“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” – Leonardo Da Vinci. 

Aviation, the act of flying aircraft, is something that many people enjoy participating in and enjoy watching. This year, Waukegan hosted its annual airshow on September 11th. The day started off with beautiful weather,  a parachute jump, and the National Anthem. The sky was more than ideal for an airshow, clear, bright, and blue.

Old military planes lined up on the runway for their takeoff, the roar of their engines and propellers humming as they took to the sky. They circled around the airport for one lap chasing each other, doing mock air strikes, the special effects were incredible; smoke from the planes filled the sky and explosions on the ground. As the old military planes landed, not a minute passed before the first aerobatics planes took off, performing daring stunts, twists, tailspins, flips and low ground flying. They had a variety of different booths, including a booth for a flight simulator that let attendees fly an airliner, booths for different clubs such as the civil air patrol, and a booth for RC aircraft. 

As far as refreshments, they were as you may expect it to be, carnival food. Funnel cakes, pizza, hotdogs, fries, and refillable souvenir lemonade cups wafted through the air. In the second portion of the show, they had a small yellow bi-plane do some of the most impressive tricks a plane can do, including 11 tailspins, flips, and upside down flying. Once the bi-plane had finished its presentation, jet engines began to kick off. As the jets started up, their characteristic whine of the engine roared throughout the airport. The Jet show was awe striking, the speed at which they were flying was unfathomable to the viewers.

 “The jets were my favorite part! I loved seeing them fly at really fast speeds!” -participant

“The show overall was great, I’ll be coming back next year!”-spectators at show

But the majority of the viewers agree that the finale was their favorite part, where a military jet did a mock air strike and they set off 9 explosions, all at once. The sound was deafening to anyone nearby, with the audience’s ears still ringing as they made their way home.