250 Years of Naval Aviation at Sun N Fun 2025
I kicking off my 2025 airshow season attending the Sun N Fun Expo down in Lakeland, Florida. This year, the event celebrated the 250 year anniversary of the United States Navy. A variety of legacy naval warbirds with a few modern jet demo teams were at the show either as a static display or flying in the daily displays. A TBM Avenger, SBD Dauntless, FM-2 Wildcat, two F4U Corsairs, F8F Bearcat and a few T-28 Trojans made up the legacy warbird section on display while a T-6 Texan II, TH-73 Thrasher, four AV-8B Harrier II were the modern jets on static display. For the flying display; the EA-18 Growler team, the F-35C Lightning II team and the Blue Angel Flight Demonstration team put on spectacular displays throughout the week.
To my thorough surprise, the Cavanaugh Flight Museum showed up with two warbirds: their TBM Avenger and FM-2 Wildcat. According to the museum’s official Facebook page, it was the first time the TBM was out at an airshow since 2011. Seeing that Avenger made my trip to Sun N Fun worth it alone.
On the modern jet side, it was no surprise the hottest ticket item this year was the static display of the AV-8B Harrier IIs from VMA-231 “Ace of Spades”. The squadron is slated to sundown (retire) their Harriers on 29 May 2025 to line themselves up with receiving the F-35B Lightning II. This was also my second time witnessing the F-35C Lightning II demonstration team (first time was in 2019 at MCAS Yuma). Their display was on point with how the Naval demonstration teams display precision and dedication. The EA-18G Growlers always put on a spectacular display in the two-ship formation. Last but not least, the United States Naval Demonstration Team, the Blue Angels, were on hand the final 4 days of the week to perform their 45 min aerial masterpiece.
As the year progresses and we continue to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Navy, I can’t wait to see what other airshow sites will put together. For me, my next navy dedicated show will be the TBM Reunion in Peru, Illinois!
