Iowa City air show returns after more than a decade

Airplanes will set the skies of Iowa City abuzz this weekend as a statewide air show returns to town for the first time in over a decade.

Acrobatic acts, children's activities and optional rides in historic aircraft are all part of The Fly Iowa Airshow held at the Iowa City Municipal Airport on Saturday and Sunday. The free event is put on by the Iowa Aviation and Promotion Group, which is focused on making the public more aware on what takes place on Iowa's tarmacs.

'Fly Iowa is really an opportunity to get the public out and involved with what is going on at the airport,' said Tim Busch past president and director of Iowa Aviation and Promotion Group. 'Airports are an economic engine, and airports don't get enough credit for the economic opportunity they provide to the community.'

Gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday with an available breakfast for a fee.

The featured air show will begin at noon and includes about 12 airplanes performing an array of routines. Highlights of the show will include Erick Edgren clipped wing Taylorcraft, and the Vanguard Squadron out of Sioux Falls, S.D.

Amelia Earhart and Orville Wright are scheduled to stop by Saturday, thanks to the Iowa Children's Museum.

Museum staff will be on hand from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with activities including stop rockets, Styrofoam gliders, a paper airplane derby, chemical reaction rockets, flight simulators including flying a model 'Vapor' with the Iowa City Aerohawks, and building wind tunnels.

Pilots also will conduct hourly fly-bys all day long.

Airplane rides will be offered both days. The American Barnstormers will bring participants back to the sounds of the roaring 20s with open cockpit aircrafts.

'It's kind of like flying a Harley in the sky,' said Clay Adams an organizer with American Barnstormers. 'It's an opportunity to relive what aviation was about during the golden age of the 20s.'

Saturday ends with a movie in the Hangar at 6:30 p.m.

Day two of the event features free airplane rides for kids. In case of inclement weather, Sunday also will be a backup day for the air show.

'It's an incredible experience for the pilots and the kids, and lot of (the kids) come back and say they want to fly with (Young Eagles),' Busch said.

The 'Fly Iowa Airshow' made its last stop in Iowa City in 2001 after the inaugural event was held 1991. This weekend Iowa City will become the first airport to host the event three times.