Oshkosh 2009

On 24 August Norm Jones and I headed out for the annual Experimental Aircraft Association fly in and convention at Oshkosh Wisconsin. This years trip would incorporate a visit to Rich Carlstadt's shop in Green Bay http://neme-s.org/Rich_Carlstadt_2009/rich_carlstadt.htm , a trip to Cedar Creek Michigan to ride on the White Creek RR and a stop at the Tod Foundation in Youngstown, Ohio to view progress on the building of the museum around the great Tod engine.

Added 13 August 2009: Photos from Norm Jones

These new sculptures mark the main entrance to the airshow.

Airbus 380 arriving at Oshkosh

This A380 from Airbus is the first flying example and has no seats. It is fully instrumented for flight testing. Norm waited about an hour and twenty minutes to get a walk through the aircraft.

A place to sit and rest for a few moments has always been in short supply on the airport. These cast concrete benches are being donated to the EAA. 100 were in place for this year's show with more to come.

a. b. Formerly the Sikorsky Sky Crane now the Erickson Air Crane. Considered one of the best aerial fire fighters. Photo a is the left side water pickup and is used when hovering, the suction pump can fill the 2000 gallon tank in less than a minute. Photos b is the right side ram pick up and is used whe the aircraft is moving forward. Again the tank can be filled in less than a minute.

One of the very few flying examples of the Lancaster bomber

Canadian F4U Corsair

White Knight 2 arriving at Oshkosh

This is the White Knight 2. It is built by Scaled Composites in conjunction with Virgin Atlantic to convey passengers into space for short sub orbital flights.