This week’s blog post will be a little short as I’m trying to get everything cleared off of my to-do list before July 27. Once that day hits I am officially “off duty” until August 1…or at least only on part-time duty. July 27 is my daughter Emily’s 5th birthday, and I’m planning to take the day off to spend just with her. It’s killing me that my baby girl is not a baby anymore, but that’s a topic for a different blog post.
I’ve written many times about the connection my dad and I developed while restoring my ’64 Chevelle, but another thing that brought us together was airplanes. For years my dad and I attended the annual EAA Airshow in Oshkosh, WI together, which is the mecca for airplane nuts world wide to get together the last week of July and goof on airplanes. My dad originally attended as an enthusiast in the 1970’s and later in the 1980’s to represent Rockwell Collins, the company he spent his entire career in. Every kid wants to hang out with their dad, so around the age of 9 or 10 I started begging to go just to get some time with him. Once thing led to another, and 25 years later we’ve gone nearly every year together. I developed a close relationship with my dad there and also gained a love for airplanes. I’ve since earned a private pilot’s license and discovered that the only thing more expensive than hot rodding muscle cars is flying!
This year we’re changing things up a bit and will be taking 2 of my 3 kids along. I’m looking forward to seeing the kids reaction to everything! My super-responsible 5-year old daughter Emily will get the chance to fly RC airplanes, make rockets out of wood, and draw and read about airplanes to her hearts content. As for my holy-terror 2 1/2 year-old son Dallas….well, I’m hoping just to bring him home in one piece. He loves cool cars, so I’m assuming the cool airplanes will buy some of his attention. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll just end up chasing him for 2 days around an airfield.
So why did I title this post, Muscle Cars and Airplanes? Simple. EAA and Ford have had a long-standing relationship, and for the past few years EAA has auctioned off a special Mustang to raise funds for their Young Eagles Program, which is a program to encourage youth to take airplane rides and get the bug of flying. This year’s giveaway car is a Blue Angeles themed 2012 Supercharged Mustang GT and is a nod to the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation. Mustang chief nameplate engineer Dave Pericak, design manager Melvin Betancourt and Mustang chief designer Darrell Behmer all had a hand in the special design. I’ve always thought that fighter jets are the muscle cars of the sky, so I guess this confirms it!
I’ll include a little video of the car below. Have a great week – I’m off for fun and sun!
Robert Kibbe
