Sun N Fun twenty twenty-six at Lakeland Linder and the week that turns central Florida into the capital of general aviation

Sun N Fun 2026 is in full swing at Lakeland Linder International Airport, and the expo is delivering exactly what makes it one of general aviation’s most important annual gatherings. From a Commemorative Air Force B-25 Mitchell drawing crowds on the warbird ramp to a homebuilt SubSonex jet turning heads on the flightline, this year’s event reinforces why Lakeland in April is where the flying season truly begins.

Why Sun N Fun Is Not Just “the Other Oshkosh”

Oshkosh gets the name recognition, but Sun N Fun fills a fundamentally different role in the aviation calendar. EAA AirVenture is July. Sun N Fun is April. That timing matters. Every manufacturer, kit builder, avionics company, and startup with a prototype brings their products to Lakeland first. Hardware and technology that won’t appear at Oshkosh for another three months shows up here as a debut.

The Sun N Fun organization owns and operates the Lakeland facility year-round. This is not a temporary event on borrowed airport land. The campus includes permanent buildings, hangars, and an aerospace center with a museum. When the expo arrives each spring, it expands outward from that core and the entire airport transforms — vendor tents along the flightline, fly-in camping packed with everything from pup tents under Cherokee wings to full-size RVs parked beside polished show planes.

What’s on the Exhibit Floor in 2026

The exhibit halls are dense with vendors and live demonstrations. Highlights from the floor include a new angle-of-attack indicator being demoed live, custom leather headset bags, and the product drawing the biggest crowd: a portable carbon monoxide detector that clips to your headset for $49. Pilots are snapping them up. CO scares are common enough in GA that a small, affordable detector addresses a real safety gap.

The Warbird Ramp: B-25 Devil Dog Steals the Show

The warbird area is stacked this year. Nine T-6 Texans lined up in a row — yellow and silver, Navy blue, Royal Canadian Air Force markings. The sound of a T-6’s radial engine catching and settling into its rumble is something felt as much as heard.

But the undisputed star is the Commemorative Air Force B-25 Mitchell “Devil Dog.” She ferried in from Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, in two days with fuel stops in El Paso and Tallahassee. The numbers tell the story of warbird operations: cruise speed around 160 knots, fuel burn around 170 gallons per hour. The fuel bill for the cross-country ferry was, according to crew chief Marcus, “painful but worth it.”

Marcus has volunteered with the CAF for 11 years. His reason is personal — his grandfather flew 32 B-25 missions in the Pacific and never spoke about it. Marcus found out only after his grandfather passed. “Every time I start that left engine, I think about my grandfather doing the same thing eighty-some years ago,” he said. “That’s why we do this.”

Homebuilts: From Garage-Built RV-7s to a Personal Jet

The Van’s Aircraft section alone is enormous — RV-7s, RV-8s, RV-10s, RV-14s in every color scheme imaginable. Dale from Sarasota built his RV-7 in a two-car garage over four years and approximately 2,800 hours of build time. He’s already ordering the wing kit for an RV-10.

The showstopper in the homebuilt area is a SubSonex personal jet built by Christine from Orlando. The SubSonex looks like a fighter jet scaled to 70 percent — single seat, with a PBS TJ-100 engine mounted on top of the fuselage behind the cockpit. It produces 247 pounds of thrust and cruises at roughly 200 knots at 12,000 feet. It fits in a standard T-hangar. When asked about insurance costs, Christine laughed and changed the subject.

Airshow Highlights: Matt Chapman and a Heritage Pass Worth Remembering

The afternoon airshow opened with a four-ship T-6 Texan formation at roughly 200 feet AGL over show center. That deep, rolling thunder from four radial engines in diamond formation is the kind of experience that gets people cheering no matter how many times they’ve seen it.

Matt Chapman followed in his Extra 330, delivering roughly 12 minutes of precision aerobatics — Lomcevaks, tumbling passes, knife-edge runs the full length of the box. His torque rolls, where the airplane stops in the sky and pivots on the propeller, drew stunned silence from the crowd.

The emotional high point was a solo heritage pass by a Grumman TBM Avenger in full Navy blue paint. Low, slow, maybe 120 knots, the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial at song. As it crossed show center, the announcer read the names of three local World War II veterans who had served as torpedo bomber crews in the Pacific. Two sat in the front row in wheelchairs. The Avenger waggled its wings. Both men raised their hands in salute.

The Night Airshow

The night airshow at Sun N Fun is a standalone reason to attend. Aerobatic aircraft fly routines with LED lights outlining the wings and fuselage, turning the sky into a light painting. Pyrotechnics and fireworks are synchronized to the flying. It runs roughly 20 minutes and it is unlike anything else on the airshow circuit.

The People Make It

At breakfast in the Sunset Cafe — on the field, tables packed by 6:30 a.m. — a family from Georgia stood out. They flew down in a Cirrus SR22 with their two kids, ages eight and ten. Second year in a row. The eight-year-old wants to be an astronaut. The ten-year-old wants to build airplanes. Mom is working on her private pilot certificate. The expo runs on this energy — families, builders, veterans, volunteers — as much as it runs on avgas.

Planning Your Visit

Sun N Fun 2026 runs through Sunday. If you’re flying in, review the NOTAMs for temporary flight restrictions carefully. Arrival and departure procedures are specific to the event and published on the Sun N Fun website. Review them thoroughly before going anywhere near Lakeland’s airspace.

Key Takeaways

Sun N Fun is where the GA season begins — manufacturers and builders debut products here months before Oshkosh
The CAF B-25 “Devil Dog” headlined the warbird ramp, burning 170 gallons per hour to ferry cross-country from Arizona
Matt Chapman’s Extra 330 performance and a TBM Avenger heritage pass for WWII veterans defined the airshow
Homebuilt highlights include a garage-built RV-7 (2,800 hours) and a SubSonex personal jet cruising at 200 knots
Check NOTAMs and published arrival procedures before flying into Lakeland’s airspace during the event