November 13 -- Airventure at Oshkosh

I left Chicago early in the morning in order to make it to the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Airventure Museum in Oshkosh, and then on my Aunt Marion’s place in Eau Clair, Wisconsin before too late. Take a look at the beautiful Windy City Sunrise from the bedroom of Ann’s apartment.

The night before, coming back from dinner in Evanston, I got a parking spot that no one else could fit into. Going back out to the car in the early morning, I was reminded of the practicality of driving a Mini in the city . . .



It was a beautiful, sunny drive: first, I-94 past Kenosha up to Milwaukee, where the highway passes the Harley Davidson headquarters and a large Mercury Marine facility. After Milwaukee, I took Rt. 41 toward Fond du Lac and Green Bay. As the road wound up toward Oshkosh, there was some wonderful Wisconsin farmland to see.
The EAA Aviation Center is the site each summer of one of the country’s great air shows. The museum is a gorgeous new building, with several big halls featuring historical aircraft as well as modern ones. It calls itself a “living museum.”


One of the most fascinating exhibits is a replica of the first aircraft designed to fly commercial passengers up into space, Spaceship One. The exhibit is accompanied by an action footage-packed video in which the test pilot who first took it up into space recalls the flight. As the video plays, the aircraft fins and tail move up and down as they did during the real flight.

A real highlight is the Eagle Hanger, which houses a collection of WWII aircraft, many of them in flyable condition.

These include a Spitfire, the best British fighter of the war – this example saw combat; a Mustang, the best American fighter of the war; a B-25, the twin engine bomber that Jimmy Doolittle flew off an aircraft carrier to lead a daring, early-war raid on Tokyo. There were also great examples of the DeHavilland Mosquito, a famous British wooden fighter-bomber and a P-51 Lightning, among others. The EAA’s best known plane, a B-17 Flying Fortress, which was one of the most famous bombers of WWII, was out on tour.

My favorite in the whole museum was a blue Bugatti sport racing plane. It was built on the second floor of a furniture factory in Paris in 1938 – 1940.
Because of its advanced design, the not-yet-complete plane was hidden in the barn in the French countryside when the German armies approached Paris. The beautiful plane never took flight and remained in the barn for 30 years before being sold to an American auto enthusiast. It came to the EAA, where it was restored, in the late 1990’s. Had someone told me that this was a 2007 design, and currently one of the most advanced in the world, I wouldn’t have doubted it.