Recently in AirVenture 2009 Category

I really should just say submitted without comment, but really, it deserves one. This is absolutely spectacular. It is the kind of video that just brings a massive smile to my face because it captures every single reason why I love aviation. I trust it will do the same for you. My hat's off to Slickhutto.

Well, EAA 2009 has drawn to a close. My annual trip to Oshkosh has again proven to be my favorite regularly scheduled week at work every year. The reasons for this are captured in this week's comment from Flight International. Needless to say, the last several months have been a tough one for the industry, but the sentiment of the editorial voice of Flight has struck a different tone for this week. Also, the final batch of my photographs from the past week have been uploaded. Final tally: 183.

A toast to Oshkosh
Flight International
4-10 August 2009

Airlines in loss. Military and civil programmes under threat. Business aviation in disgrace and aerospace manufacturing suffering cancelled orders, plunging revenues and redundancies. Sometimes it takes an event like AirVenture in Oshkosh to remind us that aviation - at its grass roots - is all about liberation, innovation and the sheer joy of flying.

General aviation is not immune to the economic downturn, as flying schools and small charter operators struggle and even leisure pilots fly less and put off purchases. But - while the world's best-attended air show in the unassuming Wisconsin city has its hard business edge - most of the visitors are there to indulge their passion for flying and marvel in the latest attempt to stretch the boundaries of aerospace technology.

This year's stars of the show were the A380 - still a rare sight in the US Midwest - and Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnight Two: the mothership that will carry the first tourist spaceship towards the edge of the Earth's atmosphere.

The lack of scepticism with which Oshkosh greets such technological marvels is refreshing to those of us used to - rightly - scrutinising the commercial case for new products, whether they be superjumbo airliners or very light jets. AirVenture is not a business show in the strict sense. Few attending the event will be stumping up the $200,000 needed for a trip in Sir Richard Branson's spaceship. Few are likely to have travelled on the A380 from the two North American airports its operators serve. The most active vendors are those offering hats and hot dogs.

However, with more than half a million visitors, Oshkosh is the perfect platform to create a buzz for a product, which is why entrepreneurs such as Branson rate it so highly and why the A380 shows up among the micro­lights, aerobatic trainers and pistons.

Executives do not have to deal with probing questions from financial journalists. Most of the scribes there are enthusiasts themselves. They are not under pressure to reveal reasons for delays to programmes. Market shares, capital outlays and risk are concepts for another day.

In a cynical age, Oshkosh worships innovators in the way that 100 years ago the Bleriots and Wrights were hailed as heroes. So this week, Flight International - amid our pages of news analysis and hard-edged scrutiny of our industry - joins in that enthusiasm and toasts the spirit of Oshkosh.

Now a final news round up:

• Avanti plans Latin American push
• Electric overtakes alternate fuels
• Virgin Galactic flies high at Oshkosh
• WhiteKnight Two rudder change confirmed
• Adam Aircraft under new ownership
• Honda poised to test-fly HondaJet
• Remos secures new investor, plans major US expansion
• Piper to offer Garmin G600 glass cockpit
• Cessna to begin SkyCatcher deliveries in 4Q
• VIDEO: Cirrus seriously considers splitting off jet programme
• Icon A5 first delivery pushed to 2011
• PICTURES: VIDEO: Hawker Beechcraft unveils new King Air model
• Piper lays down ambitious expansion plans
• VIDEOS: PiperJet makes air show debut

Photo Credit Lee Karas

Greetings from London! I'm all set up here for the week at Flight HQ and I've wrapped up my final Oshkosh EAA 2009 video for the show. When the A380 (MSN004) touched down at Oshkosh on Tueday, it was greeted with an extraordinary silence from the thousands of onlookers who had come from far and wide to see the superjumbo up close, most for the first time.

After it landed at Wittman Regional Airport, Flight was invited on board for a tour of the A380 by Claude LeLaie senior vice president of the flight division, who sat in the right seat during the challenging approach to Oshkosh. I filmed the tour with just my iPhone (voice overs too) and the result is a closer look inside the world's largest commercial aircraft.

My colleague, Stuart Clarke, also joined me on the aircraft and had a more proper video camera to capture the tour. There's only a little overlap between our two videos, so consider them companion guides to an A380 flight test aircraft.

Here's a whole new batch of photos from Oshkosh. The count is up to 143 and will absolutely grow again before the week is out. The slideshow starts off with the beginning of the gallery that began earlier this week, so feel free to scroll through the already familiar ones. There are more pictures of WhiteKnight Two than you can shake a stick at and plenty of the interior of MSN004 from yesterday's tour. I think THIS ONE might be one of my favorites of the week so far.

During my time aboard MSN004 this afternoon I had an impromptu interview with Airbus CEO Tom Enders who was on hand to greet the arrival of the A380 in Oshkosh. I asked Mr. Enders about future of the A380 amid the slumping economy, composite technology development on A350, lessons learned from 787, the pending WTO ruling, and the future of the A320 replacement and its potential structural material. You may notice that Mr. Enders calls the entry into service date for A350 2014, he corrected himself later saying that 2013 is still the planned date for first delivery to Qatar Airways for the A350-900.

The Airbus A380, the worlds largest commercial aircraft, touched down at Wittman Regional Airport for the first time EAA's AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI this afternoon at 3:15 PM CT.

MSN004 arrived in the skies over Oshkosh to perform a seven-minute flying display for the assembled crowd that showed off the aircraft's envelope protection and slow speed handling qualities.

The aircraft's landing on runway 36, which is 8,000 ft long, was made significantly more challenging as there is only one taxiway able to accommodate the A380 5,500 ft down the runway. Adding to the difficulty of the landing was a perpendicular (270 degrees) 14-knot crosswind gusting to 23 knots at the time of touchdown.

The challenging approach saw the A380, powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines, crabbing significantly on final approach to runway 36. ("Analysis" of the landing)

MSN004 will spend Tuesday through Thursday on static display on the ramp which is one foot wider than the 262-ft wingspan of the A380.

Monday at AirVenture was a busy one for us with briefings and announcements from aerospace manufacturers like Hawker Beechcraft and Cirrus, as well as the arrival of WhiteKnight Two here at Wittman Regional Airport. Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan were also on hand to greet the arrival of the composite mothership.

The worlds largest commercial airplane is on the ground in Wisconsin. MSN001 has made its first stop on its way to Wittman Regional Airport by way of Milwaukee. Having landed at around 2 PM CT today in Wisconsin, F-WWOW will spend the day at General Mitchell Airport for customs clearance and provide airport official a chance to get acquainted with the aircraft.

The A380's passengers, comprising about 30 crew and mechanics, will spend the night in Milwaukee for crew rest and final preparations for the arrival into Oskhosh. The A380 has had to jump through many hoops to pull off this event. Because Airbus isn't an airline, the A380 cannot transport non-essential staff or passengers between two airports. Many of the company's staff will drive between Milwaukee and Oshkosh as a result. On previous visits to the US when passengers have flown on the Airbus owned A380s, the flights always landed at the same airport the aircraft departed from.

Tuesday afternoon, F-WWOW will depart Milwaukee and will make the 69 NM trip north. The superjumbo, flown by Airbus test pilot Terry Lutz, will arrive in the skies over Oshkosh around 3 PM CT where it will fly a seven-minute flying display before making the approach to runway 36.

The 8,002x150 foot runway is more than long enough to accomodate the lightly loaded (720,000-lb) A380, however the there is only one taxiway (P-2) at Wittman Regional Airport that the A380 can use to exit the runway. The aircraft will have about 5,500 feet to land before the P-2 turn off to Aeroshell Square. Airbus has brought in a A380 sized supertug from JFK to ensure that the massive aircraft gets into Aeroshell Square on the first (and only) try available to EAA.

The Aeroshell Square ramp is exactly one foot wider than wingspan of F-WWOW making the maneuver that much more challenging. I'll be covering the arrival live on twitter and here on the blog over the next two days.

I took these shots during my time at the show on Sunday when everything was being set up. It should give a flavor of the assortment of aircraft at EAA and the activities across the airport in support of the show.

Oshkosh is underway!
The 2009 EAA AirVenture is in full swing! Yesterday thousands of aircraft descended on Wittman Regional Airport in a truly incredible display of precision air traffic control. By some estimates there are about 7000 aircraft on site with an additional 3000 or so at airports in the Oshkosh area.

The State of General Aviation
Companies like Cessna, Piper, Cirrus and Hawker Beechcraft will all be giving updates on their latest product offerings and even possibly announcing new ones. However, the updates will also be a good chance to get a sense of how these companies are fairing in the recession. Cessna and Hawker both have been hit by major cutbacks in recent months and Cessna's workforce just returned from a major furlough. 

A380 Goes Regional
MSN001 will touch down in Milwaukee (KMKE) on Monday for a quick stop for some crew rest and a tour for airport officials. The superjumbo will make a quick flight to Oshkosh on Tuesday around 2:30 PM CT. The logistical details of getting such a large aircraft into a regional airport are nothing short of monumental. More on those later.

WhiteKnightTwo
The Virgin Galactic mothership will arrive on Monday afternoon here in Oshkosh. This will be the 16th test flight of N348MS and the farthest the twin cockpit composite aircraft has traveled from its base in the Mojave desert in Southern California. Sir Richard Branson will also be here this week promoting his space tourism venture. WKII will serve as the launch platform for the VMS Eve (SpaceShipTwo) for suborbital flights. 

Embraer Exec Jets Update
The Brazilian airframer will update the media on Wednesday about the production status on the Phenom 100 and flight test developments for the larger Phenom 300. This may also provide an opportunity to hear a bit more about the company's thinking about its new narrowbody concept it is considering.

ZA101 Assembly
The last parts for ZA008 arrived in Everett over the weekend and final assembly may not be far off. One thing to watch for with this airframe is how quickly the second production 787 actually goes into the final body join as it is likely paced by the wing fix. Boeing is still yet to provide a timeline on the details of the implementation or an updated program schedule.