Third Stop For The Vintage Bipes And Monoplanes As They Tour The Upper Midwest

The American Barnstormers Tour, which kicked off August 9th, is now on its third stop its trip around the Midwest. The dozen-plus vintage aircraft are turning heads and offering rides until Saturday at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport (KEAU) in Eau Claire, WI, and then they'll head off to Manitowoc County Airport (KMTW) in Manitowoc, WI for a few days.

Other stops on the tour, which is scheduled to end September 2nd, are Dekalb Taylor Municipal Airport (KDKB) in DeKalb, IA, and Antique Airfield (IA27) in Blakesburg, IA.

At each of the stops, the planes take to the air in a "Barnstormers Parade of Flight," according to the tour website. The group is hearkening back to the days when major trophy races and record-breaking flights were in the news, and pilots would fly around the country, landing in farmers' fields, and offering rides to the locals to pay for their gas and generate interest in aviation.

The pilots are traveling the Midwest and offering rides in their airplanes, which include a beautifully restored Travel Air and a New Standard vintage biplane, in period costumes to help re-create the era. There is also aircraft signage appropriate to the period, and the participants offer a wealth of historical information about one of aviation's "golden eras."

The group includes five Travel Airs, three Wacos, a Curtiss Wright Jr. CW1, a Stinson. two Fairchild 22s, a Moncoupe 90A, a White New Standard D-25, and a Bleriot Monoplane.

(Travel Air 4000 pictured in file photo)

FMI: www.americanbarnstormerstour.com