The Minnesota Wing and the Dixie Wing are teaming up for a unique tour in several southeast states to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Doolittle Raid over Japan. The tour will include five stops with the Minnesota Wing’s B-25, “Miss Mitchell,” and the Dixie Wing’s P-51, “Red Nose”, and SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber. The Minnesota Wing’s tour season starts with the 75th Anniversary Doolittle Raid Reunion in Dayton, Ohio. From there, Miss Mitchell and her crew will work their way down to Peachtree City, Ga., for the CAF WWII Heritage Days.
“We have been talking about cooperating for a while,” said Moreno Aguiari, Dixie Wing’s Marketing Officer and tour coordinator for 2017. ” We actually started earlier in the year by building parts from scratch for “Miss Mitchell,” and the Minnesota Wing donated much-needed parts for our Link Trainer restoration project.” The units met at ICAS 2016 early in December and planned the tour. “ICAS should be a place where units can discuss CAF airplanes, business, and coordinate and work on partnerships in addition to booking air shows,” said Aguiari. ”
Following the Dixie Wing’s WWII Heritage Days on April 22-23, 2017, “Miss Mitchell” will be hitting the road with the Dixie Wing as part of the tour. The tour will take the units through Greenville, S.C. ( May 6-7,2017), Raleigh, N.C.(May 13-14, 2017), and Virginia Beach, Va., at the Military Aviation Museum’s Warbirds Over the Beach ( May 18-21). Additional tour stops are being considered.
“We’ve been trying to think outside the box as far as marketing our planes to the airshow community, and when the Dixie wing asked us to participate in their WWII Heritage Days in April, we couldn’t pass it up,” said Amy Lauria, Minnesota Wing public information officer. “It’s been a long time since we’ve traveled south and we thought this was the perfect time to do it. We are excited to be working closely with another Wing to promote our mission.”
The MN Wing will offer rides in its B-25 “Miss Mitchell” during the Dixie Wing tour with the P-51 Mustang ‘Red Nose” and the SBD-5 Dauntless. The units also are planning an air-to-air aviation photography workshop at Raleigh.
Preliminary dates:
April 22-23 in Peachtree City, GA then Savannah (04/29-30), Greenville, SC (05/7-8), Raleigh, NC (05/13-14), Virginia Beach, VA ( 05/18-21) Farmingdale, NY ( 05/25-28) then Reading, PA for the WWII Weekend. Stay tuned for the more details!
Keep them flying !