announced yesterday.

The crowd-pulling American Bermudian Friendship Festival and Airshow has been scrapped because not enough military planes are available.

Military top brass have ruled that only a third of flight demonstration teams can be civilian. This makes the shows good publicity and recruiting events, they say.

But Bermuda's base has only three military aircraft, and demand for visiting demonstration teams is intense.

"These aircrafts are tightly scheduled throughout the year, and competition amongst bases to obtain these specialised crews is high,'' said US Naval Air Station spokeswoman Ens. Marie McGahan.

"Because of the expense and danger involved in overseas airshows the Navy considered the cost to outweigh benefit in committing its aircraft to air shows overseas.''