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Page Felini was a good kid when she attended high school in West Chester Twp. The 1995 Lakota High School grad went on to the University of Virginia, but now she's running with a fast crowd — and we mean supersonic.

Now a U.S. lieutenant and aviator, Felini is the first female pilot on the Navy's East Coast Super Hornet team, and will be at the controls of an F/A-18 Super Hornet at the Vectren Dayton Air Show. It's sort of a family tradition — her brother, Paul Felini, who graduated from Lakota in 1993, is also a Super Hornet pilot.

Page Felini is part of a schedule of events that include flying demonstrations by the Air Force's F-22 Raptor fighter and C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane, the Navy's F-18 Super Hornet fighter and the Army's Apache helicopter. The Marine Corps is to provide one of its V-22 Ospreys, a helicopter-airplane hybrid, for a ground display.

The July 19-20 event at Dayton International Airport will feature attack aircraft from across the brawny spectrum of the Defense Department's portfolio.

Topping the previous year's Dayton Air Show is never easy, especially after 34 years of the show's existence.

It was an even bigger challenge this year, coming off the 2007 celebration of the United States Air Force's 60th anniversary.

"We had our work cut out for us," said Brenda Kerfoot, general manager of the show.

Getting the radar-evading F-22 to Dayton in time for the show will be an accomplishment in itself. The Air Force plans to fly the plane to England to appear for the July 14 opening of the Farnborough International Air Show. Plane and pilot are to make a quick return to their home base at Langley Air Force Base, Va., before coming to Dayton, Kerfoot said.

This year's show also includes an aerobatics performance by stunt pilot Sean D. Tucker and a combined "Heritage Flight" appearance of the F-22 Raptor, F-16 Fighting Falcon and the P-51 Mustang, which gained fame in World War II. Tucker is to be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton on the night of July 19, after the first day of the air show.

CONTACT this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@coxohio.com.

Staff Writer Mike Wallace contributed to this story.