Keeping Oshkosh Weird

One of the greatest things about this week is just how inclusive of the weird and wacky AirVenture has long been. The show exploded in popularity in the late '60s and early '70s, and the counterculture in the nation, and in aviation, was strong. People who flocked to aviation, the revolutionary designer Burt Rutan, who changed every paradigm he could; the early ultralight pioneers, who literally strapped chainsaw engines to their backs to go flying; the artists, like gifted writer Richard Bach and the ground-breaking photographer Russ Munson, to name a few of thousands, all came to aviation with the thought that things could be done differently, and they all did, creating and documenting the world of flight in a way that inspired hundreds of thousands of people to go flying, to come to Oshkosh, to do their part to change the status quo of wings and contrails. And all of this mixes with the peculiar midwestern charm of the city itself and the oddball character it brings to AirVenture, the yodeling wakeup call at 7 a.m. each day, the one-man band (gone for years now), the local flavors, the food, the beer, the brats. It all helps make this place different from any other place in the world, and I beg the powers to be to do everything they can to retain and promote the weirdness we all love so well.