Experience aviation in person
Video is fine. Standing on a ramp while a pair of Hornets comes through low enough to rattle your fillings is better. Here's where to go: the US shows worth planning a weekend around, the international ones that only happen every other year, and the cheapest ways to get your own hands on a yoke.
Dates shift by a week or two year to year, and shows get scrubbed for weather, budgets, or base access. Check the official site before you book anything.
US airshows
- EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
The big one. Ten thousand aircraft fly in, the tower runs the busiest week of air traffic in the world, and a controller on the Fisk arrival tells you to rock your wings instead of talking. The afternoon airshow is only part of why you go.
- Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo
Spring Oshkosh, and the unofficial start of the season. A full week of homebuilts, vintage iron, and daily shows, with north of 200,000 people through the gate.
- MCAS Miramar Air Show
The largest military show in the country, and general admission and parking are free. Marine aviation demos what it actually flies, MV-22 and F-35B included, and the Blue Angels usually close the day.
- Wings Over Houston Airshow
CAF-affiliated, so the warbirds are the reason to go. One of the best WWII collections in the country gets airborne, with a modern jet team layered on top.
- Thunder Over Michigan
The Yankee Air Museum's show, at the field that built B-24s. Known for putting large historic formations in the air alongside a current military demo team.
- Planes of Fame Airshow
Fifty-plus flying warbirds, including types you almost never see move: P-38, a flyable Zero, a pile of Mustangs. Smaller and nerdier than the base shows, which is the appeal.
- National Championship Air Races
Pylon racing, formerly at Reno. Stead hosted its last race in 2023 and the whole event moved to Roswell, where all seven classes, Unlimited included, are on the card again.
- NAS Oceana Air Show
The Navy's East Coast master jet base. The ramp is full of operational Super Hornet squadrons before a single demo aircraft launches, and the Blue Angels headline most years.
- Cleveland National Air Show
A downtown lakefront show on a short runway with Lake Erie as the backdrop. Blue Angels plus the F-22 demo team on the current card.
- Joint Base Andrews Air & Space Expo
Air Force One lives here, and the static line shows it: VIP and special-mission airframes parked nowhere else. The closest big show to Washington.
- Rochester International Airshow
An upstate show punching above its weight, with the Thunderbirds, an F-35B jump-jet demo, and the Golden Knights on the current lineup.
- CenterPoint Energy Dayton Air Show
Held where powered flight was invented, minutes from Wright-Patterson and the Air Force museum. Make it two days and do both.
- San Francisco Fleet Week Air Show
My home show. The Blues work the bay between the Golden Gate and Alcatraz with the city as a fence line, and it's the only US show with a choreographed airliner routine: a United 777 in a bank you'd never feel from a passenger seat.
- Oregon International Air Show
Next door to the Evergreen museum, so the Spruce Goose is a hundred yards from the flight line. Blue Angels and the F-35A demo on the current card.
- Duluth Air and Aviation Expo
Upper-Midwest show sharing the field with an Air National Guard base, hard on the shore of Lake Superior. Thunderbirds headline the current edition.
- California Capital Airshow
Twentieth anniversary in 2026, with the Thunderbirds and the Canadian Snowbirds on the same card plus a night show with pyrotechnics.
- Cocoa Beach Air Show
Free from the sand, with Kennedy Space Center up the road. Blue Angels over the water, and no gate to walk through.
- Pensacola Beach Air Show
A beach show that builds all week to a Saturday Blue Angels performance. Not the same event as the Homecoming show at the naval air station.
- NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming
The team's home base, their traditional season finale, free, and next to the naval aviation museum. If you're only going to see them once, see them here.
Two more belong on a 2027 calendar rather than this year's: the Great New England Air Show at Westover ARB (May 22–23, 2027, with both jet teams) and the Fargo AirSho (August 21–22, 2027, Thunderbirds). Both are sitting out 2026.
Major global shows
These run on a two-year clock, and the two European heavyweights deliberately alternate. Farnborough takes even years, Paris takes odd ones, so check the parity before you buy a plane ticket.
- Farnborough International Airshow
Four trade days of order announcements and one public day on the Friday. It shares its week with Oshkosh, which is a cruel piece of scheduling if you were hoping for both. Next edition: 2028.
- Singapore Airshow
Asia-Pacific's largest aerospace and defense show, heavy on regional airlines. Trade days first, public weekend at the end. Runs in February, so the next one is 2028.
- ILA Berlin Air Show
Germany's flagship show, covering airliners, defense, and space in one place. June of even years.
- Airshow China (Zhuhai)
The place to watch Chinese hardware fly rather than read about it: J-series fighters and COMAC airliners. Mid-November of even years.
- Paris Air Show (Le Bourget)
The original, alternating with Farnborough. The next one runs June 14 to 20, 2027, a hundred years after Lindbergh put the Spirit of St. Louis down on that same field.
- Dubai Airshow
Where widebody orders get announced by the dozen. Next edition: November 15 to 19, 2027.
- Avalon Australian International Airshow
The largest airshow in the region, with trade days up front and a genuine public flying weekend at the end. Next edition: February 23 to 28, 2027.
- Royal International Air Tattoo
In a normal year the largest military airshow anywhere by aircraft count. The 2026 edition was called off over access uncertainty at Fairford; the next one is July 16 to 18, 2027.
Other ways in
You don't need an airshow weekend, or much money. Two of these are free, and one of them ends with you flying the airplane.
- EAA Young Eagles and Eagle Flights
Volunteer EAA pilots fly kids for free, roughly 2.5 million of them since 1992, usually at a local chapter rally. The completed flight also unlocks a free EAA student membership. Adults get the same thing under the Eagle Flights name.
- Discovery flight at a local flight school
Twenty or thirty minutes with an instructor where you do the flying. Most schools sell it as a first lesson and log it as one if you keep going. AOPA's finder shows what's operating on your field.
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Prioritize the Udvar-Hazy annex out by Dulles: the shuttle Discovery, an SR-71, and a Concorde in two enormous hangars. Admission is free; parking at Udvar-Hazy runs $15.
- National Museum of the US Air Force
The largest military aviation museum in the world, free, four hangars deep. Same town as the June airshow if you want to stack them.
- Commemorative Air Force Living History Flights
Backseat time in flying WWII aircraft: AT-6 and SNJ trainers, B-25s, the occasional Mustang. Search by aircraft or state, or buy the ride as an add-on at one of the shows above and fly in the airplane you were just looking at.
Regional museums are worth a Saturday too: the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Evergreen out in McMinnville, EAA's own museum at Oshkosh, the Yankee Air Museum outside Detroit. Some airports and Guard bases will run a tower or ramp tour if you call the community-relations office and ask, which is a quieter way to watch the system work on an ordinary Tuesday. And if a show sends you home wanting to fly, the checklist for whatever you end up renting is a few minutes in the editor. Verify it against that aircraft's POH before it leaves the ground.
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