Tuskegee Airmen exhibit, P-51 plane coming to TCA

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — The nationally known traveling exhibit “Rise Above Tuskegee Airmen” is coming to the Tri-Cities Airport in September thanks to a local non-profit.

The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) exhibit, which also features a working P51C “Mustang” fighter plane and separate short films about both the Airmen and the historic Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS), opens at the airport on Sept. 25 and runs through Sept. 29.

Johnson City-based Langston Education and Arts Development (LEAD) is funding the event, which is called “Soar Tri-Cities: LEADing to New Heights.”

“This is all about education and supporting the community,” LEAD board member Pauline Douglas said. “I think for the community to be able to go out and see the obstacles and the trials that not only the Tuskegee Airmen, but the women that were pilots, the WASPs overcame during that time gives hope and it shows you that everybody can overcome.”

The free event is at Tri-City Aviation, 350 Aviation Drive, and involves a partnership with Tri-Cities Regional Airport. Northeast State Community College’s Aviation Maintenance Program representatives will also be on hand with a helicopter and a flight simulation trailer.

The P51 Mustang will fly in on Sept. 25 and fly out on Sept. 29 in a show the airport’s marketing and air service development manager said will be a can’t-miss event.

“I am thrilled that they are also going to bring the P51 to this exhibit because it adds so much to it,” Trevor Rice said. He said CAF has also brought its Air Power History Tour to the Tri-Cities twice in recent years.

The films on the Tuskegee Airmen and the WASPS — two groups that broke barriers and overcame obstacles to serve the United States — will play on a panoramic 160-degree screen inside a 53-foot, fully accessible semi-trailer. The screen “creates the sensation of soaring above the clouds in the cockpit of a World War II-era aircraft,” according to a news release.

“It’s just a chance to actually see, almost touch the history that occurred,” said Douglas, who has seen the exhibit.

Regarding the P51, Douglas said people are apparently in for a treat.

“I have not seen it land before, but they say just the sound of that plane coming in and taking off is just something to behold,” she said.

Even though he’s a self-described “av (aviation) geek,” Rice said he wasn’t familiar with the Tuskegee Airmen before Douglas approached him about bringing the exhibit.

Nearly 1,000 Black Americans became military fighter and bomber pilots during World War II, serving in various squadrons within the Army Air Force’s 332nd Fighter and 477th Medium Bombardment groups. Black Americans who volunteered to become aerial observers in World War I had been rejected just a quarter-century earlier — leading to two decades of advocacy by the NAACP and other groups.

“I love the whole premise of it and showing how minorities – the adversity that they had to overcome in order to serve their country, and this is just a great example of that,” Rice said.

Douglas said the exhibit is among the “single biggest investments” LEAD has made in promoting education and the arts over the past five years.

“It was important to have such an educational opportunity, not only for our young folks but for the whole community,” she said. “So we made the commitment that we were going to bring it here.”

The exhibit will be open to the public during the following times:

• 2-4 p.m. on Sept. 25-27
• 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. on Sept. 28
• 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept 29

Field trips for area schools are planned for other weekday hours, but access will be limited.

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