Airshow Redux without the burn

Saturday I visited the largest and most expensive ($35 to get in with parking) air show that I have ever been to. The Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) airshow, Airventure, is a week-long event held every year at their headquarters in Oshkosh, WI. At a regular air show most of the display is military or civic aircraft with a smattering of personal planes and some other aviation-related displays. At the Airventure (website) private aircraft take center stage with military and civic aviation as fillers. The event goes beyond seeing aircraft to having a large variety of workshops, a speakers' series and numerous booths with vendors from aviation-related industries and aircraft manufacturers. It is a full-blooded aviation enthusiast's heaven.

I had initially planned to go see a few of the speakers (Dick Rutan--first pilot to fly around the world on a single tank of gas, and Chuck Yeager--first man to fly past the speed of sound) but was not able to roust myself early enough to get there to see them speak. When I got there I was lucky to arrive just in time to catch a spot in the last parking lot that was within walking distance of the show. There were plates from all over the country in the parking lot and I heard folks with accents from other places in the world walking around the show. I was disappointed in the map of the show that I got in the program I purchased because it did not show where the planes I sought were parked. The Force, however, was with me and I was able to figure it out without directions. First, I visited the Warbird display area (retired military aircraft in private ownership--mainly WWII fighters) which was nifty. There were several planes for sale with price tags including a 1950's vintage British jet fighter for $35,000. From here I went to the main display area.

I should mention that I had two very concrete reasons to go to the show and both were on display and did flying demonstrations: the Global Flyer (recently became the first jet aircraft flown around the world on a single tank of gas with a single pilot--Steve Fossett--an Eagle Scout) and White Knight with SpaceShip One (part of a recent rant). For both aircraft, this was to be the only public static and flying display especially for SpaceShip One which departed Sunday for its new home at the Air and Space museum in DC. These planes drew large crowds at their area. I was a bit jealous of the kids because they were invited to actually touch and look inside these planes whereas the adults had to content themselves with looking at them from across the roped off line. I knew that both aircraft would be on display, but I did not know that I would get to see both in flight for flying displays. They look very fragile but are amazingly graceful in flight and were awesome to watch.

Besides the Warbirds and Rutan's two planes, the military had a good display and I saw my future personal airplane, the Beechcraft Starship. The flying demonstration was very cool. It started with the Global Flyer departure followed by some Warbird displays including a mock attack complete with pyrotechnics. After this, the jet Warbirds got into the act with some high speed flybys. Then the White Knight took to the air with SpaceShip One in a captive carry and did several flybys narrated over the PA system by its designer Burt Rutan (company website) with his insights into its flying characteristics and a promise that it would be in regular operation with passengers by decade's end. Awesome. The Harrier demo that followed couldn't quite compare even though it was pretty neat. I did not stay for the acrobatic demonstrations.

It was well worth the time and money to go and I am looking forward to going next year. It may even be worth taking time off to spend a couple of days there going to the speakers forums. I took 99 pictures that day, a sampling of which can be found here. Taking pictures of planes in flight is tough. I think I need a better camera and more practice to get some really neat shots. For the record, I did not get burned this time, the sunscreen did its job.