Formations Over Oshkosh, Dissimilar and Otherwise
The U. S. Army’s C-142A leads Kyle Fowler in his Long EZ and the NextGen Eagles before an air show opening parachute jump by the Golden Knights
Photography by Ken Kula
Here are thirty different groups of aircraft seen at this year’s AirVenture Oshkosh… how good is your aircraft ID skill? (Check the captions if you need help.) The Oshkosh sky often contains dissimilar formations made up with different types of aircraft, many times with deep historical significance. Other times the formations contain similar, or the same type of aircraft, but with a larger than normal number of participants. The skills of the pilots allow for rare pairings or huge formations, which are well practiced beforehand. That’s part of the fun at Oshkosh, how will the arriving aircraft be situated? Here’s just a small portion of what we saw in 2025. All of these photos contain multiple aircraft in the frame, some photos contain actual formations, others just happen to have two or more aircraft in the same photo…
An HU-16 Albatross leads a pair of B-25 Mitchells and an OV-10 Bronco in the rear position
The world’s only two flying B-29s paired with two P-51 Mustangs on Wednesday evening
Grumman Cat Flight from the Air Legends Foundation: the rare F6F Hellcat leads a F8F Bearcat, F4F Wildcat and F7F Tigercat
Fun Fly Zone evening twosome with a Goodyear blimp loitering away from the short landing competition
Four Maryland Air National Guard A-10s in the overhead pattern
A Globe Swift (left) is really landing on the further parallel runway than this Aeronca Champ
F6F Hellcat, P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning – all World War II American fighters
Five Aero L-39s lead a trio of MiG-17s, with a single L-39 photo ship in the rear of the formation
American trainer and liaison aircraft… a Vultee BT-13 leads two North American Navions and a Cessna Bird Dog in the rear
The Military Aviation Museum’s ME-262 replica leads a pair of P-51 Mustangs
The race is on! P-51D Plum Crazy and P-51C Thunderbird are neck and neck during a mock race during an afternoon air show
The Nextgen Eagles’ updated Christen Eagle aerobatic planes
The Northern Stars AeroTeam in their Pitts biplanes
The Super Cub with big wheels is landing on runway 36 Left while the Twin Commander is landing on runway 36 Right
Team Rocket F1 EVO leading a Van’s RV-8 into Oshkosh
Van’s RV-7 and RV-8
A pair of Schweizer SGM-2-37 depart at the end of AirVenture 2025
A SIAI Marchetti SF-260W Warrior in formation with an Aerospatiale TB-30 Epsilon
A Canadair CT-133 Silver Star chasing a MiG-17
Beech T-34 Mentors
The Titan Aerobatic Team SNJs depart for their night show with a Goodyear blimp in the background
The Trojan Thunder T-28 team
Cirrus SR-22 GTS Turbo and SR22 GTS in a formation landing during the Cirrus Mass Arrival
Cirrus SR-22 Carbon and SR-22 Platinum editions
U. S. Air Force Heritage Flight containing a F-22A Raptor and P-51D Mustang
A different U. S. Heritage Flight containing a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, North American P-51D Mustang and Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II
Wisconsin Air National Guard formation containing a KC-135R and a pair of F-35As
ATC on the job… the Goodyear blimp is nowhere near the Aero L-39 formation!
Goodyear blimps N1A (Wingfoot One) and N2A (Wingfoot 2) are now ZLT Zepplin Luftshifftechnik LZ NO7-101s types, not made by Goodyear…
