds of dedicated and enthusiastic re-enactors. The continuing restoration project P-61 Black Widow was also on display in the hangar, attracting much attention