A local businessman who has organized air shows in the Davenport, Iowa, area hopes to revive such events as an annual tradition at Toledo Express Airport.
The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority Board of Directors tomorrow is to consider Jim LeMaitre's request for permission to hold a Northwest Ohio Air Show at Express on Aug. 29 and 30.
As outlined to the directors' airport committee last week, Mr. LeMaitre's plan does not include a military jet team, such as the Air Force's Thunderbirds or Navy's Blue Angels, as a headliner. But he said he believes he can create a family-friendly event with other aerobatic acts, military flyovers, and displays he can book.
"An air show is more than just a jet team. For youngsters, they really want to get up close, touch it [the planes], talk to the pilots," Mr. LeMaitre said after getting a preliminary endorsement from the airport committee. "I think we can put on a very good show without them [jet teams]."
"People are looking for something fun to do that's not going to cost them an arm and a leg, and is local," said Daniel Cannode, Ohio commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, which would receive any proceeds.
The last air show at Toledo Express, held in 2004, was organized by the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce. But bad weather significantly cut attendance, and the resulting $86,000 loss exhausted reserve funds the agency had built up from previous air shows.The chamber announced in 2006 that organizing such shows consumed too much staff time for too long and it would do no more of them.
Mr. LeMaitre said he's still organizing sponsorships for his proposed air show, but plans to charge $15 for advance purchase of adult tickets and $17 on the day of the show, with discounted admission for children.
A lineup of events lasting more than three hours, interspersed with scheduled commercial flights at the airport, has been drafted, he said.
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