Thousands celebrate air show centennial
When Wilbur Wright came to College Park to train the first military pilots in October 1909, he chose the remote location as a way to avoid the crowds of up to 7,000 that had watched his brother, Orville, testing their plane that summer at Fort Myer in Arlington, Va.
Under Wilbur Wright's instruction, it was at the College Park Airport that a pair of army lieutenants became the first military officers to ever fly solo.
"This is a community event," said Warren Kasper, program curator at the College Park Aviation Museum. "People get a day of fun and a little bit of history."
"AirFair 100!" featured more than two dozen aircraft on display, children's activities and several aerial exhibitions. Organizers kicked off the day by unveiling a replica of the plane flown in 1909 by Army 1st Lt. Frank Lahm and 2nd Lt. Frederic Humphreys.
A crowd circled the single-engine bi-plane shortly after 11 a.m. as volunteers wheeled it out of its hangar, gave the propellers a spin and started it up. Lahm's grandson, Frank Lahm II, came from Rapid City, S.D. to witness the spectacle.
"I loved it," said Lahm, 64, who is retired from the Air Force and was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs from 1976 to 1980. "I want to go up in one, but they're not ready to fly."
The Air Fair was a near-annual event at the airport until it was cancelled in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks. The event had since been discontinued due to tightened federal air restrictions in the Washington, D.C., area.
The airport received special permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to host this year's event. While organizers are unsure when the next air show will be, they pulled out all the stops Saturday.
On a day that featured everything from live music to a moon bounce, the biggest attractions were in the air. Throughout the afternoon, helicopters, planes, gliders and aerial acrobats thrilled spectators with stunts done high above the tree-lined airfield.
Alex Kim, 9, of Gaithersburg, said he couldn't believe his eyes as he watched a 32,000-pound Army Chinook helicopter lumber through the air with two Humvees suspended from its undercarriage.
"I thought it wasn't even going to pick up one," said Alex, who toured the inside of the helicopter minutes earlier. "It felt so hollow inside."
Many visitors in attendance were seeing the airport for the first time. Paul Wojcik of Ellicott City said he was surprised that such an important site is nestled in College Park.
"I could not have even told you there was an airport here prior to this," said Wojcik, whose wife saw the air show advertised online. "It really has a neat sense of history."
E-mail David Hill at dhill@gazette.net.
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