It Was Quite A Week At Oshkosh

This week was the week aviation enthusiasts look forward to: "Oshkosh." More specifically and correctly, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009. It's the annual convention of the Experimental Aircraft Association and, it turns out, the world's largest aviation event.

How large? Here are some off-the-top-of-my-head numbers:

• Attendance: 750,000
• Airplanes: 12,000
• Campground area: more than 100 acres
• Camping rigs: thousands
• Campground population: ??? (Maybe 10,000?)

Some of the folks attending, you've no doubt heard of: Harrison Ford, Sir Richard Branson, Randy Babbit the FAA Administrator, Dick (flew the Voyager around the world non-stop, non-refueled) and brother Burt (designed and built the Voyager) Rutan.

Other notables attending were Pat Williams and Tom Carl. And, yes, I was there too! Out of the last 38 years, there are probably only five which I've missed. (Dianne remained home to man the fires there.)

Tom is Vice Chairman of Safety for the Convention so has a pickup with a flashing yellow light and a sticker on the windshield which permits him full reign of the airport. Pat and I enjoyed an extensive tour of the site with Tom, which we really appreciated. The picture below show us as we completed the tour.


Personal high points of the week were viewing the arrival and flight demonstration of White Knight Two, also known as Virgin Mother Ship Eve, after Sir Richard's mother. This White Night will carry Space Ship Two above 50,000 feet where it will be detached from the mother ship, light its rocket engine, and soar into space with six or eight paying passengers.

After a few minutes of enjoying the great view from well above 100,000 feet, it will glide back to earth for a normal landing.


White Knight Two is designed to make up to four such launches in a day. It is also capable of facilitating the launch of satellites at much, much, less cost than the system currently used.

The project is funded by Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records fame. (Well, they're famous in the UK.) He is truly a forward thinker.

The Airbus A-380 was also there. It's the worlds largest airliner and is normally configured to carry about 550 passenger. Seventeen are now in service.