With the recent federal budget adjustments, our military still gives us two wars (in various states of disrepair) but no air shows, I was saddened to learn as I tried to plan a trip for my nearly-4-year-old daughter to the Quonset (Rhode Island) Air Show. I had taken to her an air show a year ago and the 2.75-year-old child pointed to the sky and said “That airplane is doing aerobatic flying.”
Supposedly the military air shows come back in 2014. I’m not sure that I understand the sequestration process that well. Is there suddenly going to be a lot more money in 2014? And it is selfish to hope that our government stop giving suitcases of cash to foreign dictators in favor of local pomp and circumstance?
The strategy is basically the Washington Monument Syndrome. Make the cuts as visible as possible, even if they’re disproportionate, with the assumption that enough people will be unhappy that they’ll force Congress to undo the sequester.
As an alternative, I’d recommend taking her to the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum, if you haven’t been. It’s a museum of WW1-era cars and aircraft, and the aircraft are actually kept airworthy and they fly them during the shows. They’ve replaced the old French rotary engines with Lycomings and Continentals, but other than that, the planes are basically original.
If you don’t go during one of their airshows, you can taxi right up to the museum. Otherwise, they’ll send a car to the FBO on the other side of the field.
It reminds me of the tower closing fiasco, where perhaps we were played. See: http://www.flyingmag.com/blogs/going-direct/were-tower-closures-grand-bluff.
After reading this I think it wise that the USAF cancelled air shows regardless of reason.
http://www.cio.com/article/721628/Air_Force_scraps_massive_ERP_project_after_racking_up_1_billion_in_costs