In addition to showcasing their new Super Hornets, this year the Blue Angels are featuring Fat Albert, the team’s newly acquired C130J Hercules transport. The plane is noted for its short takeoff and landing abilities.
Originally scheduled to arrive at the airport at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, the team was delayed by about 2½ hours because of severe weather sweeping through Pensacola, where the team is based. However, Fat Albert crewmembers were on hand by 10 a.m. That plane arrives in advance of air shows caring U.S. Navy aircraft maintenance personnel to prepare show sites for the jets’ arrivals.
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Aerospace Center for Excellence and Sun ân Fun President John âLitesâ Leenhouts officially opened the organizationâs new mobile airshow command center on Tuesday. The three-story modular facility can simultaneously serve as a control tower, airshow announcersâ box and air-ground safety center. Sun ân Fun also plans to rent out the building, which was constructed from shipping containers.
âThis is ⦠the highest technology airshow control facility ever made and this was all a brainstorming idea put together by our team,â said Leenhouts. âAnd all of it comes together so we can use this not only here but anywhere we can get it to.â
The plane landed less than a mile east of the Airport Road exit, not far from the Publix Super Markets headquarters. LPD officers and Polk County sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene.
Eastbound lanes of the Polk Parkway remained open as of 1 p.m., but LPD said the lanes would soon be closed so that the plane could be loaded onto a trailer and removed.
The plane landed about a mile from Lakeland Linder International Airport, where the Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo is taking place. It was not immediately clear whether the plane had taken off from Lakeland Linder.
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Following last yearâs cancellation due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the annual Sun ân Fun Aerospace Expo opened its doors to high ticket sales and sizable crowds on Tuesday. According to Sun ân Fun and Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) president John âLitesâ Leenhouts, event ticket sales had reached around $1.2 million by Tuesday morning, surpassing the previous average of $900,000 in ticket sales at the opening of the show. In addition, 385 exhibitors are in attendance, a less significant drop than expected for one of the first in-person aviation events since the onset of COVID-19.
âWe worked with our county officials, our city officials, our state leaders and the national CDC and we came up with what we figured is a really good set of protocols that gives everybody a chance to feel safe,â said Leenhouts. âHaving said all that, the world is ready for an aviation event.â