Page 28 - Volumer 13 Number 7

AirVenture Oshkosh – Everything Aeronautical
The Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) annual fly-in and convention is more than just a global showcase of aviation innovation – it’s also the world’s largest air show dedicated to promoting the thrill of flight.
by Edward H. Phillips
The founding of the EAA by Paul H. Poberezny Jan. 26, 1953, led to a gathering of 21 airplanes and 150 members in September of that year at Curtiss-Wright Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and marked the organization’s first convention. The inaugural meeting was billed as part of the larger Milwaukee Air Pageant, but during the past 66 years the Pageant has become a memory while the fly-in has grown into the most prolific exhibition of all things aeronautical in the world.
The annual convention, held at Wittman Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, late in July/early August, routinely attracts more than 500,000 people from many nations to see a multi-faceted potpourri of flying machines from ultralights to the latest generation of military jet aircraft.
During World War II, Poberezny served in the United States Army Air Force’s Training Command as a flight instructor. When the conflict ended, he flew for the Wisconsin Air National Guard, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1973. Poberezny
served as EAA president from its inception until 1989 before transitioning to his new position as chairman of the board (COB) that he held until 2009. (His son, Tom, took over the presidency and the additional duties of COB before retiring in 2011. In addition, Tom served as chairman of AirVenture for 30 years.)
Paul Poberezny, who taught himself to fly a rebuilt glider at age 15, was a staunch advocate of a person’s right to design, build and pilot their own aircraft. As a result of his efforts, as of 2019 there are more than 30,000 amateur-built aircraft registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and thousands of these are flown for hundreds of hours each year by their owners and builders. In the wake of the 1953 first fly- in, participation in EAA increased until, as of this year, there are more than 220,000 members worldwide.
Poberezny died Aug. 22, 2013, at age 91. He was chiefly responsible for not only creating the EAA that eventually became a worldwide aviation organization, but spearheading development of an annual show
Aerial view of the first EAA Fly-In held at
the Curtiss-Wright Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1953. Among the airplanes visible in the photograph are a World
War I-vintage Curtiss Jenny, a Cessna Airmaster and twin-engine T-50 Bobcat; two Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanzas, a Grumman amphibian, two Cessna L-19/O-1 Bird Dog observation aircraft; a North American P-51 Mustang and the fuselage of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber.
(Courtesy EAA.org)
26 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JULY 2019