“Look around — it’s a chance to look at American history,” said Oak Harbor resident L.D. Latta, one of thousands who attended Naval Air Station Whidbey’s public Centennial of Naval Aviation (CoNA) celebration July 29.

For Latta, his family and others who attended the event, it was a history and science lesson rolled into one, beginning with the Kids Zone activities set up in Haviland Hangar. There, the Flying Gizmos presentation sponsored by the Seattle Museum of Flight gave people a chance to fly everything from glider models to hot-air balloon mockups and learn a few principles of flight in the process. Predators of the Heart also entertained families with a unique display of animals, birds and reptiles.

Though the event was not billed as an air show, there was some of that, too. A legacy flight featuring an AD-1 Skyraider from Bellingham’s Heritage Flight Museum and an F/A-18 Hornet from NAS Lemoore gave an aerial, side-by-side demonstration of the “old” and the “new,” as the planes circled the sky together.

From full size demonstrations by NAS Whidbey’s Search and Rescue teams on both bases, to flight demonstrations on a smaller scale by the Whidbey Island Radio Control Society, there was plenty to please onlookers.

“This is the aviation community out here today,” said WIRCS president Chuck Bowers. “You could say this is our kind of crowd.”

Another unique aspect of the show was the aviation-themed quilt display, which captured the glories of naval aviation on fabric for everyone to see.

“Tales of Naval Aviation” was a big attraction at the event as well, as pilots, crew members and others gave the audience a taste of their real-life experiences. The accounts were both harrowing and humorous by turns, and featured speakers who ranged from retired Navy Cmdr. Harry Ferrier, Battle of Midway veteran, to “Flight of the Intruder” author Stephen Coonts.

While it will take another hundred years before we can celebrate the bicentennial of naval aviation, naval history lessons are never far away, thanks to the Naval History Center, housed at the PBY Memorial Foundation on Seaplane Base.

Rooms filled with artifacts and displays showcase the role played by naval aircraft in conflicts dating from WWII to the present. Three dioramas promised by the Navy will further help illustrate the unique history of the Seaplane Base.