Sun ‘n Fun is back in Lakeland, and if you’ve never been, there’s nothing quite like pulling into Lakeland Linder International Airport and watching the flightline come into view. Hundreds of aircraft, thousands of enthusiasts, and a week’s worth of flying that kicks off the North American airshow season every spring. This is the 52nd annual Aerospace Expo, and whether you’re a first-timer or a regular, here’s what we’re keeping our eyes on this year.
The Military Demonstration Lineup
The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds are the headliner, but they’re far from the whole story. This year’s military presence is one of the stronger lineups Sun ‘n Fun has put together, the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team, the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet Demo Team, and the C-17 Globemaster III are all separate acts, each bringing something completely different to the sky. Watching an F-22 pull vertical and disappear into the clouds is one thing. Watching a C-17 do what a plane that size has no business doing is something else entirely. The Thunderbirds close it out, but don’t show up late thinking you’ve already seen the best of it.
The Composite Airshow — Wednesday Evening
This one is new for 2026 and worth understanding before you show up Wednesday. What used to be a split program, a daytime show ending around 5:00 PM and a separate night show later in the evening, has been combined into a single continuous performance starting at 5:00 PM and running through 9:30 PM. The idea is simple and it works: you spend the full day on the grounds, then settle in and watch the sky go from afternoon light to dusk to full dark without ever breaking the experience. The transition from daylight aerobatics into illuminated night flying with pyrotechnics, all in one sitting, is genuinely different from anything a standard airshow format delivers. Get your position early, this is the show of the week.
NASA’s Super Guppy
This year’s featured aircraft is the Super Guppy, and if you’ve never seen one in person, set aside whatever you’re doing and go find it on the ramp. Built to carry oversized NASA cargo, rocket components, spacecraft sections, things that simply don’t fit inside a conventional fuselage, the Super Guppy looks like something that shouldn’t be able to fly. The nose swings open on a hinge to load cargo, the fuselage is wider than it is tall, and the whole machine carries the kind of purposeful strangeness that only comes from engineering something to do a job nobody else was willing to figure out. It photographs unlike anything else at the show.
The Heritage Flight — P-51 and F-22
If there’s one moment this week that belongs on your memory card before anything else, it’s the Heritage Flight pairing a P-51 Mustang with the F-22 Raptor. Eighty years of American air superiority, separated by a few feet of Florida sky. The contrast is the point; fabric and aluminum versus composite stealth, a Merlin engine versus a pair of F119 turbofans, and when they come down the flightline together it’s the kind of image that doesn’t need a caption. Don’t miss it.
The Warbird Ramp
The airshow is what brings people to Lakeland, but the Warbird Ramp is what keeps them there. Row after row of flyable history: fighters, bombers, trainers, transports; parked close enough to walk up and actually look at. You can spend an entire morning here before the first performer takes the runway and not feel like you’ve wasted a minute. It’s also where the best conversations happen. The people standing next to these aircraft usually have a story to go with them, and more often than not they’re willing to tell it. Slow down, look closely, and don’t be in a rush to leave.
Sun ‘n Fun 2026 runs through Sunday, April 19th at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Lakeland, Florida. We’ll have full coverage from the show right here next week.
