Loud booms and buzzing aircraft over Oxnard this weekend probably aren't cause for alarm — they're coming from the 45th Annual Wings Over Camarillo Air Show, running Saturday and Sunday at Camarillo Airport. The Oxnard Police Department issued a community notification ahead of the two-day event, urging residents who hear a mysterious roar or explosion to look toward Camarillo before dialing for help.
According to a notice posted by the Oxnard Police Department on Facebook, the airshow's lineup includes aerobatic performers, helicopters, jets, and military and vintage aircraft, alongside ground-based pyrotechnics that produce loud, explosion-like sounds. Because Oxnard sits directly west of Camarillo, the department says residents there may see and hear increased aerial activity tied to the show, with the noise capable of carrying well beyond the airport's immediate vicinity. Flight performances run from noon to roughly 4:30 p.m. both days, and the department's advisory notes the sound waves can travel for miles across the flat terrain of the Oxnard Plain, a phenomenon that routinely triggers emergency calls during the event.
A 90th Birthday for the DC-3 Takes Center Stage
This year's show carries the official theme “Celebrating 90 Years of the DC-3 – A Legend That Changed the World,” marking nine decades since the Douglas DC-3 first transformed commercial air travel and later served as a critical military transport during World War II, according to Ventura Breeze. The 2026 aerial schedule also features the U.S. Air Force Academy's Wings of Blue parachute team, the WWII C-53 transport “D-Day Doll” — an aircraft that actually flew in the 1944 Normandy invasion — and a water drop demonstration from a Ventura County Sheriff's HH-60L helicopter, per Ventura County Airports.
Camarillo actor Patrick Warburton, known for his role on Seinfeld and for voicing the pre-flight briefing on Disney's Soarin' Over California attraction, was named this year's Grand Marshal. The Moorpark Acorn reports the honor continues Warburton's family tie to local aviation, since his son completed flight training at Camarillo Airport.
Shelter Animals and Neighbors Get Advance Notice
Ahead of the show, Ventura County's Department of Airports coordinated with Ventura County Animal Services to help mitigate noise impacts on animals housed at nearby shelters, since the ground pyrotechnics simulating combat explosions during warbird flybys can be jarring for animals as well as people. It's the kind of behind-the-scenes planning that has grown alongside an event drawing more than 24,000 attendees annually, which now also includes a 200-vehicle classic car and motorcycle show and an interactive STEM Pavilion with drone flights and robotics exhibits.
The gathering has come a long way from its roots. Visit Camarillo notes the airshow began in 1980 as a small fly-in and pancake breakfast hosted by Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 723, back when the airport was still an unpaved airfield with minimal facilities. Organizers eventually shifted the event from its original Father's Day dates to August after early editions repeatedly ran into weather delays.
An Airport With Cold War Roots
Camarillo Airport's own history adds another layer to the weekend's vintage warbird displays. The airport opened in 1942 as a wartime flight strip before becoming Oxnard Air Force Base from 1951 to 1970, housing jet fighter interceptors assigned to West Coast air defense during the Cold War, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The base was deactivated in 1970 and deeded to Ventura County in 1976 — a transfer that came with local land-use agreements shortening the military runway from 8,000 to 6,013 feet and banning scheduled commercial airline service, as nearby residential developments had pushed for flight and noise restrictions during the negotiations, per Smithsonian Magazine.
As an all-volunteer 501(c)(3), the Camarillo Wings Association has funneled more than $815,300 in net event proceeds into local youth groups, STEM initiatives, and community service nonprofits since forming in 2010. Hundreds of local volunteers staff parking, entry gates, and flight line security each year to help raise those funds.
The weekend's festivities follow a February small plane crash near homes in the neighborhood behind Camarillo Airport that critically injured two people, a reminder of the ongoing aviation activity around the facility even outside airshow season. For this weekend, though, Oxnard police say the message is simple: if you hear a roar or a boom coming from the direction of Camarillo, it's likely the show overhead, not an emergency.
