Kirks Pictures from OshKosh '97

The EAA's Oshkosh airshow has something for just about everyone. I've scanned in some of the pictures I took, concentrating on the ones I thought were nice shots, with a bias towards WWII aircraft or the unusual. This is a formation flight of (I think) AT-6's after they had passed the field. I liked the angle, allthough the resolution suffered in scanning this to a small size for the web. Despite how it looks like there will soon be 5 mid-airs, during the airshow they routinely fly a couple formations of 30-40 aircraft, plus several of 5-10, plus a few bombers, making for about a hundred or so WWII aircraft all in the air at once. Quite a sight! They do this for seven days straight. The pilots who fly these formations show up weeks before Oshkosh to practice.

	The airshow proper each day opens with a parachute jump. One of the parachutists comes down with this HUGE American flag, and a lady singing the national anthem tries to time it so the song ends right as he reaches the ground. (She's batting about .250)

	There was only one Jug this year. This P-47 looked monstrous next to its other fighter brethren. Seeing the size of the prop blades gives you respect for the amount of air that needed pushing around to get a P-47 flying.

	Something I really like about Corsairs is how their flaps droop when their hydrolic pressure bleeds down. (At least that's why I assume they droop like this.) This Corsair, one of 3 (I think) was so blue its almost black.

Oshkosh is the only place where I get (almost) bored looking at P-51 Mustangs. This row of 10 was matched by another on this day, the first day of Oshkosh. More arrived later on. Don't know of many other places where you can see 20-25 Ponies all at once!

The next 3 shots were actually taken at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base Museum in Dayton, Ohio. I'm sneaking them in as I think that people looking at this page may be interested.

	Quick question: Who built this aircraft? Answer at bottom of page.

	Near and dear to the hearts of most pilots of the game Air Warrior is the A-26. This fully decked out Vietnam era example left me DFD (Dry From Drooling.)

	In a corner of WPAFBM I found this WWII German Ju-88. I have never seen another one, anywhere.

Back to Oshkosh '97.

Speaking of bombers, here's a British Post-WWII design that was used operationally until the mid-80's, I heard. However, I've forgotten what it was called. (D'oh!) I'd appreciate it if someone would send me an email so I can refill this gap in my brain cells. PS, gotta love a plane with 4 sets of counter-rotating props. Update: I've heard it is a "Shackleton?" Any verifications?

Leading a contigent of modern Black aircraft was the B-2 Bomber. I was surprised at its being nearly silent during its fly-bys. Even when it hit the gas it wasn't noisy. Nice.

An F-117, the misnomered Stealth Fighter. This little arrowhead shaped plane still doesn't look like it should fly, but it does. Pretty cool.

This sight made the show for me this year. The SR-71 Blackbird made several passes and was even supposed to give us a sonic boom to commemorate the Air Forces 50th Anniversary. Sadly, it reported a fuel flow problem and had to go home. BTW, it flew non-stop from its base in Southern California to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Trip time was 1 hour. Not bad for a plane designed in the late 50's and first flown in the early 60's.

This is Linda Finch's Lockheed Vega, in which she just successfully completed Amelia Earhart's failed around the world flight. The aircraft is beautiful. Here's a place you can go to find out more about this plane, the flight, and the woman who inspired them.

Aircraft at Oshkosh aren't limited to the WWII era. Here's a Mig-15.

Lots of aerobatics to be seen at Oshkosh too. Here's the Northern Lights doing my favorite formation. They maintain these positions while flying the length (2 miles) of the airfield.

Want something from the earliest days of flight? How about this stone age ornithopter? Once a day this proud bird gets fired up and travels up and down the flight line with a lady daredevil performing a wingwalking routine. I wonder if its intrepid airman ever fires off a blast with that cannon? The wings flap and the engine somehow manages to keep running. Astounding! In continuing honesty, the guy who runs this thing also has a tent with models of various engine types, which he runs for the crowd about 3 times a day. He's got (I think) a replica of the Wright Brothers first engine, a Liberty, and a propane powered rotary. This last is a small model of the type used in early World War One aircraft, where all the cylinders rotated along with the propellor. Fascinating to watch.

I'll close with another formation shot. I never got around to scanning pictures of all the marvelous homebuilt aircraft, which are the real, core reason for Oshkosh. But that's just the thing about Oshkosh. You can never do it all, see it all, or even get a good feel for it's totality. Even the formations of warbirds seem to just keep going and going and going...