The Undaunted Airshow team’s RV-7 and RV-8, flown by Stephen Christopher and Todd Rudberg, use smoke trails to help visualize their smooth formation maneuvering. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

Idaho’s 2026 air show season launched with a 250th United States anniversary-themed event at Mountain Home Air Force Base about an hour from Boise on the weekend of May 16-17.

You can count on a patriotic crowd to venture out for an event like this in Idaho, and the American flags whipped in a brisk wind that chilled, but did not discourage, those who came to see the hometown favorite F-15s, vintage warbirds, civilian aerobatic acts from the gyrating to the graceful, and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Attendance was estimated at 20,000 for the weekend.

An F-15E Eagle of the 366th Fighter Wing, based at Mountain Home AFB, shows off the aesthetic mix of angles and curves that makes the F-15 both effective and eye-catching. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

Air shows at Mountain Home AFB are titled Gunfighter Skies, a tip of the hat to an earlier era when a Mountain Home unit attached guns to their previously missile-only F-4 Phantoms in pursuit of North Vietnamese adversaries.

Its 65-year-old airframe shimmering in the sunny heat waves coming off the Mountain Home AFB runway, this B-52H Stratofortress is an exemplar of long and capable service. The Air Force’s Fifth Bomb Wing sent the B-52 to Gunfighter Skies for static display during the show. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

A treat from the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles, California, was the World War II Douglas C-47 nicknamed Betsy’s Biscuit Bomber. Wearing olive drab paint with just enough fading and weathering to look like a grizzled wartime machine, this C-47 carried paratroop re-enactors with classic old-school round parachute canopies. They made a realistic jump on Friday at a version of the show for the base population at Mountain Home AFB.

The World War II C-47 nicknamed Betsy’s Biscuit Bomber hosted five parachutists who created a living tableau of the Normandy airborne operations of June 1944 during Friday’s practice show for residents of Mountain Home Air Force Base. (Photo by Barry Martin)

Alas, weather in the Mountain West in May is as fleeting as a social media fad, and Saturday brought a chill wind out of the north that put the jumpers out of limits. The jumpmaster released two weighted streamers on a set-up pass over the field to see how far the wind drift would carry the parachutists.

When the winds drifted the streamers far to the south, the show announcer was amused at the turn of events, saying somebody should call Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, nearly 500 miles distant, and tell them to watch for the streamers.

The jump was scrubbed for Saturday, but the venerable Biscuit Bomber made photo passes along the crowd line.

A Gooney Bird meets a Thunderbird, as the C-47 taxis out while an Air Force Thunderbird lands at Mountain Home. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

A heritage formation featured the P-47 Thunderbolt and F-86 Sabre from Planes of Fame Air Museum tucked in with one of Mountain Home’s F-15E Eagles from the 366th Fighter Wing in a graphic panorama of Air Force fighters over the years since World War II.

Part of Gunfighter Skies’ American 250th anniversary celebrations was this parade of Air Force fighters: A World War II P-47 Thunderbolt led a Korean War F-86 Sabre, with a modern F-15 Eagle looming from the rear. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

The hometown crowd cheered a solo performance of the P-51C nicknamed Boise Bee, from the nearby Warhawk Air Museum of Nampa, Idaho.

Boise’s Mark Peterson flew aerobatic maneuvers in his restored Vietnam-era Cessna A-37 Dragonfly jet. Wingtip-mounted smoke generators clearly traced his movements, and the gusting wind etched artistically irregular ropes in the sky.

Cessna went to war in Southeast Asia with the A-37 Dragonfly in the 1960s. This example, in South Vietnamese Air Force markings, is flown in an aerobatic demonstration by Mark Peterson of Boise. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

The Smoke-N-Thunder jet-powered dragster breathed long plumes of flame and clouds of cloaking white smoke as aerobatic pilot Brad Wursten flew low overhead. The upshot was a race between the two, adding a touch of theatrical drama that would be the highlight of the day for some visitors.

Its glossy finish reflecting hot flame from the Smoke-N-Thunder dragster, Brad Wursten’s MXS aerobatic aircraft raced the jet car on the runway at Mountain Home Air Force Base on Saturday, May 16. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

Vicky Benzing’s aerobatics in the purple P-51 she calls Plum Crazy were old-school in the best sense of the term, reminding the crowd what that powerful fighter can do under the guidance of a savvy pilot. Her performance was equal parts power, precision, and smooth handling.

Vicky Benzing’s iteration of Clay Lacy’s racing Mustang Number 64 is an homage to Lacy, keeping the classic Snoopy tail art and essential purple color. Benzing flew her Mustang in powerfully graceful aerobatic demonstrations during Gunfighter Skies. (Photo by Barry Martin)

And the Air Force Thunderbirds showed the crisp pride that has made them an inspirational draw for decades.

Keep your eye on the moving F-16s. A spectacular favorite maneuver of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds is this four-ship crossover at midfield, with fast-moving jets seemingly occupying the same space for an instant. (Photo by Barry Martin)

Thunderbirds F-16s helped Mountain Home AFB’s Gunfighter Skies celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

Sunday’s show was terminated early with the collision and crash of two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler jet aircraft in an open area off base shortly after noon. All four crewmembers in the jets ejected safely.

With afterburners ablaze and characteristic condensation streamers whipping back from either side of the nose, this U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler derivative of the F/A-18 was one of two in the air during a segment of Gunfighter Skies. The Growlers collided on Sunday in a spectacle seen worldwide...

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