WWII Reading Airshow and Night Shoot 2025
The annual WWII Airshow at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum showcases numerous WWII planes and hundreds of reenactors and vehicles, including tanks. I’ve been a reenactor since 2017, and along with others, we portrayed the Allies, Axis, and civilians. Throughout the three-day airshow, we held several small-scale battle reenactments to demonstrate various aspects of the war. The European theater was established around a French village, while the Pacific theater was situated in a grassy field. In addition to the reenactments, the airshow featured jazz dance events on Friday and Saturday nights, providing a social gathering for all the reenactors once the airshow activities concluded for the day.
The museum once again hired Lerro Photography to provide the lighting for the 5th annual Saturday night photo session. The three planes featured during the night session were a P-51C Mustang ‘Thunderbird’, a Cessna T-50 Bamboo Bomber’ Bamboo Betty’, and the Curtiss-Wright SB2C ‘Helldiver’.
During the night session, each aircraft was illuminated and photographed individually. Before the engines were started, the airport’s fire truck sprayed water around and in front of each plane to create a reflection. Each plane provided a captivating display by running its engines, allowing photographers to capture the spinning propellers in motion and the flames emanating from the exhaust. Those shooting video were able to capture the roar of the engines running at high RPMs when they revved up to produce flames in the exhaust.
Friday morning of the airshow was spent photographing pinup photos of several lovely ladies around the airfield with various aircraft. By the time we finished shooting around 8:00 a.m., it had already started to get hot and humid. Due to the heat and humidity, I spent most of my time in the French Village and in the shade, and didn’t shoot too much.
For Saturday morning, Lerro Photography enlisted a number of reenactors for the sunrise hot ramp photo shoot. Up first were Naval Aviators who posed with the F4U Corsair. The Navy flight suit is distinctly different from the Army Air Force’s flight suit, and as not many reenactors have this impression, it’s nice to get shots of it when we can. Next, we had 4 WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) who posed with the B-29. Our goal was to recreate a famous photo of a WASP flight crew walking away from a B-17. During WWII, WASPs flew every single type of plane, mostly in transport to overseas as well as training of male pilots. Our third group of reenactors was a male flight crew for the B-29. They also brought their own jeep, which helped enhance the scene.
Throughout the day, I photographed several mini-battle demonstrations, as well as a number of reenactors, around the airshow. Early Saturday evening was the 2nd jazz dance, which I was only able to attend for a little while because I had to set up for the night photo session.
Sunday morning I spent more time shooting reenactors around the airshow as well as the morning battle. Unfortunately, in the afternoon, heavy rain moved in, so we spent most of the time inside the Café Napoleon.
As always, it’s a pleasure spending a weekend with great friends and reenactors at the Reading Airshow.
