EAA AirVenture Oshkosh: the world’s largest fly-in

There are airshows, trade fairs and club gatherings – and then there is Oshkosh. Once a year, a regional airport in Wisconsin becomes the meeting point of all of private aviation: homebuilders show off their projects, vintage aircraft gleam in rows, warbirds fire up their engines, manufacturers present new products, and tens of thousands camp right next to the airfield. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is considered the world’s largest fly-in. This article explains how a small homebuilders’ gathering became an event with hundreds of thousands of visitors, who is behind it and what makes the week special.

AirVenture in brief

AirVenture is the annual gathering of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), which is headquartered in Oshkosh and says it has more than 300,000 members. The week begins on a Monday in the last full week of July and ends on Sunday. The venue is Wittman Regional Airport (IATA OSH, ICAO KOSH), about four kilometers south of the city center, together with the adjoining Pioneer Airport of the EAA museum. The large campground Camp Scholler and the southern part of the grounds already lie in the neighboring town of Nekimi, and the seaplane base on the shore of Lake Winnebago is in Black Wolf.

Until 1997 the event was called the “EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In”; the current name came in 1998. In the community’s everyday language it is still mostly just “Oshkosh” – anyone in aviation circles who says they’re going to Oshkosh doesn’t need to explain which week.

How it all began: Paul Poberezny and the basement in Hales Corners

A club for homebuilders

The story begins with Paul Poberezny (1921–2013). Born in Kansas, he served about 30 years in the Wisconsin Air National Guard and the US Air Force, was on active duty in World War II and the Korean War and in the end wore all seven military pilot badges of the US. In his private life he built aircraft. In 1953 he founded the EAA from his home in Hales Corners near Milwaukee – at first a small group of like-minded people who met in the basement. His wife Audrey Poberezny helped publish the first club newsletter, “The Experimenter.”

The idea of building your own aircraft became known to a wide audience in 1955: in a series of articles in the magazine Mechanix Illustrated, Poberezny described how to buy plans and build an aircraft at home. The example was the Baby Ace, whose rights he had acquired – the first aircraft explicitly marketed as a “homebuilt.” In the same year the EAA was incorporated as a club in Wisconsin.

What “Experimental” means

The club’s name often misleads Europeans. It doesn’t mean manufacturers’ test aircraft but the US certification category Experimental, Amateur-Built: aircraft built mostly by private individuals at home. The authority allows such aircraft but restricts, for example, their commercial use. The EAA comes from this scene – and to this day the homebuilts are a large area of their own on the grounds. You can’t recognize them by the N-number, by the way; it looks the same on homebuilts as on production aircraft. How the registrations are structured is explained in the article US N-numbers.

From Milwaukee via Rockford to Oshkosh

The first fly-in took place in 1953 at what is now Timmerman Field in Milwaukee. Fewer than 150 visitors registered. The gathering grew quickly. In 1959 it moved to Rockford, Illinois, where around 10,000 aircraft movements were already counted in 1961. When Greater Rockford Airport also became too small, the gathering switched to Oshkosh in 1970. The following year, around 600 show aircraft and 31,653 aircraft movements came together there.

The airport in Oshkosh has carried the name of Steve Wittman since 1969, a racing pilot and aircraft designer who managed the field for 37 years. Outside show week it is a quiet general aviation airport; there have been no scheduled flights there since March 2003.

Year	Event
1953	Founding of the EAA in Hales Corners, first fly-in in Milwaukee (Timmerman Field)
1959	Move to Rockford, Illinois
1970	first gathering in Oshkosh
1977	Tom Poberezny, son of the founder, takes over running the gathering
1983	Opening of the EAA museum next to headquarters
1992	Start of the Young Eagles youth program
1997	all visitors get access to the entire grounds including the flightline
1998	Renamed AirVenture Oshkosh
2020	Canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic
2025	Record with around 704,000 visitors according to the EAA

The Tom Poberezny era

From 1977, Tom Poberezny, an aerobatic pilot and the founder’s son, ran the gathering; in 1989 he also took over the presidency of the association. The EAA itself credits him with expanding AirVenture into a worldwide showcase of aviation. An important turning point came in 1997: until then, access to the flightline had been reserved for club members; afterward all visitors could enter the entire grounds. Today Jack Pelton is at the helm of the EAA as chairman and CEO.

The stage of the homebuilding revolution

For the history of light aircraft, Oshkosh is more than an exhibition: many designs that now sit on airfields around the world were first shown to a large public here.

Year	Debut	Significance
1972	Van’s RV-3 by Richard VanGrunsven	Origin of the now widespread RV kit family
1975	Rutan VariEze by Burt Rutan	Canard in free-form fiberglass construction
1978	Christen Eagle II	Aerobatic biplane as a kit
1980	Glasair I	early composite kit
1985	Lancair 200	fast composite kit
1987	Cirrus VK-30 by the Klapmeier brothers	Predecessor of the later Cirrus SR20 and SR22

The line from the VK-30 to the SR22 shows why Oshkosh matters for the industry: a homebuilt project became a production manufacturer, Cirrus Aircraft, whose aircraft are now among the most frequently seen private aircraft. Alongside such up-and-comers, established manufacturers such as Piper Aircraft and Textron Aviation with Cessna and Beechcraft show their current models in Oshkosh.

What happens during the week

Anyone who sees AirVenture only as an airshow misses most of it. The week is club gathering, trade show, continuing education, folk festival and tent camp in one.

The next generation: Young Eagles and KidVenture

A focus of the EAA is the next generation. The Young Eagles program, started in 1992, gives kids and teens free rides with volunteer pilots. The original goal of one million kids by the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ flight in December 2003 was reached. During AirVenture 2026, according to the EAA, the 2.5 millionth Young Eagle flew – a ten-year-old girl from Wausau, Wisconsin. For families there is also the KidVenture area on the grounds with hands-on stations.

Volunteers as the backbone

Without volunteers there would be no Oshkosh. Thousands of volunteers marshal aircraft, organize parking and look after exhibits and shows. The numbers from show week 2026 show the logistics behind it: according to the EAA, more than 68,400 cars were parked, and the EAA museum counted around 38,000 visitors in that one week – about a third of its annual total.

An airport in a state of emergency

More than 10,000 aircraft come every year to Oshkosh and the alternate airfields in the region. To make that work, the US aviation authority FAA publishes a dedicated arrival procedure as an extensive NOTAM booklet, and specially assigned controllers in conspicuous pink shirts staff the tower at Oshkosh, a temporary approach control in the village of Fisk and other facilities. The tower at Oshkosh is considered the busiest in the world this week.

On the main runway 18/36, colored dots mark the touchdown zones so that several aircraft can land in quick succession. During the show, the runway is designated 18R/36L, and a parallel surface serves as an additional runway 18L/36R. Other airfields are part of the system:

Airfield	Role during AirVenture
Wittman Regional (OSH)	Aircraft, main grounds
Pioneer Airport	adjoining field of the EAA museum, part of the show grounds
Vette/Blust Seaplane Base	Seaplanes on Lake Winnebago
Wausau Downtown (AUW)	Start of the AirVenture Cup Race at the opening
Fond du Lac, Appleton, Green Bay	Alternate airfields and additional parking areas

How best to catch these arrivals, the warbird rows and the seaplane base as a spotter is described at length in our guide Oshkosh AirVenture from a spotter’s perspective – including light direction, equipment and getting there.

What aircraft to expect

The range is broader than at any European event. There is no fixed participant list – which aircraft come is decided anew every year by owners, operators and sponsors. Typical are:

• Pioneer and vintage aircraft: Biplanes, classics such as the Piper J-3 Cub and transports such as the Douglas DC-3. More on identifying old designs in the guide recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky.
• Warbirds: Trainers such as the North American T-6 Texan, fighters such as the P-51 Mustang and bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress or the B-25 Mitchell.
• General aviation in bulk: Hundreds of Cessnas, Pipers, Beechcrafts and Cirrus, plus seaplanes such as the DHC-2 Beaver. Why this segment is exciting for spotters is shown in the article spotting general aviation.
• Guests on Boeing Plaza: Airlines, agencies and the military bring changing large aircraft. For 2026 the EAA had announced, for example, a visit by NASA with the Super Guppy transport as well as Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines aircraft in special liveries.

Putting attendance figures in context

Attendance has grown steadily since the return after the COVID-19 pause: around 608,000 in 2021, 677,000 in 2023, about 686,000 in 2024 and 704,000 in 2025 – the last three figures each set new records. The counting method matters: attendance is recorded per day. Anyone who stays the whole week is counted several times. As far back as 2006, when the EAA cited around 625,000, the local newspaper Oshkosh Northwestern estimated the number of actual people at 200,000 to 300,000. That changes little about the order of magnitude – Oshkosh remains by far the largest fly-in in the world – but for comparisons with European shows you should keep the method in mind.

The week is also economically significant for the region. A study by the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh put the effect on the Oshkosh region in 2008 at around 110 million US dollars; later estimates were clearly higher.

Oshkosh compared with Europe

Anyone who knows European events will find much of it again in Oshkosh – just on a different scale and with a different mix.

Feature	AirVenture Oshkosh	Major European airshows	Vintage fly-ins in Europe
Duration	one full week	usually two to three days	usually one weekend
Character	club gathering, trade show, airshow, camping	flight demonstration, often with a military flavor	club and vintage gathering
How aircraft arrive	Thousands of private pilots fly in themselves	participants by invitation	many visiting aircraft
Focus	homebuilts, vintage, warbirds, general aviation	jets, aerobatic teams	historic aircraft

You’ll find an overview of the dates in Europe in the post airshows in Europe for plane spotters. If you’re after the Oshkosh feeling on a small scale, you’re in good hands at the Hahnweide vintage fly-in or the Duxford airshows.

Planning your visit: the essentials

Detailed trip planning is in the spotter guide to Oshkosh. The ground rules up front:

• Book early: Accommodation in the region is scarce, and many visitors camp at Camp Scholler or in the surrounding area.
• Arrive via a hub: From Europe the route usually goes through Chicago O’Hare Airport or Milwaukee, then on by rental car or shuttle. Tips for the US trip as a whole are in plane spotting trip to the USA.
• Know the rules: What applies to photography in the United States is summarized in plane spotting in the USA.
• Add museums: If you’re in the US anyway, you can happily combine Oshkosh with the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton or the Udvar-Hazy Center in Washington.
• Prepare your camera gear: For flight demonstrations and propeller aircraft, the guides photographing airshows and photographing propellers help.

Conclusion

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh grew out of a basement club for homebuilders and is now the world’s largest fly-in. The mix is what makes it appealing: pioneer aircraft next to new kit designs, warbirds next to manufacturer booths, forums in the morning, an airshow in the afternoon and camping atmosphere in the evening. For spotters the week is a unique chance to experience the full breadth of private flying in one place – provided you plan early and bring time.