Oshkosh By Gosh

We moved on to Oshkosh to tour the EAA AirVenture Museum and to visit with George & CeCe Donaldson, another couple we met at Betty's. The museum is dedicated to innovators in flight. There are displays on the Wright brothers, Lindbergh, Burt & Dick Rutan, air racing, WWII and even a section on model aircraft. The Pioneer Airport, an outdoor exhibit, has several hangers displaying older aircraft and other artifacts of early flight. We were here the week before the AirVenture Fly-in that will bring over a half million people and thousands of planes to Oshkosh. The fly-in will make Oshkosh the busiest airport in the country for a week.

A few stunt planes including the world's smallest, bottom left.
Aircraft in the main hall including a replica of the Wright Flyer.

Air Racers.

We have been to many aircraft museums and this is one of the best with most of the planes being built by private enthusiasts who just love flight and are not in it to make money.

This is the workshop of a person building his own plane. This was of special interest to me as I have an uncle who worked for years at building a glider in his basement.

The Eagle Hanger, dedicated to WWII aviation, has an interactive map that shows all the major air battles of the war. Some of the aircraft were out of the hanger for the fly-in. Bottom left is a P-38 and right a P-51. Middle is a painting from a WWII bomber named Sagittarius. The archer is our sign.

The exhibit covering the Rutan's had a few of the many planes they built including (left) Space Ship One, the first private craft to fly into space and return to Earth with people aboard. There was a special on Voyager (not pictured), the first plane to circumnavigate the world nonstop without refueling. We have seen the Voyager in the Air & Space Museum in DC.

They have a very good kids section that we both enjoyed. Top, Nanc and I are in front of a screen that shows how a heat seeking missile works. Bottom, Nanc pedals to turn the propeller to cool off and I try to grab the floating balls that demonstrate the weightlessness of space. There was no harm done to any children as WE had fun in this section.

Here we are at dinner with CeCe and George. We had a great evening catching up on their travels, including being in the tornadoes that hit Alabama this spring. We also learned a lot about the up coming AirVenture where they both are volunteers. We will have to make sure attending the fly-in is on our list of future travels.