Army Golden Knights to Perform Parachute Demo Over Hagerstown Airport at Aviation Expo

The U.S. Army parachute team, the Golden Knights, is scheduled to perform a demonstration over Hagerstown Regional Airport on Friday morning, Nov. 6, as part of the 20th annual Aviation Education & Career Expo hosted by the Rider Jet Center. The demonstration is set to begin at about 10 a.m., weather permitting, according to Rider Jet Center spokesperson Tom Riford. The team will board the plane around 9:30 a.m. Members of the public may watch from the Hagerstown Aviation Museum's parking lot at 18450 Showalter Road, museum Vice President Kurtis Meyers confirmed. The public is asked not to go to the Rider Jet Center, where no parking will be available because the center is hosting the expo. If the demo is canceled due to weather, an update is expected on the Rider Jet Center's Facebook page. National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Witt said that, as of Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 4, much of the rain was expected to fall east of the Hagerstown area at the time of the demo, with a 20% chance of rain.

The expo, described in an event release as the largest aviation career expo in the Mid-Atlantic, is expected to draw more than 1,300 high school and college students from across the region and the U.S. They will be able to engage with more than 65 aviation organizations, including universities, airlines, private aviation companies, and medical, military and law enforcement agencies. More than $280,000 in college scholarships is expected to be awarded, Riford said.

The Rider Jet Center is donating its hangar space for the expo, titled "Dreams with Wings." Julie O'Brien of Chantilly Air in Manassas, Virginia, is the expo's co-founder, and Paragon Aviation Group is also a partner. The expo has awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to date, including the David Rider Legacy Scholarship. The late David Rider founded the jet center in 2003 to serve pilots using Hagerstown Regional Airport.