20230617 - Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Aviation Museum and Pioneer Airport

 

Topgun 2023!

Today we drove just a few miles north of our campground to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Aviation Museum.  The museum and adjacent Pioneer Airport are located on a campus where in the last week in July, there is a massive aircraft-related event here called "EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, or just Oshkosh".  It is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts at Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  It will attract  more than 600,000 people and 10,000 airplanes.  It is touted as "the world's busiest airport (at least one week a year)"!  

The museum building

The museum contains aircraft and aircraft-related items and displays since the beginning of manned flight.  Some of the aircraft are replicas and many are experimental.  All of them are beautifully presented.  The museum building is two-level.

From the museum you can ride a shuttle bus and visit the Pioneer Airport, located on the opposite side of an operational grass airstrip.  The Pioneer Airport is a unique “living history” re-creation of what airports were like during the early days of air travel. There is a nostalgia and charm about it as it takes you back to the 1920's and 1930's "when the magic of flying astounded and charmed the whole world".  There are more than 50 vintage airplanes displayed in seven period hangars  There is an airport beacon and a play area with pedal airplanes for the young ones.  While we were there we saw children between 8 and 17 taking part in a free Young Eagles airplane flight. 

 

The museum is lower left.  Pioneer Airport is at the top.

Purple is the grass runway and yellow is the shuttle route 

from the museum to the Pioneer Airport

So we started in the museum on the upper floor.  I literally took a hundred or more pictures and I won't include them all here.  It reminded me of the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC and the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton OH.

 The Pioneers of Flight section

Absolutely beautiful!

Air Racing and Aerobatics

Innovations Gallery featuring a display about the Rutan Model 76 Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling. It was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager.

The KidVenture Gallery features interactive aviation-related displays for kids of all ages!  

A control tower overlooking the grass airfield and the Pioneer Airport in the distance

Flight simulators and other activities

Sit in the cockpit of an F-22 fighter

The next section was the Eagle Hangar mezzanine and then the hangar floor- military aircraft displays.  

Pilot's briefing room before combat missions

P-64 originally built for Thailand then used as a trainer

Link C-3 trainer

The iconic UH-1 Huey from Vietnam - DUSTOFF med evac

Finally, a P-51 Mustang and a Ford Mustang

We finished up taking the shuttle to the Pioneer Airport.  As described above, there are seven hangars full of vintage aircraft and other aviation-related paraphernalia to take you back to the 20's and 30's of flying. 

Pietenpol AirCamper fuselage under construction

1966 Pietenpol AirCamper

Chicago Palmolive Beacon

Mauston WI aeronautical beacon

Communications equipment inside the Mauston station

Outside we saw a helicopter doing touch and goes and one of the Young Eagles airplane flights in progress.  

 We had a great time at the museum and the Pioneer Airport.  Some day it would be fun to camp here during the annual EAA AirVenture!  We also had a great time camping here and seeing Doug and Cathy Jarmusz and visiting Appleton yesterday.  Happy Father's Day in heaven, Lefty!

Tomorrow we bug out of Oshkosh and head to Tom's campground located just SE of Dodgeville WI, west of Madison.