By Di Freeze
New Jersey Festival of Ballooning attendees saw a sky full of balloons, including this one, shaped like the head of Darth Vader.
We’ve squeezed coverage of EAA AirVenture, the annual Gathering of Eagles, the Reno National Champion Air Races and the National Aviation Heritage Invitational into this issue. Beyond reading about the happenings at the events, you’ll find page after page of pictures—courtesy of Victor Archer, Henry Holden, Andy Annable, Lynn Krogh and Ron Kaplan—of your favorite aerobatic performers, air racers and celebrities, as well as the spectacular planes they fly. That coverage starts on page 4 and continues through page 21.
Our coast-to-coast coverage continues with the 26th Annual New Jersey Festival of Ballooning (page 57) and the Wings Over Wine Country Air Festival on the West Coast (page 68). We’ve also taken the time to remember Sam Sam Newton, a good friend of Airport Journals, who flew west recently. Read about his life on page 53.
It’s hard to stay up-to-date in the ever-changing VLJ world today, and that’s been keeping Karen Di Piazza, our news editor, on her toes. In this issue, she updates the readers on what’s going on at Eclipse and DayJet (page 27), as well as other news throughout the industry.
Star Wars” fans at the Gathering of Eagles gala got to see Han Solo in person. Harrison Ford serves as the Young Eagles chairman.
We’ve had remarkable turnout at our Jet Previews this year. This issue (page 23), we’ve combined coverage of the events that took place at Centennial Airport (APA), Boeing Field/King County International Airport (BFI) and Westhampton Beach’s Francis S Gabreski Airport (FOK).