When did the majority of warbirds fly at Oshkosh

[Ed Likes]

I was at Oshkosh on Wednesday and Thursday. During the portion of the airshow when the warbirds flew the majority of the warbirds did not fly during those days with a few exceptions. So if not then when did they fly was it Friday or Saturday? I remember back in 1995 when I was at Oshosh the greatest armada of aircraft that I ever saw in the airshows that I have attended was launched roughly 150 to maybe 170 aircraft in the air at the same time. Bombers including FiFi, fighters, trainers etc. nothing like that now.

[Matt Gunsch]

Saturday

[Tim Adams]

Actually it has shifted in the past few years. The biggest day for numbers is now the Friday show. There were far more aircraft in the air on Friday.

[mazdaP5]

I thought it was earlierthis week, maybe wednesday?
There must be a shortage of warbirds, the Fighters on saturdays show were 4 P-51s and 4 T-28s. In fact, every time they had the fighters on parade, there were some T-28s mixed in. Earlier in the week they were parading the Yak, Helldiver, Ruff Stuff...

[ww2John]

Thursday are traditionally the Warbirds "Forum Day", so very few warbirds fly on Thursday.

[Kyleb]

Friday is the big day. Saturday's show is short because of the evening show.

That said, there was a definite shortage of flying warbirds this year. There were plenty in attendance, but for whatever reason, they were pretty stingy flying 'em.

[Nathan]

Im gonna guess there will be less and less warbirds seen at airshows and Air Venture in the coming years. One local owner owns a Stearman and he rarely takes it out of the T--hangar. Maybe once or twice a year. I've noticed a great reduction of trainers at airshows. Even Geneseo is seeing less. Because the old timers are moving on or are just being kept hangared unable to afford to fly them.

[richkolasa]

Saturday

I disagree. Saturday's "big show" had about 5-6 P-51s, 1 Corsair, 1 B-25, 6-7 T-28s (launched on 18 with the Mustangs and stuff)...this has become a joke.

In 4 days of "CoNA", I saw 1 FM-2, 2 Corsairs, 1 B-25 (painted as PBJ) and 1 Helldiver fly during the airshow representing WW2 "heavy iron". Oh, wait, the Helldiver and one Corsair were part of the Legacy Flight before the "official" airshow I believe...

Lots of parked warbirds, nearly 25 Mustangs (maybe 6 flew on any given day), 3 TBMs (none flew Wed-Saturday), 4 FM-2s I believe (1 launched one day, but didn't make passes because of a concern with the briefed display I hear), F8F (didn't fly with warbirds), F7F (didn't fly Wed-Sat), SBD (stayed at Fond Du Lac?), Duck, FW-190, Spit...nothing in the air during the shows over 4 days...

Man, it's embarrassing...

Rich

[dusttinbound]

Saturday

I disagree. Saturday's "big show" had about 5-6 P-51s, 1 Corsair, 1 B-25, 6-7 T-28s (launched on 18 with the Mustangs and stuff)...this has become a joke.

In 4 days of "CoNA", I saw 1 FM-2, 2 Corsairs, 1 B-25 (painted as PBJ) and 1 Helldiver fly during the airshow representing WW2 "heavy iron". Oh, wait, the Helldiver and one Corsair were part of the Legacy Flight before the "official" airshow I believe...

Lots of parked warbirds, nearly 25 Mustangs (maybe 6 flew on any given day), 3 TBMs (none flew Wed-Saturday), 4 FM-2s I believe (1 launched one day, but didn't make passes because of a concern with the briefed display I hear), F8F (didn't fly with warbirds), F7F (didn't fly Wed-Sat), SBD (stayed at Fond Du Lac?), Duck, FW-190, Spit...nothing in the air during the shows over 4 days...

Man, it's embarrassing...

Rich

I agree. I was disappointed in the flying activities at Oshkosh. The wife even mentioned something on the 9 hour drive back to Kansas City and she is not into aviation that much. I understand if the pilots do not want to fly because its money out of their pocket. But considering that EAA was making this a keynote event for CoNA then I think they should have done more to get the pilots flying the aircraft. I only really saw one Corsair on Friday with a half dozen T-28's representing the Navy. Then on Saturday the Legacy flight with the Helldiver and the F-18 and only T-28's and Devil Dog during the show. Why not have a large Navy flight with current and former Navy aircraft? Why not have an F-18 demo along with the Harrier? Why not have amphibious beach assault? There was so much that could have been done. I didn't even see a Navy recruiter at the show. I remember when the USAF celebrated their 40th at Oshkosh they bought all kinds of neat stuff to show. The best thing I remember was a large box that you could go into and play with NVG's. Maybe the Blue Angels homecoming will be better.

Kevin