1 00:00:15,620 --> 00:00:17,370 PHILIP GREENSPUN: There is no pizza for me 2 00:00:17,370 --> 00:00:19,037 because I'm going to talk about Oshkosh. 3 00:00:23,700 --> 00:00:25,800 So what is it? 4 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:29,430 It's end of July every year at a big, a physically big, 5 00:00:29,430 --> 00:00:33,030 but otherwise not very busy airport in Wisconsin. 6 00:00:33,030 --> 00:00:36,900 And about 10,000 airplanes come in. 7 00:00:36,900 --> 00:00:37,980 People camp out. 8 00:00:37,980 --> 00:00:42,450 People hang out, usually at least 100,000 people a day. 9 00:00:42,450 --> 00:00:43,710 There's a Boeing. 10 00:00:43,710 --> 00:00:46,500 There's a C-17 cargo plane. 11 00:00:46,500 --> 00:00:48,960 A lot of experimental-- it's founded by the Experimental 12 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:50,123 Aircraft Association. 13 00:00:50,123 --> 00:00:51,540 So there's a lot of people who are 14 00:00:51,540 --> 00:00:53,082 passionate about home-building there. 15 00:00:55,890 --> 00:00:57,810 You can see all the airplanes parked. 16 00:01:03,580 --> 00:01:06,970 There's 12,000 camping sites, 40,000 campers. 17 00:01:06,970 --> 00:01:09,490 There's 1,500 workshops and seminars 18 00:01:09,490 --> 00:01:10,720 that you can take to learn. 19 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:13,450 Or you can just walk around and talk to people, and hang out. 20 00:01:13,450 --> 00:01:16,420 So I planned this trip for me and my friend Ray. 21 00:01:16,420 --> 00:01:20,560 He's a helicopter pilot from Ireland. 22 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:23,530 And the idea was to fly to Niagara Falls 23 00:01:23,530 --> 00:01:25,540 and show him Niagara Falls, and on the way 24 00:01:25,540 --> 00:01:27,430 back go up to Mackinac Island. 25 00:01:27,430 --> 00:01:30,710 They saw automobiles about 120 years ago and they said, 26 00:01:30,710 --> 00:01:31,970 this is a terrible technology. 27 00:01:31,970 --> 00:01:33,370 It'll ruin everything. 28 00:01:33,370 --> 00:01:34,240 They banned cars. 29 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:35,440 The only powered air-- 30 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:39,670 the only powered vehicle you can legally have on Mackinac Island 31 00:01:39,670 --> 00:01:41,530 is an aircraft. 32 00:01:41,530 --> 00:01:42,910 They do have an airport. 33 00:01:42,910 --> 00:01:47,080 Anyway, on the back, we were going to go to Toronto as well. 34 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,620 So we had to get all this stuff ready for international flying. 35 00:01:50,620 --> 00:01:53,620 I had it all carefully planned out 36 00:01:53,620 --> 00:01:56,710 where we were going to have 540 pounds of stuff, 37 00:01:56,710 --> 00:02:00,280 which is right at the payload of the airplane with full fuel. 38 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,490 But then Oxana, who was just here-- 39 00:02:04,490 --> 00:02:07,790 she's an aerobatic pilot at East Coast Aero Club-- she 40 00:02:07,790 --> 00:02:09,590 said she wanted to come too. 41 00:02:09,590 --> 00:02:12,620 So then we had to add a fuel stop. 42 00:02:12,620 --> 00:02:15,438 There's our merry band of three people. 43 00:02:15,438 --> 00:02:17,480 There's a whole bunch of camping gear in the back 44 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:19,490 that you can't quite see. 45 00:02:19,490 --> 00:02:23,960 Oshkosh becomes temporarily the busiest airport in the world. 46 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:25,940 And you might say, well, how can that be? 47 00:02:25,940 --> 00:02:27,110 O'Hare has more flights. 48 00:02:27,110 --> 00:02:28,250 But they are only-- 49 00:02:28,250 --> 00:02:30,530 Oshkosh is only open about 10 hours a day 50 00:02:30,530 --> 00:02:33,470 because they close the airport at night. 51 00:02:33,470 --> 00:02:37,040 And they close it also for a few hours every afternoon 52 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:39,620 for an airshow. 53 00:02:39,620 --> 00:02:46,920 This is somebody's iPad, I think, a screen capture 54 00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:49,680 of airplanes flying in and around Oshkosh. 55 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,810 And these are only the ones with the newest 56 00:02:51,810 --> 00:02:54,460 ADS-B out transponders. 57 00:02:54,460 --> 00:02:56,940 So it doesn't show, probably-- 58 00:02:56,940 --> 00:03:00,682 this is probably only 20% of the total airplanes. 59 00:03:04,380 --> 00:03:06,030 You have special arrival rules. 60 00:03:06,030 --> 00:03:10,170 If you're not a sissy, then you have 61 00:03:10,170 --> 00:03:13,405 to fly in visually, circle around until it's your turn. 62 00:03:13,405 --> 00:03:15,780 And then they'll tell you you can't use the whole runway. 63 00:03:15,780 --> 00:03:17,363 You have to land on one of these dots. 64 00:03:17,363 --> 00:03:20,540 They'll say, land on the green dot. 65 00:03:20,540 --> 00:03:24,500 If you are a sissy, you file IFR, get your IFR reservation 66 00:03:24,500 --> 00:03:26,600 with this DOS grade computer system, 67 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:29,110 confirm it with this DOS grade computer system 68 00:03:29,110 --> 00:03:31,070 that nobody else wants to deal with, 69 00:03:31,070 --> 00:03:33,590 and then you get the whole runway, and you just land. 70 00:03:33,590 --> 00:03:34,090 All right. 71 00:03:34,090 --> 00:03:37,630 Here's a picture of the multifunction display. 72 00:03:37,630 --> 00:03:40,040 No, actually, I guess this was in FlightAware later. 73 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,380 This shows that we diverted a bit. 74 00:03:42,380 --> 00:03:45,170 From Bedford, we ended up going up to Watertown, New York, 75 00:03:45,170 --> 00:03:45,920 so we didn't-- 76 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:47,965 we could have-- legally, we're instrument rated 77 00:03:47,965 --> 00:03:48,590 and everything. 78 00:03:48,590 --> 00:03:52,550 We could have flown through these rain showers. 79 00:03:52,550 --> 00:03:56,160 But it's always smarter just to go around if you can. 80 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:56,750 OK. 81 00:03:56,750 --> 00:03:58,340 So we flew over Niagara Falls. 82 00:03:58,340 --> 00:03:59,630 We landed. 83 00:03:59,630 --> 00:04:01,430 We had that whole runway to ourself, 84 00:04:01,430 --> 00:04:03,920 about 10,000-foot runway. 85 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:06,580 And it's actually oriented east-west. 86 00:04:06,580 --> 00:04:07,730 So we actually just-- 87 00:04:07,730 --> 00:04:10,280 essentially, we could have done the same heading basically 88 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:12,860 from Hanscom Field all the way to the end of the runway 89 00:04:12,860 --> 00:04:14,630 and where we turned off. 90 00:04:14,630 --> 00:04:15,230 You get there. 91 00:04:15,230 --> 00:04:16,215 And there's just-- 92 00:04:16,215 --> 00:04:20,180 I don't know-- 30 P-51 Mustangs right next to your tent. 93 00:04:20,180 --> 00:04:24,830 There are people building this One Week Wonder, an RV kit, 94 00:04:24,830 --> 00:04:26,060 where you get to pull rivets. 95 00:04:26,060 --> 00:04:27,230 Oxana is actually here. 96 00:04:27,230 --> 00:04:30,890 And she can tell you about her experience 97 00:04:30,890 --> 00:04:32,380 helping to build that airplane. 98 00:04:32,380 --> 00:04:35,830 There you see your B1 bomber. 99 00:04:35,830 --> 00:04:37,990 I love the antiques. 100 00:04:37,990 --> 00:04:41,320 Here's one from the late '20s, a Lincoln-Page airplane that 101 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:43,600 has been recently restored and flying. 102 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,310 There's that replica autogyro, a beautiful Cessna 170. 103 00:04:48,310 --> 00:04:52,065 That's an old Piper Comanche there on the right. 104 00:04:52,065 --> 00:04:53,940 There's not a whole lot of helicopter action. 105 00:04:53,940 --> 00:04:54,880 There's a little bit. 106 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,905 This is what's called a Safari Helicopter Kit. 107 00:04:57,905 --> 00:04:59,280 That's how you know that you have 108 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:01,870 real confidence in your mechanical abilities 109 00:05:01,870 --> 00:05:05,160 if you build and then fly your own helicopter. 110 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:06,180 Piper Cub. 111 00:05:06,180 --> 00:05:09,390 This is a guy who stuck a Pratt and Whitney-- 112 00:05:09,390 --> 00:05:10,560 I think it's a Pratt-- 113 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:16,230 PT6 engine into a Polish Wilga, a short field landing airplane. 114 00:05:16,230 --> 00:05:17,360 He added fuel tanks. 115 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:19,410 It's such a fuel hog now that he had 116 00:05:19,410 --> 00:05:22,770 to add extra fuel capacity in the struts 117 00:05:22,770 --> 00:05:27,730 and flies all around the west, going camping with his family. 118 00:05:27,730 --> 00:05:28,230 All right. 119 00:05:28,230 --> 00:05:29,725 And that's called a Travel Air. 120 00:05:29,725 --> 00:05:30,850 There are a bunch of these. 121 00:05:30,850 --> 00:05:32,730 So these are airplanes from the '20s. 122 00:05:32,730 --> 00:05:35,310 People were just using them for transportation, 123 00:05:35,310 --> 00:05:38,520 throwing a friend in the back maybe and a tent 124 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:40,530 and going and camping out at Oshkosh. 125 00:05:40,530 --> 00:05:43,470 So I think that's pretty cool. 126 00:05:43,470 --> 00:05:49,140 There are only five of these Piaggio seaplanes, P136s, 127 00:05:49,140 --> 00:05:55,530 that still exist out of 63 that were built from 1948 to 1961. 128 00:05:55,530 --> 00:05:58,050 I saw two of them parked next to each other at Oshkosh. 129 00:05:58,050 --> 00:06:02,550 That's what makes it a unique experience. 130 00:06:02,550 --> 00:06:06,270 Here's some kind of airplane doing a simulated bombing run. 131 00:06:06,270 --> 00:06:09,390 Meanwhile, a family is there in their personal DC-3 132 00:06:09,390 --> 00:06:12,110 camping out. 133 00:06:12,110 --> 00:06:16,260 Here's our little plane and the $99 tent from Costco. 134 00:06:16,260 --> 00:06:20,960 It seemed like a great idea at the time. 135 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:22,530 I think we have a slide on that. 136 00:06:22,530 --> 00:06:23,030 OK. 137 00:06:23,030 --> 00:06:24,440 This kind of summarizes it. 138 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:27,470 This is the unfortunate state of general aviation now. 139 00:06:27,470 --> 00:06:29,690 So we have the innovation showcase. 140 00:06:29,690 --> 00:06:32,480 And right in front of it, a Piper Seminole, which I think 141 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:37,640 was certified in the 1970s and certainly a derivative 142 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,370 of things going back a lot farther than that. 143 00:06:40,370 --> 00:06:42,980 There were some interesting talks there, 144 00:06:42,980 --> 00:06:45,050 some heavy hitters. 145 00:06:45,050 --> 00:06:48,110 This guy Pat Anderson is a professor at Embry-Riddle. 146 00:06:48,110 --> 00:06:50,360 And he said actually that we haven't really 147 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:52,340 seen anything in the electric aircraft world 148 00:06:52,340 --> 00:06:54,440 because in the early days of jets, 149 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,205 they just took these piston airframes and stuck a jet 150 00:06:57,205 --> 00:06:57,830 engine in them. 151 00:06:57,830 --> 00:06:59,600 And they didn't perform that differently 152 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:01,130 from the piston fighters. 153 00:07:01,130 --> 00:07:03,680 But then five years later, they had the swept wings 154 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:06,710 and what we would recognize as the modern fighter jet. 155 00:07:06,710 --> 00:07:08,630 So it completely-- it was the jet 156 00:07:08,630 --> 00:07:11,120 engine did completely transform the aircraft, 157 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:12,380 but not immediately. 158 00:07:12,380 --> 00:07:14,200 So he said, you're seeing some of this now, 159 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,430 where people take a little two-seat trainer 160 00:07:16,430 --> 00:07:18,740 and they remove the piston engine 161 00:07:18,740 --> 00:07:20,780 and put an electric motor with the propeller. 162 00:07:20,780 --> 00:07:22,792 But that's not really-- 163 00:07:22,792 --> 00:07:24,500 what we're really going to see are things 164 00:07:24,500 --> 00:07:25,792 that are much more like drones. 165 00:07:28,010 --> 00:07:29,293 There is an Uber. 166 00:07:29,293 --> 00:07:31,460 There was a guy from Uber that was very interesting. 167 00:07:31,460 --> 00:07:35,810 Uber has aeronautical engineers working for them, 168 00:07:35,810 --> 00:07:38,540 designing aircraft, and then releasing the designs for free, 169 00:07:38,540 --> 00:07:40,550 hoping that people will make them. 170 00:07:40,550 --> 00:07:42,240 They're claiming that they're going to-- 171 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:43,250 I don't know. 172 00:07:43,250 --> 00:07:45,380 They've got to pay somebody off in the government 173 00:07:45,380 --> 00:07:46,310 to make this happen. 174 00:07:46,310 --> 00:07:49,680 2023 they say they're going to be operating in Los Angeles. 175 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:51,630 Their idea is that the world is going 176 00:07:51,630 --> 00:07:55,190 to be so congested that people will pay up happily 177 00:07:55,190 --> 00:07:59,310 to hop over the congestion in relatively short hops. 178 00:07:59,310 --> 00:08:01,730 So Uber is putting a lot of money into this. 179 00:08:01,730 --> 00:08:04,220 They have some partners like Airbus, Pipistrel, 180 00:08:04,220 --> 00:08:06,140 the Slovenian company. 181 00:08:06,140 --> 00:08:08,100 We'll see what happens. 182 00:08:08,100 --> 00:08:10,360 So some round-the-world pilots were there. 183 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:12,860 Actually, I don't know how many you guys know this, but Matt 184 00:08:12,860 --> 00:08:14,690 Guthmiller, who was an MIT-- 185 00:08:14,690 --> 00:08:16,250 between freshman and sophomore years 186 00:08:16,250 --> 00:08:18,350 became the youngest person ever to fly around 187 00:08:18,350 --> 00:08:21,560 the world in a Beechcraft Bonanza. 188 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:24,000 I mean, he was in a Beechcraft Bonanza 189 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:28,800 and he was the youngest person to fly around the world. 190 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,260 But there's also-- at Oshkosh, we met this guy 191 00:08:32,260 --> 00:08:39,470 Dick Rutan who flew around the world non-stop unrefueled 192 00:08:39,470 --> 00:08:44,400 in a plane designed by his brother Burt Rutan. 193 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,360 What else is Burt Rutan famous for besides designing aircraft? 194 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:49,650 Does anybody know? 195 00:08:49,650 --> 00:08:50,870 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 196 00:08:50,870 --> 00:08:52,650 PHILIP GREENSPUN: What? 197 00:08:52,650 --> 00:08:54,740 AUDIENCE: Wasn't he on like a spacecraft? 198 00:08:54,740 --> 00:08:56,490 PHILIP GREENSPUN: Spacecraft, that's true. 199 00:08:56,490 --> 00:08:58,702 But yeah, spacecraft and aircraft, but what else? 200 00:08:58,702 --> 00:09:00,670 AUDIENCE: Canard planes. 201 00:09:00,670 --> 00:09:03,370 PHILIP GREENSPUN: Canard planes, those are airplanes. 202 00:09:03,370 --> 00:09:05,320 Climate change denial. 203 00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:06,430 Look it up. 204 00:09:06,430 --> 00:09:10,600 He's got like a 100-page book about the scientific fraud 205 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:11,550 of climate change. 206 00:09:11,550 --> 00:09:12,508 But anyway, Dick Rutan. 207 00:09:12,508 --> 00:09:16,150 And the other interesting thing is before this nine-day flight, 208 00:09:16,150 --> 00:09:20,020 he was engaged to be married to Jeana Yeager 209 00:09:20,020 --> 00:09:25,120 and supposedly what I heard at Oshkosh 210 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:29,650 was that they have not spoken since they landed in 1986. 211 00:09:29,650 --> 00:09:31,570 So in nine days, there can be quite a change 212 00:09:31,570 --> 00:09:33,940 in a relationship apparently. 213 00:09:33,940 --> 00:09:37,178 We met this pilot Shaesta Waiz. 214 00:09:37,178 --> 00:09:39,220 I don't know if that's the correct pronunciation. 215 00:09:39,220 --> 00:09:41,410 She grew up in California and learned 216 00:09:41,410 --> 00:09:42,950 to fly relatively recently. 217 00:09:42,950 --> 00:09:45,310 And she also flew a Bonanza all the way 218 00:09:45,310 --> 00:09:48,390 around the world over 145 days. 219 00:09:48,390 --> 00:09:49,390 So that was interesting. 220 00:09:49,390 --> 00:09:52,010 She actually said it gets a little bit easier once you're 221 00:09:52,010 --> 00:09:54,010 out over the ocean from a weather point of view. 222 00:09:54,010 --> 00:09:56,980 She said except for the Intertropical Convergence 223 00:09:56,980 --> 00:09:58,990 of the Equator, most weather is kind 224 00:09:58,990 --> 00:10:00,970 of a phenomenon of being over land. 225 00:10:00,970 --> 00:10:03,370 To me, the most impressive round the world pilot, 226 00:10:03,370 --> 00:10:06,550 though, was actually an Italian guy that I met. 227 00:10:06,550 --> 00:10:08,620 He was in a Cirrus SR22. 228 00:10:08,620 --> 00:10:11,700 And he just flies to Oshkosh every year. 229 00:10:11,700 --> 00:10:15,370 He just loads up in Italy, turns the key, and goes. 230 00:10:15,370 --> 00:10:18,040 Every year, flies over the Atlantic, and then 231 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:20,140 flies back to Italy when it's over. 232 00:10:20,140 --> 00:10:23,260 So I thought that is actually the coolest thing, when 233 00:10:23,260 --> 00:10:24,862 it's not even an adventure. 234 00:10:24,862 --> 00:10:26,320 You're not going to write about it. 235 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:27,862 You're not going to build a web page. 236 00:10:27,862 --> 00:10:30,490 You're not going to say you're changing the world 237 00:10:30,490 --> 00:10:31,990 or helping to achieve something. 238 00:10:31,990 --> 00:10:33,365 You're not going to set a record. 239 00:10:33,365 --> 00:10:35,530 You're just using your airplane for transportation. 240 00:10:35,530 --> 00:10:36,970 You want to get to Oshkosh. 241 00:10:36,970 --> 00:10:38,410 You have an airplane. 242 00:10:38,410 --> 00:10:41,320 So why should the fact that you're on a different continent 243 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,510 stop you from doing it? 244 00:10:43,510 --> 00:10:47,020 A lot of people have stopped doing home projects, home 245 00:10:47,020 --> 00:10:48,010 repairs. 246 00:10:48,010 --> 00:10:51,730 So Oshkosh, they actually have people that teach kids 247 00:10:51,730 --> 00:10:54,850 how to hammer, how to drill, how to cut sheet metal. 248 00:10:54,850 --> 00:10:58,460 There's a lot of great workshops there for kids. 249 00:10:58,460 --> 00:11:02,670 We were over by the Pioneer Airport and the Museum. 250 00:11:02,670 --> 00:11:05,600 Here is the museum. 251 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,140 They have a replica Wright Flyer, a whole area 252 00:11:08,140 --> 00:11:11,770 devoted to the Rutan designs. 253 00:11:11,770 --> 00:11:13,718 I don't know how many-- 254 00:11:13,718 --> 00:11:15,760 I don't know how many of you know the MIT spinoff 255 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:16,870 Terrafugia. 256 00:11:16,870 --> 00:11:20,170 I guess-- I think it was 12-- at least 12 years ago, 257 00:11:20,170 --> 00:11:22,420 they said they were going to build a flying car. 258 00:11:22,420 --> 00:11:26,320 So I took a picture of this 1949 Taylor Aerocar, which 259 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:30,560 is actually a certificated flying car 260 00:11:30,560 --> 00:11:36,600 and unfairly associated with Terrafugia. 261 00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:41,010 So this guy is kind of an inspiration, I think-- 262 00:11:41,010 --> 00:11:43,590 Paul Poberezny, the founder of the Experimental Aircraft 263 00:11:43,590 --> 00:11:44,760 Association. 264 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:47,790 He flew the most expensive and highest-performance aircraft 265 00:11:47,790 --> 00:11:48,930 of the day. 266 00:11:48,930 --> 00:11:53,520 He flew the P-51 Mustang, the P-38 Lightning. 267 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:55,480 And then he came home and said, well, 268 00:11:55,480 --> 00:12:02,340 what's cool to do after flying a 12,000-pound-plus P-51 Mustang? 269 00:12:02,340 --> 00:12:05,790 Why not just go to the basement, get some plywood, 270 00:12:05,790 --> 00:12:09,872 nail it together, and build a really crummy plywood airplane? 271 00:12:09,872 --> 00:12:10,830 And that's what he did. 272 00:12:10,830 --> 00:12:12,775 So it just shows the joy. 273 00:12:12,775 --> 00:12:14,775 You don't have to have a high-performance, state 274 00:12:14,775 --> 00:12:16,157 of the art airplane. 275 00:12:16,157 --> 00:12:18,240 If you build it yourself or you're goofing around, 276 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:18,960 you can have fun. 277 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:19,500 And he did. 278 00:12:19,500 --> 00:12:24,570 And he was a better pilot than [INAUDIBLE],, 279 00:12:24,570 --> 00:12:26,490 I'm sure, in his P-51. 280 00:12:26,490 --> 00:12:31,610 So that made me think maybe we shouldn't be snobby about these 281 00:12:31,610 --> 00:12:34,370 home-built airplanes, because if it was good enough-- 282 00:12:34,370 --> 00:12:35,770 Poberezny had fun with it. 283 00:12:35,770 --> 00:12:36,270 All right. 284 00:12:36,270 --> 00:12:38,460 So here's some examples of home-builts. 285 00:12:38,460 --> 00:12:42,490 Up on the left there, there's some kind of canard velocity. 286 00:12:42,490 --> 00:12:47,180 These folks spent 15 years building this helicopter. 287 00:12:47,180 --> 00:12:49,500 And they had about 40 hours of flight time on it. 288 00:12:49,500 --> 00:12:53,640 So to me, in a good month at a flight school, 289 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:58,070 a Robinson helicopter might fly 90 hours or 100 hours 290 00:12:58,070 --> 00:12:58,800 in just a month. 291 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:03,390 So it's taken them 15 years plus to get to where a flight 292 00:13:03,390 --> 00:13:05,580 school would get in a month. 293 00:13:05,580 --> 00:13:07,350 But that's kind of not the point. 294 00:13:07,350 --> 00:13:09,060 It's not about efficiency apparently. 295 00:13:09,060 --> 00:13:10,525 That's Rotorway kit, I bet. 296 00:13:10,525 --> 00:13:12,900 And they modified it by sticking in a little tiny turbine 297 00:13:12,900 --> 00:13:13,640 engine. 298 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:14,920 This is another modification. 299 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:18,240 This is an old Rutan design that became the Berkut 300 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:19,740 with a big piston engine. 301 00:13:19,740 --> 00:13:23,620 This guy stuck a turbo jet engine in it. 302 00:13:23,620 --> 00:13:25,470 Here's the company-- yeah, 42,000-- 303 00:13:25,470 --> 00:13:27,990 I think that doesn't include the engine, which is under 50. 304 00:13:27,990 --> 00:13:31,360 You can build your own little single-seat jet. 305 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:32,310 Cirrus was there. 306 00:13:32,310 --> 00:13:37,510 Cirrus actually has been kind of an industry-changing company. 307 00:13:37,510 --> 00:13:39,010 It didn't seem that way at the time, 308 00:13:39,010 --> 00:13:40,990 because it's very similar in performance 309 00:13:40,990 --> 00:13:43,720 to Mooneys and Pipers, and Cessnas. 310 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,360 But they really have revolutionized the way 311 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:49,030 that families buy airplanes now. 312 00:13:49,030 --> 00:13:51,210 And they've got over 7,000 of them. 313 00:13:51,210 --> 00:13:54,820 The parachute is, I think, critical to getting 314 00:13:54,820 --> 00:13:57,760 modern people to accept this design. 315 00:13:57,760 --> 00:13:59,920 And also the glass cockpit does make life easier. 316 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:01,930 Although, everybody else has caught up there. 317 00:14:01,930 --> 00:14:03,250 Here's the Icon A5. 318 00:14:03,250 --> 00:14:04,750 They have the same booth every year. 319 00:14:04,750 --> 00:14:05,955 A huge amount of excitement. 320 00:14:05,955 --> 00:14:06,580 People love it. 321 00:14:06,580 --> 00:14:08,050 A lot of people have ordered it. 322 00:14:08,050 --> 00:14:10,480 They haven't figured out how to build it. 323 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:12,730 The price has gone up to the point where 324 00:14:12,730 --> 00:14:15,970 you can almost by a Cessna Caravan on floats with a jet 325 00:14:15,970 --> 00:14:18,600 engine for the same price. 326 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:21,310 Here is a retired Air Force and Southwest Airlines 327 00:14:21,310 --> 00:14:24,170 pilot with his electric self-launching Pipistrel 328 00:14:24,170 --> 00:14:24,680 glider. 329 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:26,530 Pipistrel is the company to watch. 330 00:14:26,530 --> 00:14:28,570 They do a lot of interesting stuff 331 00:14:28,570 --> 00:14:32,998 in Slovenia, especially with electrics. 332 00:14:32,998 --> 00:14:34,540 This is not the kind of radar picture 333 00:14:34,540 --> 00:14:39,040 you want to see when you're in a $99 tent. 334 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:44,110 I will say to Costco that it did hold up remarkably well. 335 00:14:44,110 --> 00:14:46,280 But it was scary. 336 00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:48,940 The seaplane base a few miles away from Oshkosh. 337 00:14:48,940 --> 00:14:51,670 They have the Oshkosh seaplane base. 338 00:14:51,670 --> 00:14:54,428 I think it's on Lake Winnebago. 339 00:14:54,428 --> 00:14:56,470 So you take a shuttle bus or you drive over there 340 00:14:56,470 --> 00:14:59,860 if you have a rental car. 341 00:14:59,860 --> 00:15:03,230 So you'll see-- they call it the quiet part of Oshkosh. 342 00:15:03,230 --> 00:15:06,290 It's quiet because you only hear about three or four aircraft 343 00:15:06,290 --> 00:15:08,810 engines running at any one time and maybe two 344 00:15:08,810 --> 00:15:10,790 takeoffs or landings. 345 00:15:10,790 --> 00:15:13,130 They have four hangars, vendors. 346 00:15:13,130 --> 00:15:16,880 If you want to take your dog in an unpressurized airplane up 347 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:20,090 to 18,000 feet, you can buy this kit. 348 00:15:20,090 --> 00:15:24,220 I don't know what our golden retriever would say about that. 349 00:15:24,220 --> 00:15:28,460 There's affinity groups for different slices. 350 00:15:28,460 --> 00:15:31,300 Here's a woman who just like-- just for female pilots 351 00:15:31,300 --> 00:15:33,260 to Mooneys. 352 00:15:33,260 --> 00:15:35,510 Air shows every day. 353 00:15:35,510 --> 00:15:38,480 My favorite acts actually were-- 354 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:39,620 I did like the GameBird. 355 00:15:39,620 --> 00:15:40,380 That was cool. 356 00:15:40,380 --> 00:15:42,350 But I also liked these first two were 357 00:15:42,350 --> 00:15:44,480 kind of regular family airplanes just 358 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:45,950 being pushed to their limits. 359 00:15:45,950 --> 00:15:48,727 It wouldn't be legal just to go out and do that in a Baron, 360 00:15:48,727 --> 00:15:50,060 because you can't do acrobatics. 361 00:15:50,060 --> 00:15:53,045 But he'll put it into experimental category, 362 00:15:53,045 --> 00:15:54,920 and then just fly it right up to the G limits 363 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:56,600 for which it was designed. 364 00:15:56,600 --> 00:15:59,630 And it's amazing to see what these ordinary family 365 00:15:59,630 --> 00:16:03,020 or business airplanes can do when pushed. 366 00:16:03,020 --> 00:16:05,750 There were-- one thing that's interesting, 367 00:16:05,750 --> 00:16:08,942 about 150 Beechcraft aerobatic Bonanzas were built. 368 00:16:08,942 --> 00:16:09,900 They were strengthened. 369 00:16:09,900 --> 00:16:15,030 And it is legal to do aerobatics in your four-seat Bonanza. 370 00:16:15,030 --> 00:16:16,920 Night airshow. 371 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:18,660 I guess that's worth showing. 372 00:16:18,660 --> 00:16:21,360 It is so unusual. 373 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:24,720 They had explosives and fireworks mounted on aircraft. 374 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:28,370 They fly around at night, shooting fireworks off. 375 00:16:28,370 --> 00:16:31,770 I guess you may have to view that on your own, 376 00:16:31,770 --> 00:16:33,940 which isn't so bad. 377 00:16:33,940 --> 00:16:36,160 A lot of warbirds. 378 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:38,470 Everything from World War II is still 379 00:16:38,470 --> 00:16:39,760 flying pretty much at Oshkosh. 380 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:43,988 That Grumman Tigercat on the right, 381 00:16:43,988 --> 00:16:45,530 I'd never even heard of that airplane 382 00:16:45,530 --> 00:16:46,613 until I saw it at Oshkosh. 383 00:16:49,260 --> 00:16:51,490 That's-- I think this is EAA's own B-17, 384 00:16:51,490 --> 00:16:54,890 which they fly around and sell rides in and stuff. 385 00:16:54,890 --> 00:16:59,840 Oh, and up on the top right is a flying 1/3 Scale B-17 386 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:06,520 that some crazy guy spent 15 years building or more. 387 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:07,244 That's EAA. 388 00:17:07,244 --> 00:17:09,619 Also, they have a B-29. 389 00:17:09,619 --> 00:17:12,547 Up there at the top right is my friend Eric with his personal-- 390 00:17:12,547 --> 00:17:14,839 I guess he's in the foundation with a few other people, 391 00:17:14,839 --> 00:17:17,960 but essentially a personal DC-3. 392 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:19,550 Oh, and he's flying that to Europe 393 00:17:19,550 --> 00:17:23,826 this year for the 50th Anniversary of D-day. 394 00:17:23,826 --> 00:17:25,810 Is it the 50th? 395 00:17:25,810 --> 00:17:27,330 No, it can't be. 396 00:17:27,330 --> 00:17:28,190 AUDIENCE: 75th. 397 00:17:28,190 --> 00:17:28,569 PHILIP GREENSPUN: What? 398 00:17:28,569 --> 00:17:29,310 75th. 399 00:17:29,310 --> 00:17:30,130 Sorry. 400 00:17:30,130 --> 00:17:30,640 Thank you. 401 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:33,670 I was a math undergrad. 402 00:17:33,670 --> 00:17:36,587 Good illustration of the value of a Course 18 degree. 403 00:17:36,587 --> 00:17:38,170 And actually, when I was an undergrad, 404 00:17:38,170 --> 00:17:39,587 people said, how will you ever get 405 00:17:39,587 --> 00:17:41,170 a job if you're a math major? 406 00:17:41,170 --> 00:17:42,540 The engineers all said that. 407 00:17:42,540 --> 00:17:44,810 Well, we said, well, we can become actuaries. 408 00:17:44,810 --> 00:17:47,390 We can become actuaries. 409 00:17:47,390 --> 00:17:52,030 There was a group of folks who were passionate about warbirds 410 00:17:52,030 --> 00:17:53,380 down in the south. 411 00:17:53,380 --> 00:17:55,900 And they called their organization 412 00:17:55,900 --> 00:17:58,098 the Confederate Air Force. 413 00:17:58,098 --> 00:17:59,640 Well, they've had to change that now. 414 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:01,980 Now they're the Commemorative Air Force. 415 00:18:01,980 --> 00:18:03,550 And they're big into-- 416 00:18:03,550 --> 00:18:05,320 they brought the Tuskegee Airmen, 417 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:09,010 some of the remaining P-51 guys from World War II there. 418 00:18:09,010 --> 00:18:11,860 I gave a talk with NOAA. 419 00:18:11,860 --> 00:18:15,130 That's Kate from NOAA trying to get volunteer pilots to fly sea 420 00:18:15,130 --> 00:18:18,250 turtles back from Cape Cod and other northern places 421 00:18:18,250 --> 00:18:20,333 to Florida. 422 00:18:20,333 --> 00:18:21,875 Sunday morning, it was time to leave. 423 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:28,820 For me, I saw 30% of what we'd hoped to see 424 00:18:28,820 --> 00:18:31,190 and 1% of what there was to see. 425 00:18:31,190 --> 00:18:34,093 As you can see from the right, that One Week Wonder's 426 00:18:34,093 --> 00:18:34,760 coming together. 427 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:36,800 It actually did fly, I believe, on Sunday. 428 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:40,270 So they got it built in seven or eight days. 429 00:18:40,270 --> 00:18:43,390 We went to Mackinac Island, beautiful place up 430 00:18:43,390 --> 00:18:46,340 near the Canadian border. 431 00:18:46,340 --> 00:18:48,050 Everything's horse-drawn or a bicycle. 432 00:18:52,433 --> 00:18:53,850 A fun place to go in the airplane. 433 00:18:53,850 --> 00:18:56,010 We went and landed in the Toronto City Island 434 00:18:56,010 --> 00:18:58,890 Airport, which is right in front of the downtown. 435 00:18:58,890 --> 00:19:02,910 We had Chinese food, saw the aquarium, 436 00:19:02,910 --> 00:19:04,110 landed back in Bedford. 437 00:19:04,110 --> 00:19:07,800 So we burned off 15 hours of Hobbs time. 438 00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:10,340 Split by three people, that wouldn't be too horrible. 439 00:19:10,340 --> 00:19:12,720 It was about $3,000 at retail. 440 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:16,710 Next year, I think it might be time to go JetBlue. 441 00:19:16,710 --> 00:19:22,260 So the summary is that even as the regulation 442 00:19:22,260 --> 00:19:26,850 has made light aircraft almost as expensive to operate 443 00:19:26,850 --> 00:19:31,590 commercially at least or for charter as the big aircraft, 444 00:19:31,590 --> 00:19:33,450 but Oshkosh keeps growing every year. 445 00:19:33,450 --> 00:19:34,950 More people are passionate about it. 446 00:19:34,950 --> 00:19:37,110 So what you're seeing in the aircraft world 447 00:19:37,110 --> 00:19:39,070 is like the very high end and the very low end 448 00:19:39,070 --> 00:19:42,050 are kind of prospering. 449 00:19:42,050 --> 00:19:43,482 This is Oxana's thing. 450 00:19:43,482 --> 00:19:45,690 She asked everybody like, what brings you to Oshkosh? 451 00:19:45,690 --> 00:19:47,860 And they always said, the people, 452 00:19:47,860 --> 00:19:49,620 I love talking to the people here. 453 00:19:49,620 --> 00:19:51,690 And I feel that way, too. 454 00:19:51,690 --> 00:19:54,230 People go year after year. 455 00:19:54,230 --> 00:19:56,670 There's a whole bunch of links here in the presentation. 456 00:19:56,670 --> 00:19:59,340 And finally, what I like most about it is-- 457 00:19:59,340 --> 00:20:03,210 and the reason I'm going back, I think, is it's my safe space. 458 00:20:03,210 --> 00:20:05,050 Outside of this room if I tell people 459 00:20:05,050 --> 00:20:07,260 I like to go over to Hanscom Field 460 00:20:07,260 --> 00:20:10,950 and fly this little four-seat airplane with a piston engine, 461 00:20:10,950 --> 00:20:11,730 they're horrified. 462 00:20:11,730 --> 00:20:13,660 They think that that's just so dumb. 463 00:20:13,660 --> 00:20:16,140 You could just drive in New York in your Honda. 464 00:20:16,140 --> 00:20:18,105 You could get a ticket on JetBlue for no money. 465 00:20:18,105 --> 00:20:19,230 Like why would you do that? 466 00:20:19,230 --> 00:20:20,190 It's dumb. 467 00:20:20,190 --> 00:20:24,710 But Oshkosh is the one place where nobody will say that.