Wings Over Wayne Air & Space Expo 2025

Story and photos by Shawn Byers

The bi-annual Wings Over Wayne (WOW) Airshow was hosted by Seymour Johnson Air Force Base on May 3rd and 4th, 2025.

Welcome to Eagle Country. Seymour Johnson is the largest F-15E Strike Eagle base featuring four squadrons worth of airframes, two training and two deployable. It is the home of the legendary, Fourth Fighter Wing and the only base named after a Navy man. Seymour A. Johnson was a native of Goldsboro, North Carolina who perished in 1941 in an F4F Wildcat.

Here is what Seymour Johnson AFB brings to the Air Force:
333rd Fighter Squadron “Lancers”, F-15E Strike Eagle, Red Tail Flash (Training)
334th Fighter Squadron “Eagles”, F-15E Strike Eagle, Blue Tail Flash (Training)
335th Fighter Squadron “Chiefs”, F-15E Strike Eagle, Green Tail Flash
336th Fighter Squadron “Rocketeers”, F-15E Strike Eagle, Yellow Tail Flash
77th Air Refueling Squadron “Totin’ Tigers”, KC-46A, (Air Force Reserve)
911th Air Refueling Squadron “Red Eagles”, KC-46A, (Active Duty, Geographically Separated from McGuire AFB)
307th Fighter Squadron “Stingers”, F-15E Strike Eagle (Air Force Reserve)
567th RED HORSE squadron

The 334th, 335th and 336th Fighter Squadrons trace their lineage to the American Eagle Squadrons flying Spitfires with the Royal Air Force prior to the United States entering World War II.
Seymour Johnson has a single, enormous Runway 08/26 at 11,760 feet by 300 feet. The airshow is hosted on the Tanker Ramp near the 26 end, facing south. The sun angle can make for some challenging photography but I never miss this show in Eagle Country, as I am an Eagle lover from A to EX.

On the Friday DOD/Media Day, we had a 10am treat from the USAF Thunderbirds holding a practice flight. Having never seen them here at that hour of the day, the sun angle allowed for some great views at airshow right.

From that point on, all three days followed the same schedule. Weather was a mixed bag of sun, some clouds, Sunday morning rain and overcast. A KC-46A took off around 10am followed a bit later by four F-15E Strike Eagles. There were no parachutists, but the Eagles and the Pegasus flew over the crowd during the National Anthem. They all returned, left to right in a pre-contact, air refueling scene. All aircraft then returned to recover.

Hayden Proffett performed next in his Smoke and Thunder Jet Truck. He had a race with the two SNJs of Warbird Thunder, who launched to the west before entering the box for a performance. They are former Geico Skytypers pilots and the aircraft still carry the familiar striping on the wings and fuselage. They stayed airborne after their routine.

Retired Marine Corps General, Robert Schmidle flew a solo routine in his red Pitts S-2B. He hasn’t been on the airshow circuit very long but in the few times I have seen him, the routine has improved, mostly in minimum height above ground level.

The Full Throttle Formation Team flew many formation passes with their 12 VANS RV homebuilt aircraft.

Tom Larkin flew a fast routine in his SubSonex Mini Jet. On Friday he was flying casually in a T-shirt while donning his blue flight suit the rest of the weekend.

Kyle Franklin, teaming with his wife, Liz, performed a comedy routine in his Piper Cub. He flew twice on one of the days, no doubt filling a time gap narrating basic aerodynamic tasks and ending with a power off landing and roll to the ramp, stopping at Liz’s outstretched hand.

Jerry “Jive” Kirby flew a T-28 Trojan as a single ship of the larger Trojan Thunder Team performing basic aerobatics. A satisfying radial gurgle could be heard from the engine on every pass. Jive stayed airborne for one additional duty.

This airshow was one week after the loss of aerobatic legend, Rob Holland. The airshow community is small. Everyone knew him and worked with him. A dissimilar Missing Man formation was flown by the SNJs of Warbird Thunder, the T-28 and a T-33 flown by Greg “Wired” Colyer who had launched to the west earlier. The formation flew toward the crowd and then “Jive” flew up and out as the remaining formation flew over the crowd. The three aircraft recovered, and Greg Colyer entered his routine with the T-33, “Ace Maker”.

The most exciting performance at any show is when the base features a simulated operation. For the Air Force, it is called a Combined Arms Demonstration (CAD). This CAD featured 4 of the home-based F-15Es, two T-38 Aggressors, ground explosions and airborne flare releases. From Friday to Sunday, those flares got better and better. There was a lot of jet noise, rock music, and aircraft coming and going in all directions leaving me very satisfied. After it was over, the aircraft recovered on Runway 08 and taxied back past most of the crowd west of the Thunderbirds allowing that personal connection to the victorious crews.

There was a lengthy time gap before the Thunderbirds got going and closed the show. I do not know if it was just the schedule or if there was a lengthy post-pyrotechnic cleaning of the runway.

Notable statics on the ramp included two big bombers in a B-1 from Dyess AFB and a B-52 from Barksdale AFB. An RC-135 Rivet Joint came in from Offutt AFB and a new E-11A high altitude communications platform came in from Robins AFB. Outwardly, it is a Bombardier Global Express corporate jet airframe. Internally is a number of workstations and communications gear. Unfortunately, there was no one present with the plane to speak about it.

The home team was represented by a KC-46A Pegasus and five color birds from the four F-15E squadrons and the 4th Fighter Wing plane, “The Spirit of Goldsboro”. First debuted in 2023, I would say the paint on all the jets is holding up well. Additionally, there was an F-35A from Vermont, two A-10s from Moody AFB, an F-22 from Langley AFB, a Mirage F-1 from Draken at nearby Kinston Airport along with two T-38s from Laughlin AFB.

There was supposed to be a West Coast C-17 demonstration but after arrival on Thursday, it broke and remained that way all weekend.

I wish to thank Lt Pannell, Sgt Martin and the rest of the Public Affairs Team for their assistance throughout the weekend. This is always a big event. Our Media area was in an excellent location and it was quite large. I felt a little guilty when I looked back at the massive crowd pressed tightly up to the steel crowd barriers.

Until we meet again in two years, Fly Eagles, Fly!