By Grady Andersen, Guest Writer
Cincinnati’s Lunken airport was host to some of military history’s most well-known planes over the Labor Day weekend.
Over 15 WW2-era planes were featured, among them a B-29, B-25 and P-51, all of which were available to fly in. The B-29, affectionately named “Doc”, is one of two Superfortresses still flying today. It was sitting in the Mojave Desert for over 50 years before being brought to Wichita, Kansas. “They brought him back through 38 miles of Desert, put him on seven semi-trucks and brought him back to Wichita,” one of the volunteers described.
The P-51 Mustang, famously known as the “Cadillac of the Sky” due to its speed.
While the Superfortress was the largest plane present, crowds also gathered around the P-51 Mustang. The plane was one of the few that had seen combat service, fighting in England under the famous “Mighty Eighth” air force. It served in a military role for 11 years after the war, before being deemed surplus and was sold to the Commemorative Air Force (CAF). The CAF also provided four other planes for the event, including a Douglass Dauntless dive bomber.
Arguably one of the most interesting planes there was the B-25, affectionately named the “Berlin Express.” The Mitchell bomber model is often best known as the plane that flew in the Doolittle Raid, America’s first bombing on Japan. The raid is named after Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, who planned and flew the mission of 16 B-25s to bomb Tokyo and land in China. This plane is also famous for its time on the silver screen, serving as one of 17 bombers in the WW2 satirical piece “Catch-22.”
The B-25 featured at the event, named “The Berlin Express.
The event also had an exhibit to honor the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black squadron to see combat for the U.S. The exhibit focused on those in the greater Cincinnati area who served, with over 20 photos of airmen shown. One of the airmen featured was Herbert Heilbrun, who flew several missions over Italy in 1944 and 1945. After attending a Tuskegee event in 1997, he found that a fellow classmate in third grade, Lt. John H. Leahr had served as a Tuskegee Airmen. After going through old flight logs, he had found that Leahr had saved Heilbrun’s life on multiple occasions. They became quite good friends, with Heilbrun advocating for racial diversity, specifically in the military before his death in 2020.
Junior Philosophy, Politics and the Public major and Vice President of Xavier’s Student Government Association (SGA) Nick Watts was present at Lunken for the event. Watts spoke highly of the air show and drew a connection between the planes and Lunken Airport’s neighbor, the Pioneer Memorial Cemetary, where American Revolution veterans are buried. “One thought that stuck with me while attending, however, was how poetic it is to honor our WW2, Korea, and Vietnam heroes as our Revolutionary War heroes lay buried just across the street in the Pioneer Memorial Cemetery. They rest quietly as a testament to the righteous struggle that so many generations of brave Americans have endured to preserve freedom in our country,” Watts said.