What were the highlights of EAA AirVenture 2023? Pick your passion.
Bittersweet end for the last B-17s in the Air Force
Radio-controlled B-17s were first used to bomb Germany, but after World War II, the Air Force found several other uses for the drones, known as QB-17, including taking radioactive samples, water ditching tests, and testing antiaircraft missiles.
A trip back in time
Re-enactors make history come truly alive for those attending — and participating at — EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
Moses Lake Air Show aims for visitors near and far
The 2023 Moses Lake Air Show had all the traditional elements of an air show: Snarling warbirds, modern jets, and vintage aircraft adorning the ramp at Grant County International Airport (KMWH) in Washington. But the show also had a decided eye to the future.
Max Biegert: Runways and railroads
While chatting with the folks working on B-17 firebombers at the Mesa, Arizona, airport on a brisk winter day in 1980, someone said I needed to meet Max Biegert, the man responsible for getting the B-17F registered N17W out of a city park in Arkansas and returning it to flight as a large sprayer and air tanker. That B-17 now holds a place of honor in the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Kinner’s bold Envoy design
A general aviation airplane ahead of its time.
World’s oldest Liberator is the CAF’s crown jewel
The Commemorative Air Force’s B-24 Diamond Lil has been flying more than 80 years. More than a half-century of that time has been under CAF stewardship. Lil has never looked better.
Hamilton Metalplane’s pedigree
There’s a reason the Hamilton Metalplane reminds you of a Ford Trimotor. The original Ford 3-AT Trimotor, as well as the Hamilton aircraft, were worked on by a young aircraft designer named James McDonnell — yes, that James McDonnell.
de Havilland’s diminutive Fox Moth
If front-line British warplanes advanced with the global state of the art from the 1930s into the postwar 1940s, some smaller utility aircraft remained delightfully unfazed by the eternal quest for speed or modernity. Such was the case with de Havilland’s diminutive Fox Moth biplane.