I’ve attended and photographed The Dayton Air Show before it’s one of the best air shows in the country and right in my backyard.  What I didn’t realize until recently is that it’s been 16 years since I last attended and photographed The Dayton Airshow.  I was rocking a Canon 5D Mark II at the time.  This time, I’d have the Canon R5 Mark II, EF 100-400, and a EF 1.4 extender for good measure.

Once I realized just how long it had been, I started looking at my ticket options.  Thankfully, the Air Show is now held quite a bit earlier in the year – the 2026 show was held June 13th & 14th.  Years ago when I attended, it was held later in July…and was miserably hot.  I probably would have made back to the show sooner had I realized it was being held earlier in the season.

I decided to spring for Blue Sky Chalet ticks – the highest price chalet ticket the show offers.  Hindsight is 20/20 – I would have gotten better photos from flight line ticket options.  Next year, I’ll get Skyview Lounge tickets.  But the Blue Sky Chalet tickets I got this year were quite nice – great parking with shuttle buses that take you right to the chalets – no waiting for the gates to open for standard ticket holders.

Once I arrived I decided to check out out the static aircraft displays while I waited for the first scheduled performance to begin.  The main attraction here was the massive C-5 Super Galaxy – the largest plane in the US military inventory:

After taking in the static aircraft displays I headed back to the chalet for the first performance by the Army Golden Knights:

The plane I was most interested in photographing was the legendary F-22 Raptor.  I’ve been to several air shows and seemed to always miss the F-22 performing:

Here’s the rest of the planes that I photographed that day:

As I’ve seen the Blue Angels before and photographed them a couple of times, I left early and beat the rush.

As usual, I really enjoyed the show – Hopefully the Thunderbirds will be at the show next year as I would really enjoy photographing them.  And yes, I am planning on attending next year and will make sure I don’t have another 16 year gap between visits.

Here’s my vlog detailing the gear that I brought with me to the event and my experience: