Crouched down, Thaliya Martinez fidgeted with her camera lens, preparing for a day of photographing aircraft at Chicago’s annual Air & Water Show. Martinez, a freelance photographer and member of the Army National Guard, said she aspires to be a pilot one day.
“(Flying) is just so fascinating,” said Martinez, who came to the show for the second time ever. “Because it just proves that anything is possible.”
The 2025 Chicago Air & Water Show took off Saturday morning with organizers expecting over 1 million attendees throughout the weekend. Known as the biggest event of its kind in the country, the show drew locals and visitors alike to Chicago’s lakefront beaches.
The show featured the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights, both military groups that have performed in the show since the 1960s. A host of other military and civilian performers from the Marines, Coast Guard, Chicago Fire Department and Chicago Police Department also took to the skies.
For Armen Tatevosian, a pilot who served in the Air Force, the show’s performers did an amazing job executing their routines, even as some cloud cover swept along the beaches in the afternoon.
“Just the skill that these guys have are amazing,” he said.
Tatevosian has come to the Air & Water Show for more than 20 years, and said the more technologically advanced aircraft have been “awesome” to see. He attended Saturday’s show with his wife and son. The Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and Thunderbirds were some of the Tatevosian family’s favorite parts, he and his wife said.
More Top Picks Snowboard
The air show also brought spectators from around the globe. Adrian Webster, an aviation photographer from the United Kingdom, flew to Chicago Thursday to take pictures of the performances during the weekend.
Webster said air shows in Europe often don’t allow aircraft to fly beyond a certain display line in the water. At Chicago’s show, pilots frequently dipped close to the city’s skyline, which he said was a “completely different dynamic.”
“I’ve watched God-knows-how-much stuff online about U.S. air shows,” Webster said. “Really wanted to go to one, so here I am.”
Webster said he was most excited to photograph the B-2 Lancer, adding he hoped “the aviation gods are on my side today.”
Win Win, a data engineer who lives in the Wicker Park neighborhood, biked down to the Air & Water Show with less than an hour left in Saturday’s schedule. He was able to catch the Thunderbirds’ performance.
“It just mind-blows me that humans can … do these mind-blowing tricks with airplanes at high speeds — just like that,” Win said, gesturing to the Thunderbirds splitting off into all different directions overhead.
He said he’s “for sure” returning to the show next year. The “precision” action during some routines, like two planes flying so close they look like they’re about to touch, were some of the highlights of the show.
Martinez is a few years out from earning the certifications she needs to become a pilot, she said. As a Black woman, she’s excited to enter a field in which people like her are underrepresented, she added. According to Sisters of the Skies, a pilots association, less than 1% of professional pilots in the U.S. are Black women.
Saturday’s show was one more way to increase her familiarity with aviation photography and flight itself, Martinez said.
“I’m looking to get some better shots, new angles,” she said.
The show continues Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.