Festival of Flight to take place at Wright State | Photo by Rakicevic Nenad
Live music, the premiere of “A Journey Through the Birthplace of Aviation” and more will be at Wright State University’s (WSU) second Festival of Flight.
Festival of Flight will be from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25 in WSU’s Lot 1. Face masks are not required and sanitizing stations will be available.
If it rains, the event will continue as several activities are under tents and some, including the premiere, are indoors.
Featured events
Aviation documentary, “A Journey Through the Birthplace of Aviation,” will premiere at Festival of Flight. At 12:30 p.m., it explores the Miami Valley’s aviation history.
“This takes an in-depth look at how enmeshed the Miami Valley really is in aviation, and there’s things here that most people don’t know about. You can live here your whole life and not realize all the hidden gems that we have around us so I think that the film is definitely number one,” Greg Scharer, Executive Director of Alumni Relations and event co-founder, said.
WSU alum, engineer and artist Michelle Rouch is the second feature for the festival. She will be doing mini drawings for the children who come up to her booth.
For those who bring a copy, she will autograph her book “Astronaut Al Travels to the Moon,” where she illustrated astronaut Al Worden’s journey to the moon.
Events throughout the day
The National Park Service is providing guided tours of Huffman Prairie, a service they do not offer normally. Attendees can take shuttles to go to the tours on base.
Visitors can take part in aviation-related Innovation and Education Hangar activities. They range from simulations to exhibits and are hosted by different organizations.
“I’m pretty excited for this. I’m a fan of aviation and I’m looking forward to seeing the flyovers,” student Brett Hull said.
Others look forward to seeing the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery’s air compressor-powered paper rocket.
More notable experiential activities include virtual reality flight, Wright Flyer, helicopter and drone quadcopter simulators from The National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Additionally, three flyovers are planned from the MacAir Aero Club Formation Flying Group, WACO Air Museum and MacAir Aviation Formation.
For attendees with children, a Kids Parade is scheduled for 4 p.m. and there will be a Kids Zone for children 12 and under.
With so many activities available, organizers are hoping to attract more attendees than in 2019, the last time Festival of Flight was held.
“Our pie in the sky hope is 10,000. In 2019, we had somewhere around 4,000 attendees so we’re hoping to at least get to that number and maybe exceed it,” Bing Bingham, Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement, said.
Food options and music
Attendees will have several food options including Lilia’s Outside Cafe, The Big Stick, Graeter’s Ice Cream and more.
Live music will be provided from three different bands throughout the day. Todd the Fox will perform from 1-2:30 p.m., Hey There Morgan from 3-4:30 p.m. and headlining band Disturbing the Peace from 5-7 p.m.
Festival of Flight’s full schedule can be found here.
