Bill Williamson was at home in Lakeland, Fla., on the afternoon of March 31, 2011, when the phone rang. It was a friend calling to tell him that his airplane, a Thorp S-18 that was parked at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport as part of the SUN ’n FUN Fly-In, was one of the casualties of the […]
The time of her life
Type “women’s pilot watch” into an Internet search engine. Chances are high that the first — and possibly only — company name that pops up will be The Abingdon Co. And that’s just fine with 28-year-old Chelsea Abingdon Welch, the company’s founder. “I knew from about the age of 14 that I wanted a […]
Snakes on a (vintage) plane
There are certain traditions at airshows. For example, AirVenture is not complete for me until I see Ron Johnson’s 1941 PT-22. Although it’s technically a Warbird, Johnson, who hails from Rockford, Ill., parks in the Vintage Area — and places toy rubber snakes on the wings of his airplane. According to Johnson, the snakes are […]
The family Cub
“They look like a field of buttercups,” is how one visitor to AirVenture 2012 described the sea of J-3 Cubs parked in the vintage area of Oshkosh. This year is the 75th anniversary of the popular Piper airplane and as part of the celebration Cubs arrived in droves at the big show, one after another […]
The other side of Summit
Picture this: 80 airplanes, more than 400 booths, and hours of seminars in beautiful Palm Springs, Calif. That pretty much sums up this year’s Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Aviation Summit. In the more than 10 years I have been working at General Aviation News, I have been to the annual event many times as […]
Tom Schad’s signature look
It’s not unusual to see a leather A2 flight jacket at AirVenture, but when it comes to a unique A2, Tom Schad of Gainesville, Texas, may have the granddaddy of them all. Schad is the proud owner of a customized A2 that bears the signatures of some of the most famous names in aviation. According […]
The origin of White Lightning
One of the best parts about interviewing someone about their airplane is that after the story is published, someone who has additional information about the airframe will often send a note. After his Ercoupe “White Lightning” was featured in General Aviation News, Kevin Gassert from Cincinnati, Ohio, was lucky enough to hear from Mark Hardin, […]
Airship Ventures folds
On Nov. 14 Airship Ventures, operator of the world’s largest passenger airship, announced it was ceasing operations immediately. Airship Ventures, founded in 2007, brought a Zeppelin NT (“New Technology”) airship to the USA for flight-seeing, science missions, media and advertising operations. Since 2008 the airship Eureka operated out of Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, Calif. The […]
The ever-popular Swift
When it comes to aircraft production, timing is critical. The history of general aviation is replete with designs that had the misfortune of being introduced at the beginning of the Depression or World War II, and then being lost to a nose-diving economy or a change in resource allocation. If it was a good design, […]