At the end of July every year, one of the greatest shows in aviation starts in Oshkosh, Wisconsin – EAA’s AirVenture. This year I was hoping to have my dad along in tow, but that just didn’t work out. Instead, I went up by myself for “Warbird Friday.” The weather had been somewhat cloudy and rainy during the week, but Friday was a gloriously beautiful day with very few clouds in the sky, bright sunshine and unlimited visibility. A great day to head to an airshow.
Since I was going on Warbird Friday, you can assume that I’m there primarily for the classic military aviation planes. You’d be right, and my favorites are the WWII aircraft. It is always a treat to see the B-25s, P-51 Mustangs, and all the other aircraft, but the excitement is seeing them fly. As part of this year’s show, the only flying B-29 in the world would be at this year AirVenture. FiFi (which I had seen the previous week at DuPage Airport would be flying in the Friday afternoon airshow. That was something I wanted to see, but little did I know I would have further surprises in store for me.
>In addition to the old warbirds, there are plenty of other aircraft to take a look at – commercial, current military, homebuilt, experimental, and other aircraft types. This year another star attraction besides FiFi was Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
I spent the day looking around at the aricraft, admiring the detail that the planes carries, many of them looking like they just fly a WWII sortie. I was awestruck by the attention that is given to these aircraft – not from a maintenance perspective because that’s a given – but from a reverence to pay homage to the machine and the men who flew them in combat. The further surprise came later in the day when I got to witness not only FiFi fly, but also an F4 Corsair and a P-38 Lightning. These planes had been at other AirVentures I have been to, but I never got to see either of these aircraft types fly before. It was an additional treat for the day.
Overall, I had a great day, as evidenced by the pictures below. If you have a chance to visit EAA’s AirVenture in the future, I would highly recommend it. Even if you don’t fly or have no interest in flying yourself, but have interest as an “aviation enthusiast” you will have a great day (or days as AirVenture is a week long event).
Enjoy the images below.
