Export's annual summer festival will feature flyover by World War II planes

There will be several unique aspects to this year’s Export Ethnic Food & Music Festival, set for Aug. 15, including something high in the sky.

The festival, which will take place just prior to the 75th anniversary of World War II’s end, plans to feature two WWII-era planes that will perform a flyover, courtesy of the Tri-State Warbird Museum in Batavia, Ohio.

“We were looking for something special to commemorate the occasion,” said Export Historical Society board member John Lukacs. “With the pandemic, a lot of air shows were postponing or outright canceling, so we started thinking we might be able to find a plane to do a flyover.”

Museum officials will bring a P-51 Mustang named “Cincinnati Miss” and a B-25J Mitchell named “Yankee Doodle” to the skies over Export.

The museum’s president, David O’Maley, said it was founded in 2003 by his father, an aviation enthusiast. The idea for the museum came when a pair of World War II veterans spoke at O’Maley’s school.

“Even during an hour-long speech to elementary school kids, the whole place was silent and the kids were riveted to every word these two men were telling them,” O’Maley said.

With World War II history largely taught via textbook, the elder O’Maley set out to bring history to life.

“Dad already had one plane in flying shape, and one that he was working on to get it into flying shape,” O’Maley said.

Every piece of aircraft at the museum is either functional or working its way there, and O’Maley is happy to have a chance to put a couple in the air.

“Our summer was mostly empty until John Lukacs called, and we jumped at the opportunity,” O’Maley said. “These planes are expensive to maintain, so it was a great chance to get them into the air and get them some exercise.”

For Lukacs, the planes couldn’t be more appropriate.

“The P-51 was a long-range fighter that helped shorten the course of the war. They were able to escort bombers and helped keep the war from dragging on,” he said. “And then the B-25s were the planes sent on the Doolittle raid, (the first demonstration of U.S. attack capabilities on Japanese soil) during the lowest point in the war for us. That plane really sort of got us back into it.”

O’Maley said the festival’s theme fits right in with the museum’s mission.

“We want to share these airplanes with their stories with as many people as possible,” he said.

The Tri-State Warbird Museum flyover will be at 3:15 p.m., shortly after a 3 p.m. groundbreaking for the relocation of the borough’s war memorial.