If Paris is the Big Daddy of airshows–high-powered, straight-laced and eminently button-down–then Oshkosh is the Big Mamma, her arms open wide as the Wisconsin prairie, beckoning teeming masses of aviation enthusiasts to their spiritual home in the heartland of America. So what better place could there be than the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture to really kick off the centennial of the first manned, powered flight? To be sure, there have been other events this year celebrating the Wright brothers’ achievement at Kill Devil Hills on Dec. 17, 1903, and there will be more. But the two bicycle-building brothers from Dayton–the patron saints of aeronautical engineers everywhere–hold a special place in the very souls of experimental aircraft builders, for they, better than anyone else on the planet, really understand and appreciate what Orville and Wilbur had to do to build a machine that could actually fly.
So it was not at all surprising that the 51st AirVenture, held July 29 to August 4 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, was dedicated to the Wright brothers and the aviation legacy they have provided us all. Situated in AeroShell Square (the heart of the EAA AirVenture campus, though it still seems a long trek from just about everywhere else at Oshkosh), was the Countdown to Kitty Hawk pavilion. This touring exhibit includes, among other memorabilia, an exact flying reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer. At 10:35 a.m. this coming December 17, 100 years to the minute from the first powered flight, one lucky pilot will, weather permitting, recreate that flight at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, N.C.
At Oshkosh, the list of four Flyer pilots was whittled down to two: Dr. Kevin Kochersberger of Honeoye Falls, Va., a 1,400-hour pilot and associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Terry Queijo of Trappe, Md., an American Airlines 767 and 757 captain. Their backups are Ken Hyde, a 33-year veteran of American Airlines and long-time EAA member known for his award-winning restorations who, as president of the Wright Experience, led the effort to build the airplane, and Chris Johnson of Manassas, Va., another American Airlines pilot and a major in the Air Force Reserves.
