AirVenture 2023 Night Air Show Highlights

Photography by John Freedman, Howard German, Roland Dansereau and Ken Kula, written by Ken Kula

Although there are quite a number of weekend-long air shows that begin with a Friday night flying event, the EAA’s AirVenture can boast of two such events, one on the Wednesday evening and the other on the Saturday evening of the week-long event. 

The shows at AirVenture Oshkosh begin during that period of sunlight known as the “golden hour”, when the sunlight takes on a golden or orange glow as the sun nears the horizon. Usually, military jets perform, using a large amount of afterburner for effect! Warbirds also fly before dark, and the favorite Air Force Heritage and Navy legacy flights occur around this time too. 

In 2023, Wednesday evening saw both the autonomous Wisk! Cora aircraft and the manned Gravity jet suit begin the show. Wednesday saw the Navy EF-18 Growlers or on Saturday the Air Force F-22 Raptor took to the skies with afterburners blazing. While Randy Ball flew his dynamic and brightly-flaming MiG-17 both nights, he was joined by the Polaris MiG-29 on Saturday night. 

As darkness fell, more civilian routines followed with varying amounts of fireworks included… Bob Carlton in the Super Salto, Matt Younkin in the Twin Beech, Kyle Fowler in his Long EZ, Ken Reider in his RV-8, and finally Nate Hammond in his DHC-1 Chipmunk.

There are several civilian pilots who combine fireworks, smoke and flying, and the AeroShell Team uses aircraft lighting for a great effect.  Sometimes smoke from the fireworks enhances the lighting – reflecting the pyrotechnics’ colors – while other times it blocks some of the effects by blowing smoke towards the crowd or not moving any smoke at all. One never knows until the flying begins whether winds will become a friend or a foe. This year, the winds were rather favorable during both nights.

Finally, a spirited fireworks display was the finale for both of the night shows. On Wednesday, the NASA Super Guppy became a gathering spot for around three dozen photographers, hoping to catch a specific photo with the bulbous aircraft in front of a mass of fireworks and/or the wall of fire.