Thunder over Michigan returns with sold-out drive-in airshow featuring Blue Angels, Thunderbirds - MLive.com

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YPSILANTI, MI – The skies above Willow Run Airport came alive Saturday with the roaring engines of military aircraft both old and new.

Thunder over Michigan - the state’s largest airshow - hosted a sold-out crowd of drive-in guests for both morning and afternoon shows. The new format replaced the usual walk-in show, which was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the first time in state history, both the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration teams performed at the same show.

The Blue Angels headlined the morning show with their new FA-18 Super Hornet aircraft, which replaced the smaller “legacy” Hornet aircraft for the 2021 season.

The new planes are about 30 percent larger and more powerful than their predecessors, leading to a show that Blue Angels Narrator Lt. Julius Bratton called “a little more in-your-face.”

The U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II demonstration team and the country’s largest collection of B-25 Mitchell aircraft - some manufactured at the airport when it served as a bomber plant - rounded out the morning show.

The afternoon show featured the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the A-10 Thunderbolt II demonstration team. Both shows featured a U.S. Navy legacy flight where an EA-18G Growler jet aircraft and Vought F4U-4 Corsair carrier-based fighter soared overhead in formation, each plane on the opposite end of 70 years of innovation in aircraft design.

Visitors stood atop their cars and in truck beds, milled about on the taxiway and enjoyed food from vendors, music and narration as the show continued overhead.

Two more shows are scheduled for Sunday - as of Saturday evening, tickets to the morning show are sold out, but those for the afternoon show are still available.