ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Great weather is great news to the folks behind the Geneseo Airshow which is this weekend — both Saturday and Sunday.

If you go, expect to see jaw-dropping aerobatics, but the real treat to many is turning 80 years old this year, and Thursday, she took News 8 photojournalist Emalee Burkhard for a ride.

This hulking C-47 transport plane that rests so peacefully in Geneseo, New York was a terror to the Nazis on D-Day June 6, 1944, as it delivered paratroopers into battle.

A national treasure, but to Craig Wadsworth and others with the National Warplane Museum, Whiskey 7 is their crown jewel.

“She flew as part of the European Theater during the war, came back to the US after the war and was an airliner and cargo plane for many years before we started flying her as a living testament to the men and women that served our country during WWII,” Wadsworth said.

These days they only fly Whiskey 7 50 to 70 hours a year, and it’ll log a number of those hours this weekend at the airshow.

But today, it got early start as Wadsworth and crew let Whiskey 7 spread its wings, so to speak.

Come Saturday crowds will marvel at the history in flight. Whiskey 7 Crew Chief Bob Howard can’t wait to see the reaction of one specific group.

“We get a lot of children who come on board for the ride flights. To see the excitement when they come up to the cockpit, for a lot of them, it’s the first time they’ve ever been in an airplane,” Howard said.

Rob Holland was one of those kids a few decades ago at an airshow like Geneseo’s and right there told himself he had to do this. And now he does. Holland will be one of this weekend’s airshow performers.

“It’s a great show and I’ll be trying to show people things that hopefully they’ve never seen an airplane do before, tumbling end over end, sliding backwards, all sorts of cool stuff,” Airshow Performer Rob Holland said. “Even if you’ve imagined it, you probably haven’t imagined what this plane can do so it’ll be a lot of fun.”

And while we’re on the subject of imagining, we can imagine Whiskey 7, almost 79 years ago to the day — helping to change the tide of war.

A ticket for an adult is $35, but kids 12 and under get in free.