Last Updated: 5/2/2024
The EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 schedule of forums and presentations with legendary designer Burt Rutan has been finalized and will include six events over five days on July 22-26.
Those presentations include:
- Monday, July 22: “Life, The Universe, and Everything Else” – 7 p.m., Theater in the Woods
- Tuesday, July 23: “50-Year History of Homebuilt Composite Canards” – 11:30 a.m., Forum Pavilion 7
- Wednesday, July 24: “Commercial Space & WingShips – Arrested in Russia, 1993” – 11:30 a.m., Forum Pavilion 7
- Wednesday, July 24: “Voyager” – 2:30 p.m., EAA Aviation Museum
- Thursday, July 25: “Burt’s New Designs and his Heroes” – 11:30 a.m., Forum Pavilion 7
- Friday, July 26: “Why Beech Did Not Replace King Airs with Starships” – 11:30 a.m., Forum Pavilion 7
The presentations from Rutan, as with all EAA AirVenture forums and workshops, are included with regular AirVenture admission.
Rutan, an EAA Lifetime member for more than 50 years, made his first big splash at Oshkosh in 1972 with the VariViggen, which brought canard design to the homebuilt community. That led to a series of other Rutan recreational aircraft designs with innovative moldless fiberglass construction, which included the VariEze and Long-EZ that are still being built today.
EAA is also working with the Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience group, which has preserved many examples of Rutan’s aircraft designs, regarding aircraft to be displayed at Oshkosh, especially on Boeing Plaza on Monday, July 22.
Legendary Designer Burt Rutan Returning to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in 2024
Burt Rutan, whose innovative designs have captured the world of flight ranging from homebuilt aircraft to space vehicles, will return to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in 2024 with appearances and forums coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his VariEze canard aircraft design. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 is July 22-28 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.
“Burt is best known to the public for his historic designs of SpaceShipOne, Voyager, and GlobalFlyer, but for EAA members and aviation aficionados, his unique concepts began more than a half-century ago with fiberglass canard aircraft that revolutionized the amateur-built airplane community,” said Rick Larsen, EAA’s vice president of communities and member programs, who coordinates AirVenture features and attractions. “Every time Burt joins us at Oshkosh, his presentations draw big audiences that are eager to hear his unique perspectives on flight.”
Rutan, an EAA Lifetime member for more than 50 years, made his first big splash at Oshkosh in 1972 with the VariViggen, which brought canard design to the homebuilt community. That led to a series of other Rutan recreational aircraft designs with innovative moldless fiberglass construction, which included the VariEze and Long-EZ that are still being built today.
The public recognition of Rutan came in the 1980s with his design of Voyager, which in December 1986 became the first aircraft to fly around the world non-stop on a single tank of fuel. The record was surpassed with a similar solo flight by Rutan’s GlobalFlyer in 2005, with Rutan’s unsurpassed legacy crowned with the successful flights of SpaceShipOne in 2004, completing the first successful civilian space flight program that earned the $10 million X Prize.
Along the way, Rutan’s imaginative designs also included the one-of-a-kind Proteus, an “affordable U-2 aircraft,” and the asymmetrical twin-engine Boomerang, among others, coming from Rutan’s Scaled Composites in Mojave, California, often regarded as the most aggressive aerospace research company in the world. Through the years, that company developed and tested a variety of groundbreaking projects, from military aircraft to executive jets, showcasing some of the most innovative and energy-efficient designs ever flown. Rutan has received the Presidential Citizen’s Medal, the Charles A. Lindbergh Award, two Collier Trophies, the EAA Freedom of Flight Award – the organization’s highest honor – and has been included in TIME Magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world” listing.
Rutan’s exact schedule at AirVenture will be announced as it is finalized. EAA is also working with the Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience group, which has preserved many examples of Rutan’s aircraft designs, regarding aircraft to be displayed at Oshkosh.
