Mary Grady
Pleasant weather and some aircraft firsts helped last week’s EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh attract about 550,000 visitors, an attendance increase of about 2 percent, EAA said. “AirVenture 2015 exceeded our expectations on many levels,” Chairman Jack Pelton said in a statement Wednesday. “With near-perfect weather for the entire event, we filled Wittman Regional Airport and our convention site to capacity with aircraft, campers and cars by mid-week.” A rare flying de Havilland Mosquito, restored by a New Zealand company and now operated by the Military Aviation Museum of Virginia Beach, was among the show debuts, as was the B-52’s first-ever landing at the show.
EAA tallied 10,000-plus aircraft that landed at Wittman and nearby airports in east-central Wisconsin. On Thursday, Wittman saw its highest one-day number of aircraft arrivals and departures – about 3,100 movements – in at least three years. Showplane numbers rose 1 percent over 2014, with 2,668 total for all categories of aircraft. Commercial exhibitors topped 800, with 140 new ones this year, EAA said. Next year’s AirVenture is slated for July 25-31, 2016, and there are already some potential attractions EAA hopes to bring. “There were aircraft in process that couldn’t make it this year, including Burt Rutan’s new SkiGull and B-29 ‘Doc,’ that we hope will make an appearance next year,” Pelton said. “In addition, it’s the 30th anniversary of the iconic RV-6 design. We’d like to have a big reunion of these airplanes at Oshkosh.”
