RECORD CROWDS WITNESS MIX OF AIR HISTORY, POWER.Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer VAN NUYS - A cool first weekend of summer brought record crowds to the 40th Van Nuys Airport Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY, FAA LID: VNY) is a public airport located in Van Nuys, California in the San Fernando Valley, within the Los Angeles city limits. Aviation Expo where a mix of awe-struck youngsters stood side-by-side with proud veterans, all eyes tilted to the cloudy skies. More than 360,000 attended the two-day air show Saturday and Sunday, beating the 2001 record of 325,000. As the annual show came to a close Sunday, thousands who attended learned to keep necks limber and eyes in motion, one minute admiring grounded vintage aircraft, the next staring toward the sky to view a thunderous F-18E Super Hornet hornet: see wasp. roar alongside a vintage Corsair corsair: see Barbary States; piracy. . Visitors said war coverage in Iraq combined with the celebration of the centennial of flight brought them out to learn about aviation's past, present and future. ``It's so amazing to see our capability at what we can create now,'' said Steven Whitlock, 42, of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , who stood inside the hangar where a replica of the 1903 biplane biplane, aircraft, typically of early design, having two sets of wings fixed at different levels, especially in a vertical stack with the fuselage included between them. See airplane. invented by the Wright brothers had been erected. ``I follow all these shows closely. But this year, because of watching the war on television, it made us want to come here more.'' Walton Williamson, 29, of Sherman Oaks believed man's fascination with flight keeps crowds coming to look at airplanes. ``Living in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , there is such a car culture here, and I think the airplane is an extension of that,'' he said. ``The only difference is, the plane is faster and in the sky.'' Organizers and participants said this weekend's cloudy skies seemed to encourage more visitors, who remember hot summers where the tarmac seemed to bubble under their feet. ``This has been wonderful for the public, although the pilots have been grumbling a little,'' said Marilyn Ramsey, a Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control display representative and member of the Wright Flyers organization, which constructed the replica plane. Geoffrey Frankel, a 23-year-old air fuel specialist in the Navy, recently had returned from missions overseas. The crowds seemed particularly comforting, Frankel said. ``It lets me know that they are just as interested, that it's not just me who is into this,'' he said. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Marco Solana, 7, covers his ears Sunday as an F-15E Strike Eagle
The F-15E Strike Eagle is a modern United States all-weather strike fighter, designed for long-range interdiction of enemy ground targets deep behind enemy lines. performs a flyover at the Aviation Expo. (2) Andrew Sheynker, 6, of Studio City and Cy Lewis, 7, of Tarzana pose for a picture Sunday inside an engine of a KC-135R refueling plane during the Aviation Expo at Van Nuys Airport. (3) Smoke trails through cloudy skies Sunday as Sean Tucker performs aerial maneuvers. Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer |
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