Earthrounders mark historic moment

A flyover 80 years later commemorates the end of World War II

October 1, 2025 By Julie Summers Walker

Two intrepid pilots who are connected by friendship, accomplishment, and history marked an historic milestone, flying over the former U.S. Air Force base where more than 20,000 pilots trained for missions during World War II.

Wendover Air Force Base in the remote Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah was the training site of the epic August 1945 flights of the Enola Gay and Bockscar, which would drop nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war and killing more than 100,000 people on August 6 and 9.

Adrian Eichhorn and Shinji Maeda flew their 60-year-old Beechcraft Bonanzas in formation over the field on August 6, 2025, marking the eightieth anniversary of the bombing.

“It is history forgotten,” Eichhorn told CNN’s Pete Muntean on the day of their flight. “If this helps renew the interest to thank all the people involved in the war effort, that’s important.”

Eichhorn and Maeda have formed a friendship based on their mutual interests in aircraft, history, and successful attempts at circumnavigating the Earth in solo missions. Eichhorn flew his modified Bonanza around the word in 2016 and over the North Pole in 2021, and Maeda flew his Bonanza around the world in 2021. That Eichhorn is a retired U.S. Army veteran, and Maeda is a native of Japan has lent the shared flight over Wendover Field gravitas. And Eichhorn was a nuclear adviser to President Bill Clinton for four years.

“You could have asked anybody on the planet in 1945 when we dropped the first atomic bomb if Japan and the United States would someday become allies and I would argue that nobody would have said yes,” Eichhorn told Muntean. “The shock effect, the devastation of it—I still think it’s probably one of the most difficult decisions the United States ever had to make.”

“There are lots of wars on this planet,” Maeda added in their interview with Muntean. “The question is, why are we not learning from history?”

As they flew wing to wing over Wendover Field, a professional video team captured the moment. The two friends and pilots hope it becomes a metaphor for how far the relationship between the United States and Japan have come.

“It is the fellowship of airmen,” Eichhorn said. “We have a bond with each other.”

“He’s been my sensei, friend, and brother,” Maeda said. “That is the beauty of aviation. I am very proud of this relationship.”