Fresh out of a 7-year restoration in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, this sub-killing PBY Catalina is my pick for the most beautiful warbird of EAA AirVenture 2026:
(Also a very welcome sight in 1945 for sailors from the USS Indianapolis who were abandoned to exposure in the Pacific Ocean.)
The 35,000+ lb. plane belongs to the American Heritage Museum in Maskachusetts (their press release), but will live for a year at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh. Some details on the plane’s history:
Credit to the folks in New Smyra Beach, Florida who handled the 7-year restoration:
In other seaplane news, as soon as we got to the EAA Seaplane Base, a 30,000+ lb. Grumman Albatross flew over our heads and splashed down. A bit later, a Grumman Mallard took off and then did a fly-by:
We encountered the plane on wheels a few hours later, back at KOSH, and the owner invited our boys to climb up into the cockpit and then down through a tunnel into the bow:
Any other fun warbirds? A Boeing B-52 in Boeing Plaza next to the Boeing pavilion:
A couple of B-1s flew by. Some additional aggression, but apparently not enough to stave off surrender to the Islamic Republic of Iran:
The A-26 Invader and Al Franken:
EAA AirVenture also has some hardware related to potential civil war. Suppose, for example, that Ayatollah Mamdani’s Red Guards come to your house to arrest you for being part of the bourgeoisie. You might be able to flee down I-95 in the $465,000 BEC Defense Renegade APC, built on a Ford F-600 4×4 chassis:
It’s perfect for “family protection”:
If you prefer speed to armor, Piper is ready with a Corvette:
(Parked in front of the “Fury” makes sense since anyone in South Florida would be furious that this isn’t at least a Z06 version. 495 horsepower is insufficient for the trip to Publix.)
Just don’t try to flee the Mamdani Caliphate in a Joby. As in previous years, they showed up with something that does everything except fly:
Fond memories of living in a cheap apartment underneath B-1s and B-52s (Big Ugly Fat Fella, old as the hills even then) on final, dishes rattling. I remember touring a B-52 and discussing with a loads engineer the trials and tribulations of a re-engining, in 2000, coming real-soon-now in 2033 — with the Rolls-Royce of engines, F130-200 (?). The amount of technical knowledge knowledge keeping those birds flying is amazing, some structural engineers spending decades specializing on a couple of wing ribs.
Made a peace loving hippy sleep well at night (sans landings) knowing my country had superior air power. ☮ After pulling the plug on the Internet yesterday, I fixed a sticking mouse wheel and finished coding a lexical grammar that had been vexing me. There really is too much else to do in life than navel gaze politics, but I like these types of posts, Phil. If Arnold can still drive, the Sport Apocalypse Vehicle might suit his style.
The Joby VTOL took some demo flights around San Francisco & NY back in March, burning a lot of battery power on unretractable landing gear.