The EAA AirVenture Cup Race will continue racing in 2013 with the full support and involvement of the Experimental Aircraft Association. Race volunteers and EAA Chairman Jack Pelton met earlier this year to coordinate details of the race and establish guidelines for the EAA event. Race officials are still determining the course for this year’s […]
AirVenture
Second night air show added at AirVenture
A second night air show will be added to the line up at this summer’s EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Night air shows will be held Wednesday, July 31, and Saturday, Aug. 3. “The additional night show is being scheduled this year in response to those EAA members and AirVenture attendees who said they missed this phenomenal […]
The Warbird Cub
The 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub was celebrated during AirVenture 2012. The vintage parking area looked like a field of buttercups for all the little yellow airplanes parked in the grass. But what was a J-3 Cub doing parked on the showcase pad in the Warbird area? “That J-3 is an honest-to-goodness Warbird,” grinned […]
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 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, […]
The “Miss Muffet” Stearman
Stripes and spiders — not a combination most people would think of when designing a paint scheme for a vintage airplane, but that’s exactly what Merrill and MaDonna McMahan of Wausau, Wis., decided to do when they painted their 1941 Stearman. The red, white and blue airplane sports small black spiders and the name “Miss […]
Estelle Wingster: A vintage airplane with a modern message
In 1953 Ken Miller of Van Nuys, Calif., was a college student. He went to the airport with two friends and met a man who was giving rides in his Cessna 150. “The guy said he would take each of us up for $10 a piece,” Miller recalled. “I had $20 in my pocket. The […]
Technically speaking…
The quest to find some answers at Oshkosh In my last post, I had the gall to be less than positive about things at the Oshkosh airshow. I was surprised at the positive feedback about similar experiences. However, our publisher, Ben Sclair commented that to see Oshkosh through the eyes of a new aviation enthusiast […]