Air Show in a Box
Everything a contracting officer and an open house project officer need to take an Air Force air show from a date on the calendar to signed awards.
New to this? Start here.
An air show is not one contract. It is twenty or more small buys that all have to land on the same weekend: acts, an Air Boss, sound, fuel, toilets, buses, fencing. Two things trip people up:
- Money. Some of it can only be bought with appropriated funds and some of it cannot be bought with appropriated funds at all.
- Time. A few dates are set by regulation and cannot be compressed, such as the FAA waiver.
YOUR SHOW Enter it once
Saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere. Every page in the suite reads these four fields.
The five steps
Plan the show
Your timeline with an owner on every line, the funding rules, and who does what. On this page.
STEP 2List the requirements
Every buy an air show needs, including the ones people forget. Who writes it, what money pays for it, what it costs.
STEP 3Call for acts
Ask the market who is available before anyone promises a performer a slot.
STEP 4Check acts and prices
Who flies what, what other bases paid, and whether the act has one source or several.
STEP 5Document and defend
Write the single-source file, then test it against the award record before a reviewer does.
Step 1: Your timeline
The manual plans on a nine to fifteen month cycle. That is the standard to aim for. If you have three to six months, the table below shows what is already behind and what still has room. Rows marked Fixed by regulation cannot be shortened locally.
| Standard date | What | Owner | Status |
|---|
Contracting lead time is not in the manual. Ask your contracting squadron how long a buy takes at each dollar level and back those dates off from the show. Step 2 builds that list.
Which money pays for what
This decides the rulebook before anything else. Appropriated fund buys follow the FAR. NAF and sponsorship buys follow DAFMAN 64-119, and the FAR does not apply to them. When in doubt, ask FM and FSS: the manual tells you to.
| Item | Funds allowed | What the manual adds |
|---|
Source: AFMAN 10-1004, Chapter 6 and Attachment 4 (Funding Source Guide). The attachment has 18 notes. Read the row and its notes in the publication before you commit funds.
Is it a warbird?
A warbird is a privately owned vintage military aircraft, or a likeness of one, that was used in a military conflict or is historically significant to military aviation. It can be U.S. or foreign. A civilian aerial act is different: it showcases piloting skill or entertains, and does not demonstrate military capability or history.
For any flying act this is the first question, because it decides the money. A warbird can be paid with appropriated funds. Any other civilian act cannot. The manual lists approved warbird types in Attachment 6, and the installation commander approves warbird participation.
Who does what
Wings may tailor the staff. These are the positions the manual describes and the ones a contracting officer deals with most.
| Position | What they own |
|---|
From requirement to award
The path for an appropriated fund buy under the simplified acquisition threshold, which is where almost every air show buy sits. Of air show awards on record, were at or under $350,000.
The references
Every citation in this suite links to one of these. Open the publication and read the paragraph before you rely on it. Publications change, and your MAJCOM or wing may have a supplement.
| Reference | What it covers for an air show |
|---|
Award figures come from USASpending.gov contract awards, FY2007 to FY2026, all DoD components. Solicitation examples come from SAM.gov contract opportunities. Regulation summaries are written from AFMAN 10-1004 (23 Aug 2018), DAFI 11-209 (20 May 2021), DAFMAN 64-119 (30 Aug 2023) and the RFO FAR model deviation text DoD adopted by class deviation. This is a planning aid. The publication controls.