Weirdest things we’ve seen at Oshkosh

by philg

Moving on to Omaha tomorrow morning so it is time to reflect a bit on the strangest things that we’ve seen here at Oshkosh:



  • A twin-engine Russian amphibian that sits with its wings in the water.  $650,000.
  • A hovercraft that can rise 4′ out of the water and fly on stubby wings (no ailerons, just rudder and elevator).
  • An enormous cargo jet that can carry enormous jets (or at least parts thereof).
  • A 1939 Sikorsky S-38 painted in an African jungle print just like the plane in the book I Married Adventure (the story of Martin and Osa Johnson)
  • A fabric-covered, wooden-winged 1937 biplane powered by an enormous piston engine and… a jet engine.
  • Aerobatic champion Sean Tucker, who regularly pulls 10Gs, noting that he was afraid to fly in the clouds and took United Airlines rather than fly IFR
  • Lines outside the men’s showerhouse but never the women’s

That’s all the news from Lake Winnebago…

7 thoughts on “Weirdest things we’ve seen at Oshkosh”

  2. Sean Tucker is amazing. When we went a few years ago, he had just taken helicopter lessons and was demonstrating his plane suspending in air (no vertical, horizontal or lateral).

    So are you camping out on the field or renting a home nearby?

  3. Jim: I’m camping out in the Hilton Garden Inn in Omaha, Nebraska right now, en route to San Francisco. At Oshkosh Joris (my helicopter instructor) and I were camped next to N505WT at the north edge of the field, a few rows from the Hilton Garden Inn Oshkosh (Conrad Hilton came in mid-week in his jet, which he parked right in front of the hotel).

  4. neat photos did you see this hovercraft fly? Flew in from 3w2 today ifr most of the way broke out in light rain at 3000 to 8g7 should put 3w2 on your return ticket
    a bit of history for you there perry’s monument famous sea battle of the war of 1812

    dave c

  5. Were you in the R44 parked in the South 40 — perhaps row 550? Rainbow paint job?

  6. Did you notice that the A300-600ST had tiny little (comparatively speaking) tires? Sure it hauls big loads, but they’re aircraft parts. They can’t weigh a lot.

    Sat in the DA-40 at the Diamond booth. Now all I have to do is figure out how to buy one!

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