The Black Daggers, the jump team of the U.S. Army Special Command, leap over Quonset State Airport in North Kingstown yesterday.

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The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

NORTH KINGSTOWN — On Friday morning, four guys drove 125 miles from a Massachusetts town near the New Hampshire border down to Quonset Point.

Friends for nearly 25 years, Scotty Hayden, Lee Hills, Costa Bozicas and Charles “Chickie” Harris tailgated in the parking lot all day watching practice for the 2008 Rhode Island National Guard Air Show, which wraps up today at Quonset State Airport.

After roughly 10 hours, the guys drove home Friday night.

Yesterday, they were back in Quonset.

Rising at 4 a.m. from their beds in Pepperell, Mass., the foursome hit the road an hour later and rolled into North Kingstown by 7 a.m.

“We ate at the Breakfast Nook [in North Kingstown yesterday morning]. We go there every year, the waitress knows us. We had hash and eggs. Homemade hash,” said Hayden, 60, who has been going to air shows since he was a youngster.

“I’m an Army brat,” he said.

Coming to Quonset is a ritual they started about 20 years ago. (The Guard has run the show since 1992, but air shows at Quonset date to 1958.)

The group also attends about five other air shows a year around the country, including one at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine.

“It’s like the night before the first day of school,” said Hills of his anticipation for the shows. “At the end of the year, we have withdrawal.”

As far as the friends were concerned, they had seen a full show during Friday’s practice and planned only to leave the parking area where they were tailgating yesterday for the fighter jet performances.

“What we like better than anything is the high performance planes, like the F-16s,” Hayden said. The four commented on the loud noise the planes make, especially the AV/8B Harrier jet, which takes off vertically, like a helicopter.

While Hayden and his buddies toasted and tailgated, people thronged the annual air show, with organizers estimating a crowd of about 52,000. If the weather holds up, organizers say, they expect about 65,000 more today.

Visitors savored sights of the majestic fighter jets — some gracefully swooping like birds and others taking off in a roar — including the featured act, the British Red Arrows, the aerobatics team of Britain’s Royal Air Force.

Spectators also enjoyed the dazzling aerobatics of Scott D. Tucker, who flew the custom-built Oracle Challenge, and did a few loop-de-loops with his son, Eric William Tucker, flying alongside in a traditional stunt plane.

People sat in colorful beach chairs that crowded the steamy concrete, with a few smart planners setting up umbrellas to block the penetrating sun. Dozens of vendors in kiosks, children’s amusements, climbing walls and jets on display also filled the airport’s open yard.

And though it was not yet the Fourth of July, there was a spirit of patriotism among many attendees. Whether it was their first air show or 20th, many said they came not just because of the spectacular planes, but because of the men and women soldiers who typically fly in those planes and others in the armed forces.

“We need to appreciate the National Guard and what they do for us. They’re the guys that wear the flight jackets,” said Manuel Andrade, 57, a firefighter from New Bedford. “We are enjoying the freedom that we have because someone is giving up part of theirs.”

Joseph Farias III, of Fall River, who ate a picnic lunch with his family in the parking lot, said he comes because “I’m proud to be an American.”

His father, Joseph Farias Jr., said coming to the air show takes him back to his days at Norton Air Base in California.

“I washed aircraft. I went to Vietnam. Seeing this with my family on a beautiful day is wonderful,” he said.

His wife, Ruth, agreed and added, “It’s just the feeling I get when I hear the noise” and feel the ground vibrate.

Hayden and his friends liked the noise, too.

“We call it the sound of freedom,” he said, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era.

lsparks@projo.com