The Unofficial Oshkosh 2025 Thread

[JohnTerrell]

I would like to see a type breakdown of the 361 warbirds EAA says were in attendance.

I'm not sure if you saw my post at the top of page 7 of this thread, where I listed about 100 of the heavier-hitters with regard to warbirds in attendance this year: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=74485&start=90

I didn't include Tony Phillippi's Howard 500, even though it was parked in warbirds - EAA probably did count that as one of the warbirds.

That means about 260 would have been the single-engine prop and jet trainers, and liaison types, which I didn't cover in my list.

[JohnB]

Yes, I saw your list of the "usual suspects"... the big name types. Thanks for posting them.
I was asking more about the "little guys"...the trainers, etc.
Just curious and trying to get a feel about the relative popularity of various types.

I'd assume the EAA would call all Stearman 75s "warbirds", but I wonder about other types...for example would they call call all Beech 17s (or even 18s) warbirds?

[JohnTerrell]

I believe it's all a matter as to where they park - Garbs would be able to confirm or deny if that's true. For instance, from my understanding, if a Stearman, Beech 18 or DC-3 only parks in Vintage, it doesn't get counted in Warbirds, but if the same aircraft parks in Warbirds, then it is counted as a warbird. Warren Pietsch's P-51C likely got counted twice, once for Vintage and once for Warbird, since it spent time parked in both locations during the week. The fantastic Royal Navy-finished Beech Staggerwing N16S only parked in Vintage and was registered in Vintage, so therefore would likely not have been included in EAA's warbird numbers.

[garbs]

Give a shout out to Garbs, he can answer that question.

David

Workin' on it. Busy weekend, so it might not be until Monday.

[garbs]

I believe it's all a matter as to where they park - Garbs would be able to confirm or deny if that's true. For instance, from my understanding, if a Stearman, Beech 18 or DC-3 only parks in Vintage, it doesn't get counted in Warbirds, but if the same aircraft parks in Warbirds, then it is counted as a warbird. Warren Pietsch's P-51C likely got counted twice, once for Vintage and once for Warbird, since it spent time parked in both locations during the week. The fantastic Royal Navy-finished Beech Staggerwing N16S only parked in Vintage and was registered in Vintage, so therefore would likely not have been included in EAA's warbird numbers.

Pretty much true. We used to scour the field for Warbirds and try to get them into the count, whether they chose to display up by us or not. Now we limit that to ones on Boeing Plaza. We do count the occasional active military plane if they join Warbirds and elect to be judged - they will never be Grand Champion, but they do get a nice plaque to hang in the O Club back home.

[OD/NG]

On a side note, there are some very exciting warbirds that are or will be changing hands soon, and announcements that will be forthcoming from their respective owners/organizations. It is an exciting time to be a warbird fan! Lots of cool stuff to look forward to soon!

Such a mystery!!


Looked like a great turnout. Wish we could have made it back this year. Maybe next year... How was the weather by the way? 2023 was pretty hot and humid for us. Just wondering if you guys faired any better...

One of the aircraft I referenced above just got the sale officially released to the public. Kermit Weeks bought Taigh's PV-2.

[corsairfan]

Answering for Garbs - These are the counts for this year. As noted earlier in the thread, this doesn't mean this is every Warbird on the field. You'll notice that there are only five Wildcats in the count but there were seven there. And there is only one Bearcat in the count but there were two there. As Garbs mentioned there can be many reasons for this but this is the official count.

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[JohnB]

Thanks for posting that list.

Interesting numbers for the trainers. Seeing the field on the webcams you could tell there were a lot of T-6/R-34/T-28s there, but no where near that many.

The lack of Stearmans is surprising, just two?
As has been pointed out, they must have been .parked in some other category area.
Heck, at my field, on any decent weekend you'll see more than that before lunch or at any of the local fly-ins.

Anyone know if the Stearman 70 listed is the one from the Oregon museum that was there last year?

And hats of to whoever brought the Hiller OH-23. Too bad no one brought a H/OH/TH-13.

[corsairfan]

There is a very large section of Warbird parking that the camera doesn't show. Behind the Briefing building, the one on the end of the stars and bars walkway, there is a very large section where a lot of the T-6s, CJs, L-Birds and other trainers park. The camera shows a very small corner of that section but it is quite large and holds a lot of planes. It also stops panning before you can see all of Fighter Town where we park the Mustangs, Corsairs, P-40s, etc. The camera really focuses on the section where we park a lot of the heavier and larger aircraft and then a section of the T-34s and some T-6s. It also shows Warbird Alley which holds a lot of the planes that are going to be in Warbirds in Review or are unique like the P-38, ME-262, etc. The camera gives you a taste of what is in the Warbirds area but there is definitely a lot more there that you just can't see. I wish the camera would pan 360 degrees but it's better than when we didn't have a camera at all for those who can't be there.

[corsairfan]

Not to beat a dead horse but for those who haven't been to Oshkosh this gives you an idea of what the camera is not showing you. The sections in red are what I was talking about in my previous post as to where more Warbirds are parked that aren't shown on the camera.

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[garbs]

Just got my tally completed but Corsairfan beat me to it! There were also obviously 2 B-29's, but one never came down to check in with us. We knew there were 7 Wildcats, but by the time we were closing out the software and realized only 5 had checked in, most had already left.

The Hiller pilot was none other than Mike Anderson, WOA President.

The App we use was written by someone else - we know that O-2's aren't Skymasters and L-17's aren't Navions, exactly. He was just being thorough, I guess.

Not really happy with the quality of my photos this year - shot at 1/250th all week and I guess I'm not as steady as I used to be. Judt one or two clear ones:





Most of them look more like this: