After receiving a warm welcome last week, several rare World War II planes stopped back in Jefferson City on Sunday.
And the admirers returned as well.
John Scott headed out to the Jefferson City Memorial Airport after seeing four WWII planes fly a couple hundred feet over his home in Holts Summit.
"You don't get to see history like this every day in one place," he said. "And to watch them all take off and fly in formation is a really cool deal."
Scott, who comes from a family with a history of military service, said he's had an interest in planes since he was a child. He has served in the Missouri National Guard for 20 years and is still active.
"It makes you appreciate something like this," he said. "You don't get to see it every day."
The planes -- a Grumman F4F Wildcat, a Grumman F8F Bearcat, a Grumman F7F Tigercat and a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber -- stopped in Jefferson City on their way home to San Antonio, Texas, from the airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. A North American P-51 Mustang from Oshkosh was also at the airport earlier in the day.
The quick stop Sunday for lunch and to refuel mirrored the stop Lewis Air Legends made last week on their way to Oshkosh. Last time, the crew brought the Bearcat, B-25 Mitchell bomber and two Tigercats.
The Wildcat hadn't been with the group on their way up to Oshkosh. Lewis Air Legends left it in a museum in Wisconsin last year and were bringing it back in exchange for leaving one of the Tigercats.
"There was an event in Oshkosh, the big airshow, to have a flight of the cats," said Gordon Richardson, one of the pilots with Lewis Air Legends. "All the Grumman World War II planes were cats so we took a Wildcat, a Bearcat and a Tigercat. Very rare."
There are about five or six Tigercats and about 10-12 Bearcats in the U.S. that are still able to make flight, pilot Conrad Huffstutler said last week on the way up to the airshow.
Richardson said the crew stopped Sunday in Jefferson City because it enjoyed the first experience so much.
"We just really had a good time on Monday and everybody was nice, so we made it a stop on the way home," he said. "It's a beautiful town right on the river and a beautiful airport and really nice people, and it makes it fun."
Rod Lewis, owner of Lewis Air Legends and a pilot, said he had never visited Jefferson City prior to the initial stop to refuel, but was pleasantly surprised by the warm reception.
Rodney Mulvania of Linn said he saw the planes while driving Sunday to Columbia. He settled in at a bench at the airport in time to watch them take off.
Mulvania, a former aviation mechanics instructor at State Technical College of Missouri, goes to Oshkosh every year to see the planes and airshow, and last week was no exception.
"I've worked on airplanes like the big, round engine ones, so I like to hear the noise," he said.
"It's a big job to keep them going," he added, noting the planes were designed nearly 80 years ago.
After lunch and refueling, the WWII planes were back in the air on their way to Texas by 2 p.m.
Shaun Zimmerman / News Tribune photo: A Mitchell B-25 bomber from World War II, piloted by Averille Dawson lands at the Jefferson City Memorial Airport on Sunday, July 31, 2022, after participating in the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2022 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Shaun Zimmerman / News Tribune photo: Bernie Vasquez taxiis a Hawker Sea Fury onto the tarmac of the Jefferson City Memorial Airport Sunday, July 31, 2022, after flying in from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he participated in the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2022; he is returning to Texas.
Shaun Zimmerman / News Tribune photo: Conrad Huffstutler of Lewis Air Legends does some post-flight inspections on the Grumman Wildcat that he flew into Jefferson City Sunday, July 31, 2022, after participating in the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2022 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.