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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Valley skies to roar with vintage engines

Vintage planes similar to this “Liberty Belle,” a B-17G Flying Fortress, will be on display at the air show. (Greg Gilbert / Seattle Times file)
By Barry Kough Lewiston Tribune

The Fourth of July sky will be filled with antique aircraft as the Radials N’ Rivers Fly-in 2017 comes to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, featuring planes from the Golden Age of the 1930s, plus World War II warbirds taking park in a national tour.

As many as 50 airplanes, many restored biplanes, will be on display at the Hillcrest Aircraft Co. site at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport from noon to 5 p.m. July 3, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 4, and 8 a.m. to noon July 5.

A number of the aircraft will fly in groups Tuesday afternoon, by year of manufacture, while others will be available for viewing on the tarmac.

The main event is the group of famous and still-flying bombers used during World War II. The Collings Foundation of Massachusetts owns a Boeing B-17G and Consolidated B-24J bomber, which tour the country every year as “an airmail thank-you” to World War II veterans, the national Wings of Freedom tour. The same four-engine bombers visited Lewiston in the 1990s.

They are accompanied by a dual-control P-51 Mustang – which a qualified pilot can co-pilot for $2,200 a half-hour – and B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, like the one crews of the 1942 Doolittle Raid used to bomb Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entrance into World War II.

The Collings aircraft will make local flights with passengers who help pay for the expenses – $400 for the B-25, or $450 for the B-17 and/or B-24. Reservations for those flights can be made by calling (800) 568-8924.

The public can explore the bombers inside and out while they are on static display. The usual $15 fee to see the inside of the Collings aircraft, which helps offset the cost of flying the 70-plus-year-old airplanes, will be waived during the three-day stop at Lewiston since the fees been pre-paid by sponsors Hillcrest Aircraft and the Forever Remembered Collection of the new Hangar 180 air museum to be built soon at Lewiston.

The Collings aircraft will fly whenever they have a full load of paying passengers.

Pemberton and Sons Aviation of Spokane will display their one-of-a-kind Boeing 40, a meticulously restored mail airplane and the first aircraft designed to also carry passengers – just four of them. They will also bring their recently-rebuilt Grumman Goose, a twin-engine amphibian that can takeoff and land on water.

There will be several Stearman Speedmails, sturdy biplanes that hauled the mail when airmail was still being proven as more than a novelty. Several Ryan low-wing PT-22 flight trainers from the World War II era, and a number of wartime Boeing Kaydet biplanes will join the displays and the demonstration flights.

Hangar 180 will display some of its Golden Age aircraft, ones that will eventually be housed in the planned new museum at Lewiston. They include the Jimmie Allen Stearman from 1930 (once flown by Charles Lindbergh), a Twin Beech 18, 1932 Waco UBF-2 and more.

There will be opening ceremonies at 2 p.m. July 4 at Hillcrest Aircraft, followed by flying demonstrations. Tents will set up at Hillcrest, and visitors are encouraged to bring lawn chairs. Water bottles will be sold.

There will be raffles for three free Stearman rides and for three free helicopter rides. A pancake breakfast is scheduled from 8 to 10 a.m. July 4, at a cost of $7 per plate, and a free hamburger and hot dog lunch will be served from noon to 1:30 p.m., sponsored by Phillps 66.

Free parking will be available around the Hillcrest Aircraft site at the west end of the airport.