It’s the fall air show season, but the biggest attraction — U.S. military planes — will not appear this weekend in Southern California because of the federal government shutdown.
In their place? The Snowbirds, the acrobatic fleet from the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“Thank God Canada is not the 51st state yet,” said Kevin Elliott, the director of the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach, Calif.
The shutdown that began this week grounded the Thunderbirds of the United States Air Force and the Blue Angels of the United States Navy, two daredevil teams known for their gravity-defying stunts, just as they were scheduled to star in three of California’s most popular air shows.
The Canadian Snowbirds, the nine-jet precision flying team from America’s northern neighbor, will headline the three-day Pacific Airshow in Southern California, which kicked off on Friday. If the shutdown continues, the Canadian crew is likely to also take top billing at the San Francisco Fleet Week air show, which begins next Friday.
Unlike the fighter jets with supersonic capabilities flown by the American teams, which answer to what President Trump now calls the War Department, the Snowbirds operate decades-old planes that were designed for training purposes.
Mr. Elliott said that organizers scrambled in recent days to rearrange the event’s lineup, given just how many U.S. military pilots had been scheduled to fly in what is one of the nation’s largest air display events.
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The post The Star of These American Air Shows Will Be … Canada? appeared first on New York Times.
