Where the Desert Meets Aviation History: Yuma and the Return of the Airshow

MCAS Yuma (February 9, 2026) - With the Yuma Airshow just weeks away, anticipation is building as historic and modern aircraft prepare to return to the desert skies. This year’s event will feature the dramatic TORA! TORA! TORA! reenactment performance, along with several historic aircraft from the Commemorative Air Force’s Southern California Wing on static display, giving visitors a close-up look at living aviation history.

In parts of the American Southwest, aviation history is inseparable from the landscape, and nowhere is that more evident than in Yuma, Arizona. Long before modern airshows filled the skies with aerobatic demonstrations, aircraft regularly flew over the Colorado River valley. During World War II, Yuma Army Air Field became a major training center where thousands of Army Air Forces pilots learned gunnery, navigation, and formation flying before deploying overseas.

Many of the aircraft types that once trained in these skies, including trainers, fighters, and bombers, are the same kinds of aircraft audiences still see at airshows today. When vintage aircraft return to Yuma, they are not simply visiting; they are returning to one of the places where their wartime stories began.

Today the region is home to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, one of the nation’s busiest aviation training installations, and the annual airshow reflects both past and present. Modern tactical aircraft demonstrate today’s capabilities while historic warbirds remind spectators how earlier generations of aviators trained over the same desert ranges.

As the airshow approaches, excitement continues to grow, not only for the performances, but for the opportunity to witness aviation history rising once again over the same desert landscape that helped shape it. https://www.yumaairshow.com/ March 14, 2026