OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – The Experimental Aviation Association’s Airventure 2011 is underway and the aviation faithful are making their annual pilgrimage to the upper midwest. One of the big highlights this year includes a tribute to legendary air and spacecraft designer Burt Rutan.
Rutan has been impressing the crowd in Oshkosh since the 1970s when he flew his first of many interesting designs to the show. The VariViggen was just the first of many, many creative designs that Rutan has shown here over the years that span from small personal airplanes, to the first private space program.
This year many of Rutan’s historic designs have been taken out of storage and made airworthy again. One Rutan’s personal favorite aircraft, the Boomerang, flew in from Mojave to join a display of his airplanes at show center. The Boomerang is an asymmetric airplane with a pair of engines each with different horsepower, mounted on two different sized fuselages, each of which feature different sized wings and tail surfaces.
The result of all this asymmetry is a fast, safe and efficient airplane.
There will more on the Boomerang later in the week as well as plenty of other news from Oshkosh. We’ll be looking at everything from the latest in electric airplanes (and helicopters), to the latest in do-it-yourself homebuilt aircraft, to a look inside the biggest Zeppelin in the world.
Photo: Jason Paur/Wired.com
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