FlightBlogger Archive 2007-2012

Oshkosh 2009: A final EAA roundup

Written by

Jon Ostrower

in

oshkosh_header2009.jpg

KOSHoverview.jpgWell, EAA 2009 has drawn to a close. My annual trip to Oshkosh has again proven to be my favorite regularly scheduled week at work every year. The reasons for this are captured in this week’s comment from Flight International. Needless to say, the last several months have been a tough one for the industry, but the sentiment of the editorial voice of Flight has struck a different tone for this week. Also, the final batch of my photographs from the past week have been uploaded. Final tally: 183.

A toast to Oshkosh
Flight International
4-10 August 2009

Airlines in loss.
Military and civil programmes under threat. Business aviation in
disgrace and aerospace manufacturing suffering cancelled orders,
plunging revenues and redundancies. Sometimes it takes an event like
AirVenture in Oshkosh to remind us that aviation – at its grass roots – is all about liberation, innovation and the sheer joy of flying.

General
aviation is not immune to the economic downturn, as flying schools and
small charter operators struggle and even leisure pilots fly less and
put off purchases. But – while the world’s best-attended air show in
the unassuming Wisconsin city has its hard business edge – most of the
visitors are there to indulge their passion for flying and marvel in
the latest attempt to stretch the boundaries of aerospace technology.

This
year’s stars of the show were the A380 – still a rare sight in the US
Midwest – and Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnight Two: the mothership that
will carry the first tourist spaceship towards the edge of the Earth’s
atmosphere.

The lack of scepticism with which Oshkosh
greets such technological marvels is refreshing to those of us used to
– rightly – scrutinising the commercial case for new products, whether
they be superjumbo airliners or very light jets. AirVenture is not a
business show in the strict sense. Few attending the event will be
stumping up the $200,000 needed for a trip in Sir Richard Branson’s
spaceship. Few are likely to have travelled on the A380 from the two
North American airports its operators serve. The most active vendors
are those offering hats and hot dogs.

However, with more than half a million visitors, Oshkosh
is the perfect platform to create a buzz for a product, which is why
entrepreneurs such as Branson rate it so highly and why the A380 shows
up among the micro­lights, aerobatic trainers and pistons.

Executives
do not have to deal with probing questions from financial journalists.
Most of the scribes there are enthusiasts themselves. They are not
under pressure to reveal reasons for delays to programmes. Market
shares, capital outlays and risk are concepts for another day.

In a cynical age, Oshkosh worships innovators in the way that 100 years ago the Bleriots and Wrights were hailed as heroes. So this week, Flight International – amid our pages of news analysis and hard-edged scrutiny of our industry – joins in that enthusiasm and toasts the spirit of Oshkosh.

Now a final news round up:

Photo Credit Lee Karas

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

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