Award-winning Sound of Speed Air Show ready to dazzle St. Joseph

By Cameron Montemayor

The clock for the 2024 Sound of Speed Air Show is counting down fast as anticipation builds for another edition of the award-winning show this September in St. Joseph.

Event organizers like Rosecrans Airport Manager Julius Rice and Lute Atieh spent much of Thursday morning at Rosecrans Memorial Airport hashing out some of the finer details of the highly-anticipated event.

“We’re now definitely in the hot zone with less than 45 days to go to show time,” Rice said. “All the big stuff’s planned and now it’s just all those little details.”

Thousands of onlookers will be treated to a weekend display of aerial acrobatics, aircraft demonstrations and fighter jet performances, among many other activities, on Sept. 14 and 15, the first in St. Joseph since the 2021 air show won Military Air Show of the Year.

Rice said this year’s event could see nearly 80,000 in attendance over the course of the weekend, with a dynamic group of U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds headlining the event.

“We’ve also got Tora! Tora! Tora!, which is full of pyrotechnics, eight airplanes in the sky buzzing around at the same time doing a World War II reenactment. We’ve got a capabilities demo with the local 139th and other military units,” Rice said. “So performer wise, three huge acts that we’re looking at, plus all the other ones, they’re all great acts.”

Gates will be open to the general public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The main show is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. All displays, vendors and experiences will be open at 10 a.m.

This year’s event will see several new components. Organizers are charting an all new flight path over St. Joseph for incoming aircraft on Thursday, Sept. 12. The new path is designed to boost local excitement and give more people across the city a chance to see the skilled pilots in action.

“What’s also brand new this year that we’ve never done before is we have an entire STEM pavilion area that’s focused specifically on STEM, which is a elementary through high school age kids robotics competition organization. And so we’ve got kids that will be coming out, bringing their competition robots and kind of doing a show off,” Rice said.

Rice said the air show is just as much about inspiring and strengthening future generations of aviation enthusiasts as it is about putting on a one-of-a-kind air show.

“So it’s all about getting that smile on those kids faces and getting them excited about aviation and get them to keep coming back,” he said.

Also at the air show will be the famed B-29 Doc offering ground and cockpit tours as well as a B-29 Doc Flight Experience. The superfortress aircraft will arrive at Rosecrans Memorial Airport on Thursday and will have flights available throughout weekend, both before and after the air show each day.

A variety of new sponsors are on board to help take this year’s event to new heights. Organizers are motivated to not only continue holding premier aviation events like the air show, but also boost tourism for the city at the same time.

“We want to keep striving and doing what we can to improve each and every show and just make it better and better and hopefully keep bringing in those awards to St. Joe and put us on the map, not just for air shows and stuff, but when people come to the air show, they come and see our community and they come and see our city,” he said. 

Admission for the event is free, but limited premium parking will be available for the first time this year. 

“We want to put on a great show. And part of that is finding alternate ways to gain a little bit of extra revenue,” he said. “The most expensive parking pass right now is $30, and then the mid-grade one is $15.”

Rice encourages people to view their new air show website at stjairshow.com to find information about the event, parking maps and other resources.