Pent-up demand for meeting old friends, seeing the latest aviation technology, and hanging out under the wings of aerial behemoths and other flying machines made for perhaps the largest-ever EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The show, which will end this Sunday, has been a doozy by all measures.
With ticket sales exceeding 2019 levels, the number of aircraft that showed up put pressure on the parking volunteers who were trying to find space for all the arrivals last weekend. Well more than double the number of aircraft that arrived during the first three days of the last show in 2019 came during this year’s first three days. Aerial views of the show site at Wittman Regional Airport reveal an extremely busy venue, with half a dozen rather large airplanes on Boeing Plaza, including the DC-8 operated by charity Samaritan’s Purse, a UPS 747, a Boeing 737 Max, an Airbus A400M airlifter in Luftwaffe livery, a U.S. Air Force C-17, and the Orbis eye charity’s massive DC-10.
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
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