The sky over Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport will be abuzz this weekend with “war birds” and some of the nation’s top aerobatics performers during the biannual Southern Heritage Air Show and Fly-In.

The show begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday with a twilight air show, said Steve See, who is helping organize the event.

“If you haven’t been to a twilight air show it’s quite a treat to see,” See said.

On Saturday, gates at the airport open at 9 a.m., and flying begins about 11:30 a.m. with nearly a dozen performances scheduled, See said. The show is expected to draw as many as 8,000 spectators, he said.

“There’s a lot of events we are competing with in the area, but it’s a great day to bring the whole family out and spend the day in the fall weather and see some excellent aerobatics performances,” he said.

Performers Saturday include the AeroShell Aerobatic Team that uses North American AT-6 Texan, which was first used by the U.S. military in 1935.

“We have a heavy euphemisms on ex-military aircraft, which we call ‘war birds,’ but we also have civilian aircraft,” See said. “We’ve got probably four civilian aircraft and high-performance aerobatics and a couple of formations routines.”

Civilian aircraft aerobatics performers include Corkey Fornof, who is famous for flying a microjet through a closing hanger door in the 1983 James Bond film “Octopussy,” and Jason Newburg of the Viper Air Show Team.

“Every performer we’ve invited to participate has a unique take on aerobatics, so you won’t get bored watching the show,” See said.

The air show began in 2004 as an annual event, but soon switched to the current biannual format, he said.

“It’s so much work to put one of these on, and we didn’t want to burn the customer base out by having a show every year,” he said.

Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport is north of U.S. 80 on Louisiana 602 about 20 miles west of Vicksburg.