Posted on 08/01/2005 6:49:30 PM PDT by KevinDavis
At 3:00 PM on July 27, 2005, the past met the future in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I was standing in one of the huge grass parking lots of Wittman Field, the home of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture fly-in, when I looked up to see Burt Rutan’s White Knight aircraft doing a flyby carrying SpaceShipOne. As I watched, the carrier aircraft and its famous payload turned and climbed like the high performance combination it is. The piercing scream of the jet engines drew the attention of anyone who had not yet looked up. With Mike Melvill at the controls the huge crowd was thrilled. The 2005 EAA AirVenture convention was truly underway.
For those of you unfamiliar with the EAA and its annual show, a short history lesson is needed. In 1953 the EAA had its first fly-in back in 1953 in Milwaukee. The EAA was founded by Tom Poberezny, a former fighter pilot with combat experience in both World War 2 and Korea. The EAA was designed to be an organization for people interested in private general aviation. Each year his organization has steadily grown.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespacereview.com ...
I was there Saturday- WHAT a treat!! I am a big warbirds fan and my favorite was Glacier Girl (P38 Lightning.)
How was the crowd over at the event??
Humongous and very excited. Space ship one was quite the thing to see and I think that excited everyone the most, although for me it was the B17s flying over. :)
Cool...
I was at Oshkosh on Friday. Rutan and the rocket pilot were standing right next to Space Ship One and its carrier. Plus, Global Explorer was across the tarmac. The air show had the wonderful AeroShell team and several other great single acts. The fly overs had so many planes in the sky, it looked like a disturbed wasp nest.
Oshkosh is a great air show. Sun and Fun near Tampa is good too.
Oooh. Some day we will make it back to Oshkosh to AirVenture. Someday.....
I'm glad to hear it's still as exciting as it used to be.
The author has his names backwards. Paul is the father of Tom and the founder of EAA, not the other way around.
It's good that a fellow was there too.
Best place to stay is at the University of Wisconson Oshkosh dorms. You have to call about 10 months in advance or so...
I tried to get some rooms, but it seems to be filled up...
Tom Poberezny is the son of the founder, Paul H. Poberezny (who is still alive and well -- in slightly better shape than Tom -- Tom recently had a motorcycle smash from which he's still recovering and Paul only suffers from recent knee surgery which makes him uncomfortable in the Ford Mustang they want him to drive on the site).
Tom never was in the military that I recall. Don't get me wrong, he's a big supporter of those in uniform, but I'm pretty sure he didn't wear one himself.
Paul was a pilot and maintenance officer in the USAF. I don't believe he served overseas in either war, although he served in the Air Guard for many years -- maybe 30 years. During WWII he was at a training base for most or all of it. He would be the last man on Earth to exaggerate his military record.
The EAA is technically a non-profit, but the Poberezny family, especially Tom, are very well compensated.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I was privileged to be there all week. Unlike the poor (but happy) campers I stayed in a house offsite.
The Scaled team was very accessible. As Mike Melvill said, "come up and grab one of us by the sleeve," and people did, all week long. (Burt and Brian were back in Mojave for a day of two due to another project). They opened the ropes around SS1 every day and allowed children from ages 5 to 10 to come forward and put their hands on it. Who knows what one of those kids will do years from now? I don't know how many people have told me stories about the Spirit of St. Louis, which will hang alongside SS1 in the Milestones of Flight gallery at the NASM on the Mall in DC.
Saturday night, by coincidence, my organisation had dinner at the same place as the Scaled group. We had a drink in the bar with Dick Rutan and his wife beforehand but didn't think anything of it, but then after we were at our table we saw him come back in -- with Burt & Tonya, Mike Melvill and Sally, Brian Binnie, Doug Shane (I think), and a host of others.
While some of us knew some of them fairly well -- Burt has been coming to OSH since 1971 and hasn't missed one -- we let them dine in peace. The place was packed with EAAers, and EVERYONE ELSE DID TOO. There was a vestibule where I could see people coming in to our dining room, and in it there was a window facing in to where the Scaled group was. I would see people come up in singles or pairs, look in to see if that really WAS the Scaled gang, and go out. One group in another dining room was a shift of the FAA Oshkosh controller team, and I saw the shocking pink shirts all come, and look, and grin, and leave without bothering them.
When the X-Prize launches took place, the pilot was not announced until the machine taxied out, both times. The second time, a aviation-oriented media organisation learned through an inadvertent leak at Scaled who the pilot was, six hours in advance. The media outfit contacted Scaled, and they were asked not to publish for several reasons -- one of them being that Brian Binnie, like just about every member of the Scaled team, had a listed phone number.
The media guys, most of 'em EAA members, did not publish until five minutes before showtime (which they had explicit permission to do. But if they had been told not to publish till the announcement, they would have sat on the knowledge till the announcement). This was a big deal as those guys get money when one of their stories gets syndicated.
Sometimes the classiest thing you can do is leave somebody alone, or pass up the professional laurel when it's going to harm someone. Unfortunately I don't know many mediots that would do this. (Of course, if these guys had published the name, their bridges to Scaled would have been burned, burned, burned...)
Mike Melvill said that, coming in overhead (Monday) he had never seen so many people on opening day, and my impression was that the numbers were way, way, up. At the closing, Tom Poberezny said up 10%. I think they will stick with this schedule (Monday to Sunday). The Sunday closing day still brings in a lot of foot traffic, even though many of the show planes are gone and vendors are discreetly packing their stuff.
As for the future? The X-Prize cup isn't the half of it. I got to spend some time with Dr Peter Diamandis and a couple of other people. Wait till you see what's up in the spring of 2008.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
PS: White Knight is NOT going into the museum. It is committed to be the drop plane for NASA's X-37 project.
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