MZeroA’s Jason Schappert was just 8 years old when he attended his first SUN ’n FUN. “This is my hometown airshow,” he says. “My parents would take me when I was little and now I do that with my kids. It’s a family tradition. SUN ’n FUN has a lot of meaning for us.” Of […]
Sun 'n Fun
Classic Caribou carries cargo
SUN ‘n FUN 2018 hosted a rare airlift aircraft that resonates with veterans of the war in Southeast Asia. It’s a deHavilland CV-2 Caribou. If airlifters, those classic carriers of cargo and combat troops, sometimes get overshadowed by the fighters and bombers, that does not detract from the pivotal significance of the transport mission to […]
Helping GA reach a bigger audience
This year marks the debut of the Grunt Style Air Show Majors, with SUN ’n FUN kicking off the year-long tour. The majors is sponsored by Grunt Style, a company that manufactures and sells clothes that evoke the “American fighting spirit.” As the company explains on its website: “With nearly 500 veterans and patriots, our […]
Texas Raiders gives vet a lift
A veteran got the chance to fly, once again, on a warbird during this year’s SUN ‘n FUN. The Commemorative Air Force brought Texas Raiders to SUN ’n FUN, delayed a bit by the weather at the beginning of the show. But when it landed at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport, Sargent Bill Kelly was waiting, ready to […]
Picture of the Day: Texas Raiders fly-by
General Aviation News‘ Of Wings & Things columnist and warbird expert Frederick A. Johnsen sent us this photo he took at SUN ‘n FUN 2018. “The Commemorative Air Force B-17G ‘Texas Raiders’ made a low fly-by with one main gear retracted during the group’s ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ reenactment,” he explains. “During the spectacle, pyrotechnics and […]
The world’s busiest airport — for a week
During the week of SUN ’n FUN, Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport becomes the busiest airport in the nation. But that’s nothing new for the airport, where there is always something new going on. Just since last year’s SUN ’n FUN, the airport opened its new U.S. Customs facility; cut the ribbon on the new NOAA building; a […]
Building Chris’s Bliss
Members of The Lakeland Aero Club are building an experimental Sonex Motorglider to fulfill a father’s promise. When Leslie Johnson made plans to build a Sonex Motorglider with his son, no one knew his son Chris had cancer. “The garage was set up with tools, supplies, workbenches, you name it,” said Lakeland Aero Club Director […]
Sun sets on Knight’s days as chairman of SUN ‘n FUN
When SUN ’n FUN closed on Sunday, April 16, 2018, Chairman of the Board Bob Knight stepped down as the point man of the organization after serving for six and a half years. While this was his last fly-in as chairman, he will remain on the SUN ’n FUN board. A tall, genial Southern gentleman, […]
Hurricane Irma can’t stop SUN ’n FUN
As the thousands of visitors walked around the SUN ’n FUN grounds this year, it must have been hard for them to imagine the devastation that Hurricane Irma brought to the airport just eight months ago. The hurricane roared through Lakeland on Sept. 10, 2017, with sustained winds of 100 mph and gusts over 120 […]