For one brief warm summer week at the end of July, the aviation world largely put aside its commiserations about the sad state of the general aviation industry and celebrated creative new designs, fabulously restored antiques, innovative electronics, talented designers, pilots and builders and everything aeronautical. From honoring the U.S. Navy’s centennial of flight to welcoming the world’s largest experimental airplane–Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner–EAA AirVenture Oshkosh at Wittman Regional Airport in Wisconsin was the place to be for 541,000 visitors (up 1.3 percent from last year), more than 10,000 airplanes (at Wittman and local airports) and 803 exhibitors (also up from last year, by 26). Of the 2,522 showplanes, 974 were homebuilts, 899 vintage, 367 warbirds, 94 ultralights, 92 seaplanes, 36 aerobatic, 30 rotorcraft and 30 miscellaneous. A highlight of this year’s show was the tribute to legendary designer Burt Rutan, including a display of many of his key airplane designs on AeroShell Square.
While there were plenty of new product announcements at AirVenture, notably lacking this year were any significant new non-homebuilt aircraft programs. And many stalwart, fund-raising, wannabe future airframers didn’t even show up this year. One attendee suggested that this is a worrisome trend, signaling the likelihood of few, if any, new programs to come in the next decade.
