The air show management team scheduled a press conference. It would be held in the Modern Flight Gallery of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Better yet, Sean D. Tucker, the air show's headline civilian act for 2008, would be there. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I asked the air show managers if we could announce our book as a part of the press conference — a small part. They agreed. Cool.

But the spirits would be restless.

The Vectren Dayton Air Show press conference took place Tuesday morning (1/29/08), right in front of the museum's new F-22A Raptor exhibit. It made a great backdrop for Air Show General Manager Brenda Kerfoot to announce the Air Force Raptor demo will be coming to the show on the July 19-20 weekend at Dayton International Airport.

Of course, Sean was a big part of the announcement. Not only will Sean fly his Oracle Challenger biplane at this year's show, he will be bringing his new team, the Collaborators Formation Aerobatic Team, with Ben Freelove, Bill Stein, and Sean's son Eric.

That wasn't all. On the same weekend, the National Aviation Hall of Fame will induct Sean into its prestigious ranks of enshrinees. He will join Patty Wagstaff, another living air show legend, who was inducted in 2004. This is personally exciting for me, because I think they are both the best of the best among air show performers. In our chapter on solo air show performers, Sean and Patty have a subchapter.

Sean will be inducted with three others: Retired Air Force Col. Col. Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson, World War II triple ace and experimental test pilot; Herbert D. Kelleher, co-founder, former CEO, and executive chairman of Southwest Airlines, and William A. Moffett, architect of naval military aviation.

Retired Air Force Col. Gerald K. "Robbie" Robinson, hall of fame chairman, got up to speak about this year's enshrinements, which take place at a black-tie gala described as the "Oscars night of aviation." That's when the museum's spirits seemed to get restless. One by one, the poster-size portraits of the enshrines started leaping off their easels, as if trying to fly. Every time Hall of Fame director Ron Kaplan or Air Show director Terry Grevious retrieved one, another would launch itself.

The culprit might have been the the museum's air ventillation system, which even stirred the Wright "B" Flyer hanging nearby, but it was more fun to assume ghosts were at play.

I felt a bit chagrined, though; the spirits didn't seem to think our book poster worth launching.

After the press conference, Ty Greenlees hauled Sean and me back to the Hall of Fame's learning center for group photos.

Tags: Dayton Air Show Book, air shows, Sean D. Tucker, Timothy R. Gaffney, Ty Greenlees