The Great July 4 Flyover of 2020
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The air shows of 2020? There weren’t any. With the world in the grip of the COVID pandemic, entertaining hundreds of thousands of people – and drawing them into close proximity with each other – simply was not going to happen.
Yet tomorrow – July 4, 2024 – marks the fourth anniversary of one of the greatest aviation spectacles I’ve had the pleasure to witness.
The skies of 2020 weren’t exactly empty in the fraught time frame leading up to the July 4 “celebrations” of 2020, muted though they were. Nor were the most famous aviation teams of the United States idle.
Earlier that year, as the virus tightened its deadly grip across the nation, US military officials got the idea to begin aerial salutes to healthcare workers and first responders with a series of flyovers. There were two obvious benefits to these events: a break from the routine of training for the service members involved, and hopefully an uplifting boost in morale for a dejected public.
In the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware area where Aerospace Perceptions is situated, the flyovers began with a very high-profile demonstration flight by both the US Navy Blue Angels and USAF Thunderbirds. On April 28, 2020, both teams together flew south down the Mid-Atlantic Coast, from the New York City metropolitan regions to the Newark area, above Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, on to Philadelphia, before the flyover officially ended passing by Wilmington, Delaware.
The USN Blue Angels and USAF Thunderbirds reach the conclusion of their April 28, 2020 “salute to frontline COVID-19 responders.” Photographs: Frank Moriarty/Aerospace Perceptions
Four days later, the Blue Angles and Thunderbirds regrouped for another flyover, this time over Baltimore and the surrounding Maryland regions.
The flyover idea spread.
C-17 Globemaster III heads south toward lower Delaware during its state-wide flyover on May 6, 2020. Photograph: Frank Moriarty/Aerospace Perceptions
On May 6, Dover Air Force Base dispatched one of the C-17 Globemaster IIIs of the 436th Airlift Wing – “Eagle Wing” – on a journey above the base’s home state of Delaware, beginning above Christiana Hospital in the north near Wilmington, ranging to the bottom of the state with a pass over TidalHealth Nanticoke in Seaford.
F-16 of the 177th Fighter Wing with its distinctive “Jersey Devil” logo emblazoned on the tail structure flies over Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital on May 12, 2020. Photograph: Frank Moriarty/Aerospace Perceptions
Not to be outdone, on May 12 New Jersey’s Air National Guard gathered a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 108th Wing based at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to meet up with F-16s from the 177th Fighter Wing base at Atlantic City International Airport. The aircraft circled the entire state over a single mid-day hour.
But the biggest was yet to come.
Rumors were circulating of a potential major event on July 4. Confirmation came on July 2 through an official announcement from US Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base. A large-scale flyover officially titled “Salute to the Great Cities of the American Revolution” would pass above four historic sites: Boston’s USS Constitution, the Statue of Liberty near Manhattan, Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, and Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
Official graphic announcement of the July 4 flyover released by US Northern Command on July 2, 2020.
Having become accomplished at placing myself under the flyovers to date, I set about estimating the flight path between Philadelphia and Baltimore, finally choosing the parking lot of a train station across from Christiana Hospital as the holiday headquarters of Aerospace Perceptions.
It was the right choice.
Just after 5:10 p.m. the first aircraft could be seen on the northern horizon, followed by more and more aircraft. The Thunderbirds led the way, passing nearly overhead as the stunning array of USAF and Marine Corps planes began to thunder by in profile. F-15s, F-16s, F-22s, F-35s, a B-2 Spirit, a B-1B Lancer, and a B-52 were combined in an unforgettable sight.
My images of this amazing event are in a gallery you will find here on the Aerospace Perceptions website:
The flyover had its desired impact: for a few minutes, any thoughts about the threat of COVID were completely forgotten. Four years later, with so much disturbance and agitation roiling the United States, it’s a shame a similar event can’t provide a much needed, momentary distraction on our nation’s 248th birthday.
