When the FourLeaf Air Show moves to July 4 weekend for America’s 250th birthday, some of the oldest aircraft in the sky will carry more than engine noise over Jones Beach.
The American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, N.Y., is preparing to fly a formation of World War II-era warbirds during the 2026 FourLeaf Air Show at Jones Beach in Nassau County, adding a living-history element to a weekend already tied to the nation’s semiquincentennial.
The show, scheduled for July 5 and 6, will be headlined by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and will include other military and international performers, according to the show’s website. The American Airpower Museum’s own air show schedule lists its participation in the FourLeaf Jones Beach Air Show from July 3 to 6, calling it a celebration of America’s 250th.
For retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Clyman, the museum’s director of operations, the aircraft are not museum props. They are still flying links to the people who built, maintained and flew them.
“Being a warbird pilot and custodian is a tremendous honor, yet also a responsibility,” Clyman told Military.com. “As these are ‘vintage aircraft,’ some nearing 90 years old, it is a passion to preserve and protect these national treasures.”
Clyman said the museum is the custodian of nearly 20 aircraft from World War II to the modern era, with about 10 still flying. Its flying aircraft include a C-47, B-25, P-40, P-51, AT-28D, AT-6s, a Waco UPF-7 and Cold War-era L-39 jets.
The museum also displays Republic Aviation aircraft built on the grounds of what is now Republic Airport, including the F-84, F-105 and A-10.
What Onlookers Can Expect This Weekend
For this year’s air show, Clyman said the museum plans to fly about six World War II aircraft in formation, followed by an aerobatic and capabilities demonstration by either the P-40 or P-51, depending on the day.
“It will be a great display of some of the period’s most notable aircraft flown by both the U.S. and our allies that helped win WWII, and changed history and drove major advances in aviation technology,” Clyman said.
The American Airpower Museum is based at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, the former home of Republic Aviation, which produced military aircraft including the P-47 Thunderbolt during World War II and later jet aircraft during the Cold War.
The museum’s slogan is “Where History Flies,” and its mission depends heavily on keeping aircraft in motion rather than simply parked behind ropes.
How ‘Top Gun’ Started a Three-Decade Career
Clyman’s own path to the museum was aided by a strong family military history, which he took to as a young man.
He grew up in a family with World War II Army Air Forces veterans, a grandfather who was an Air Force civilian employee, and a mother who grew up as an “Air Force brat.” He also spent time around pilots from the New York and New Jersey aviation scene of the 1970s and 1980s, including World War II, Korean War and Vietnam-era Air Force and Navy pilots.
The American Airpower Museum’s Douglas C-47B “Skytrain,” known as “Second Chance,” flies in markings honoring the C-47s that carried paratroopers during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The museum says the aircraft was built in 1944, later served with the Royal Air Force, French Air Force and Israeli Air Force, and remains flyable today. (Image credit: American Airpower Museum, if confirmed.)
Then came the film Top Gun, which became a classic and simultaneously convinced individuals like Clyman to join the service.
“What really solidified it was seeing Top Gun at 13,” Clyman said. “It was then and there where I said, ‘I’m going to do that when I grow up.’”
Clyman joined Air Force ROTC as a college freshman. He went on to serve as an active-duty and Air Force Reserve F-16 pilot from 1996 until his retirement in 2024, flying for all but two years of his 28-year career.
He called flying the F-16 “a dream come true” and spent nearly 26 years flying the fighter, known among pilots as the Viper.
“Flying combat in Iraq and Afghanistan was one of the great highlights of my career, knowing we were there to support our soldiers and Marines on the ground with overwatch and close air support as needed to accomplish their mission and keep them safe,” he said.
Honoring a Fading Generation
Clyman’s background now feeds into the museum’s work preserving older aircraft. More specifically, the importance of flying warbirds is growing as the World War II generation disappears.
“The people who built and flew them will soon no longer be with us to tell their stories, but the airplanes will be here long after to carry on their legacy and keep their stories alive in a tangible way,” Clyman said.
The America250 setting adds another layer. Museums, military units, historic sites and government agencies across the country are preparing events tied to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The FourLeaf show’s move from its traditional Memorial Day weekend slot to July 4 weekend puts the Jones Beach event directly inside that national commemoration.
Clyman said events tied to America250 can remind the public how the country was built, where it has struggled, and how it has changed.
“Our evolution over 250 years as a nation includes learning from our mistakes along the way, and building unity upon common national values,” he said.
At Jones Beach, that history will arrive in a form visitors can hear before they fully see it: radial engines, formation passes, and aircraft that helped define the air war of the 20th century.
For Clyman, bringing the museum’s warbirds to a hometown crowd is part tribute, part aviation lesson, and part handoff.
“People today, and in the future, can and will be able to still maintain a direct connection to the legacy of those who changed a nation and world history,” he said.
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