Navy flyovers to celebrate VE Day in Texas
Houston has a lot of aerial excitement to look forward to this week.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels will fly over Houston — as well as Dallas, Fort Worth and New Orleans — to honor the COVID-19 frontline responders and essential workers who are doing so much for their communities amid the pandemic.
America Strong, as the flyover is called, will start at 12:30 p.m. from The Woodlands, passing through Spring, north of Bush International, and Humble.
It will circle around the Medical Center from 12:40 to 12:45 p.m., then pass over Missouri City, Sugar Land, Richmond and Katy.
It will reach the Galleria at 12:50 p.m., go northwest to Jersey Village, then reverse course and head downtown, finally flying over Pasadena, Ellington and Webster Medical centers. The flyover will end at 1 p.m.
Viewers are encouraged to watch from their homes as they salute first responders, health-care and other essential workers.
Then on Friday, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, more than a dozen warbirds will fly across the skies of Houston. The Lone Star Flight Museum and its partners are organizing the Fight to the Finish Flyover as remembrance for the end of
World War II and those who fought in it.
The event is the perfect wingman to this era of social distancing.
“While we navigate this difficult time in our community, we encourage everyone to step outside and enjoy a moment of patriotic distraction and marvel at the rare WWII warbirds flying overhead, all from the safety of their own homes,” said the museum’s president and CEO, Douglas H. Owens, Lt. Gen. (ret.) in a statement.
The aircrafts will take off at 11:45 a.m. Friday from Ellington Airport and will fly for over an hour. They will jet across much of the Greater Houston area, including downtown, Memorial Park, Bellaire, Pearland, Kemah and many more spots in the region. The full program will be available for download on Monday on the museum’s website.
The fleet will include such rare warbirds as the B-25 Devil Dog, the Vultee BT-13, the T-6 Texan, the SB2C Helldiver and several more.
The museum is encouraging viewers to stay home to watch the planes fly by. The Lone Star Flight Museum is currently closed and the spectacle will not be viewable from the public areas of Ellington Airport.