By John Ostrem, EAA Chapter 54
THE FIRST AIR SHOW GOT OFF TO A SLOW START
In 1953, over 70 years ago, 40 airplanes and 150 people attended the Milwaukee Air Pageant organized by an unknown pilot and plane builder named Paul Poberezny. From those meager beginnings the air show has grown into the world’s largest, lasting a wonderful action packed week in Wisconsin. It actually moved a couple times before settling into Whittman Field in Oshkosh. It is known worldwide and has become the largest airshow in the world.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE
Well, to successfully run an airshow of this magnitude, you need 172 Air Traffic Controllers helping to land an airplane every 12 seconds on a two runway1,500 acre airport. You need 6,000 volunteers donating 250,000 hours supporting 40,000 daily visitors from 98 countries. Many love to camp so you need 15,000 campsites at Camp Scholler serving 33,000 campers with services, showers, grocery stores, and security. To get the word out nearly 1,000 news reporters are on site. Plus you need the technology to be able to compete 24 million social media contacts for information, registration and scheduling.
OH THE PLANES !
The stars of the show are 11,000 aircraft with 2,846 show planes, 1,000 vintage antiques, 975 home built, 337 Warbirds, 154 ultralights, 82 acrobatic planes, 65 sea planes, 23 rotorcraft, and even 10 balloons. That is a lot of fuel, mechanical support, and parking, And consider organizing 1,600 forums and presentations so builders and enthusiasts can actually learn about aviation and specifically their aircraft. Of course airplanes need fuel and the FBO delivers 220,000 gallons during the show to keep things moving. That’s a lot of gas!
$ THE FINANCIAL IMPACT $
For comparison, the economic impact in the Wisconsin Fox Valley of the NFL Football Green Bay Packers is about $150 million for the entire football season. But Air Venture’s impact in the same area is $170 million in the seven day show. Actually not sure if there is another show or trade fair that rivals the AirVenture show. For example the largest consumer electronics show in Law Vegas only has 170,000 visitors, compared to the AirVenture’s 700,000.
VENDORS - VENDORS - VENDORS
There are over 1,000 vendors supporting the aviation needs of pilots, owners, and mechanics. They include every manufacturer of aircraft like Piper, Cessna, Cirrus, Beechcraft plus all the others, and large parts sellers like Aircraft Spruce, flight navigation and Electronic Flight Boards like Adventure Pilot iFly EFB, engine makers including Continental, and Lycoming, and just about every other aviation support product you can imagine. It really is the “Candy Store” for everything aviation with over 20 buildings dedicated to aviation support. It takes a couple days to work your way through all the buildings !
RELAX AND ENJOY THE SHOW
Next July 21-27 are the dates for the 2025 Air Venture show and many Beacon readers and Chapter 54 members will attend as usual. It will be a busy and enjoyable week for sure. The EAA organization will again be up to the task of greeting 700,000 visitors and making it a great success. The goal of AirVenture is to make it seem easy like a “Duck swimming in a calm lake.” Things look pretty smooth on the surface but there is really a lot going on down below !
