SANFORD – Long before high-powered aircraft can scream over Orlando Sanford International Airport in formation this October for the first air show there in more than 25 years, airport leaders must spend years coordinating flight patterns with the FAA.
But the most crucial permit may have nothing to do with the planes, said Brian Lilley, whose company B. Lilley Productions has been coordinating shows for more than 12 years.
“They might be dazzled by the Thunderbirds but if it takes a long time to leave the parking lot and get home, that sticks with them more,” he said. “That’s the truth for any event.”
The logistics behind hosting an air show at a live, working airport involves close cooperation between show teams and the airport personnel charged with bringing commercial aircraft in for safe landings.
In Sanford, for instance, the team set off a 12,000-by-3,000-foot football field-shaped area that starts on the ground and rises into the air. That area would prohibit foot traffic and non-show airplanes for a specific period of time.
Specialized aircraft maneuvers also require FAA waivers, which Lilley said the team will seek in the coming months.
“We would need a waiver if we wanted to break the speed limit or fly 200 feet inverted,” Lilley said.
The defense giant Lockheed Martin, which has more than 7,000 employees in Central Florida, emerged early as a sponsor for the show.
The company, which works on some of the U.S.'s high-profile military programs, will bring hardware like the F-35 and anti-ballistics missile defense systems to the show.
The idea is to spark interest in careers related to science and technology, said Michael Rein, Lockheed Martin’s director of international communications.
“We want to make sure as we move forward that we are not asleep at the wheel,” said Rein, Lockheed Martin’s main liaison for the show. “We want them to come work for us.”
The air show might represent one way to stand out in an economy with increasing demand for new graduates in engineering and other technology specialties, he said.
“There are other big companies that for years their expertise has been in the push-pulley thing,” he said. “Those companies are now getting into simulation. So they are the same types of engineers we are also trying to employ.”
Lilley and other organizers first secured the airport as a venue in May 2018.
Shortly thereafter, he reached out to the Thunderbirds.
When that world-class team released its schedule later that year, Lilley saw his show’s name on the list.
“It’s like having a country music festival and you get Kenny Chesney as your first act,” he said.
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