Nebraska State Air Show & Fly-In returning to Grand Island

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - An aerial event will be returning to central Nebraska for the first time in over 30 years this weekend. The Nebraska State Air Show and Fly-In will take place at Central Nebraska Regional Airport Saturday. The show will feature aerobatics and a World War II B-29 plane.

The event will be outdoors and attendees are advised to bring their own chair. Officials expect a crowd of 15,000 people and said this was something the area needed.

“It was time to give Grand Island a little shot in the arm and host a big event like this,” said Micheal Olson, Executive Director of CNRA. “It was time, we were due.”

Olson said the event starts at 9:00 a.m. and the air show, itself, will start at 1:00 p.m. There have also been challenges to overcome while putting together this event.

“The biggest one, obviously, it’s an outdoor event, so weather,” Olson said. “Weather is always an unknown and so that’s a challenge. Parking is a challenge.”

Olson said to help with parking, there will be shuttles to pick attendees up at Grand Island Senior High School and Central Community College. He’s also hoping the air show will have the same impact it had many years ago.

“I went to my first air show when I was six years old and that hooked me to be in aviation,” Olson said. “Here 50-plus years later, I’m working in aviation. It’s about education.”

Olson said there will be 12 food trucks at the event and he hopes it sparks more interest in the field aviation for all involved.

“Promote aviation, that’s important,” he said. “That’s what we want to accomplish. If we can get a couple of young kids or teenagers to see airplanes, watch them perform, that type of thing; then I would say mission accomplished.”

Olson said an event like this brings more money into the Grand Island community.

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