Come fly with me

Last Sunday afternoon we decided to take a ride down to Oshkosh to see the Experimental Aircraft Association Museum.  The organization has a number of chapters and members all over the country who are aviation enthusiasts and homebuilders of aircraft (and even spacecraft!).  The museum grounds are world-famous as the site of EAA Airventure Oshkosh each summer, "The World's Greatest Avian Celebration," where thousands of aircraft fly in for the airshows, commemorative events, camping, and festivities.  It's a pretty big deal- we've seen the backups on the interstate!

The EAA Museum was excellent- they had hundreds of aircraft on exhibit, many of which were homebuilds, including 2 exact replicas of both The Spirit of St. Louis (Charles Lindbergh's aircraft for his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927) and the Wright brothers aircraft from the first powered flight.  There also was a special exhibit in Eagle Hangar featuring a number of military planes, and quite a few of the "nose art" images that were featured on bombers during World War II. Unfortunately, most of the planes were scrapped after the war but someone had the foresight to cut out the artwork.  Most of them feature women and a nickname of sorts, although some are not PG-rated for the blog.

Experimental Aviation Association Museum

WWII Nose Art- most of the images featured scantily-clad women, some were pretty racy! 

 A replica of The Spirit of St. Louis, which Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris in 1927

Pioneer Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Elevation: 805 ft.

The museum also featured a number of experimental spacecraft (including SpaceShipOne), and a replica of the Voyager- the aircraft in which the first nonstop, non-refueled flight around the world was completed in 1986 in just 9 days. We took a tram out to the Pioneer Airport which featured even more aircraft in several hangars, and the opportunity to purchase your own ride in a small aircraft with an association member (kids 8-17 fly for free!). Unfortunately, it was too windy for flights the day we were there, but it must be pretty cool. Definitely a lot of history and hard work in building the diverse aircraft and detailed displays at the EAA Museum Oshkosh.

Space Ship One

Taking off from Pioneer Airport