potential, but had felt
it was underpowered.
He purchased the
last-ever Wilga built
and replaced the
Lycoming 540 piston
engine with a 680hp
PT6-28 turboprop
and married it to a
four-bladed prop. His
changes also included
building a new wing,
incorporating larger
aps and ailerons,
and designing a carbon bre front end for
the aircraft. He added a glass cockpit built
around Garmin glass G3X and 750 touch
screens, as well as an oxygen system that
that supports ight up to 28,000ft. The result
is an aircraft that has a stall speed as low as
32kts, impressive enough to win rst place in
the heavy category of the AirVenture STOLcompetition. Incredibly, elapsed
time from concept to ight-ready
was a mere ve months. FAA
certi cation was awarded a week
before the start of the show.
The Sling TSi, a four-seat
turbocharged kit aircraft from South
Africa’s Airplane Factory, made its
world debut at the show. Maximum
cruise speed is 145 KTAS at
9,500ft mean sea level, where it
burns just 8 gal/h. Maximum range
is 800nm (921 miles).
Vashon Aircraft unveiled its
new Ranger R7 S-LSA for the rst
time. It is a two-seater aircraft
powered by a 100hp Continental
O-200-D that can cruise at 117kts
with a maximum range of 430nm
(921 miles).
One of the most unusual looking
aircraft attending was the Yak 110,
the brainchild of airshow pilot Jeff
Boerboon and master mechanic
Dell Coller with assistance from
their friend Chad Bartee. They took their own
Yak 55s, one of the world’s foremost aerobatic
aircraft, and joined them together at thewing and horizontal
stabilizer. After a great
deal of internal work
to merge the systems
of two aircraft into
one, they added a
General Electric J-85
jet engine to give it
extra performance.
Boerboon’s
performances in the
resulting Yak 110
held the spectators
spellbound.
The Cricri Team – comprising a group of
three French pilots, homebuilders and Airbus
employees –made its US debut at AirVenture
this year. It ies a Colomban Cri-Cri, the
world’s smallest twin-engined manned
aircraft, and performs an airshow routine
after taking off from a moving vehicle.
On the rotary front, the Safari Helicoptercompany showed off its
experimental homebuilds, the
Safari 400 and 500. It aims to
prove that helicopters don’t have
to be expensive, or difficult to
y. The kits were available at
the show for under $143,000,
and there is a variety of options,
including a glass cockpit and full
IFR package, attachments for
a spray system, a cargo hook,
oats, side pods, ‘snow shoes’,
and a trailer for ground transport.
Re ecting on this year’s
airshow, EAA chairman Jack
Pelton said: “A ‘perfect’ event
may be unattainable, but
AirVenture 2018 came about
as close as one could imagine.
The combination of outstanding
programmes, aircraft variety, a
robust economy and [generally]
good weather combined to
complement the efforts of our
staff and 5,000 volunteers
throughout the grounds. The week was
upbeat, exciting and lled with many ‘Only at
Oshkosh’ moments.”58 Aviation News incorporating Jets October 2018
Above: To honour the rst ight of the North
American T-6 eight decades ago, 28 Texans
ew in an ‘80’ formation. Jim Jet Thompson
Below: One of the most unusual aircraft to
attend was the Yak 110 – which comprises
two Yak 55s spliced together with an General
Electric J-85 jet engine underneath the
fuselage. Both EAA photo/David BreslauerAbove: Super Chipmunk of GhostWriter
Airshows makes an impressive sight
releasing reworks at one of the two night
displays. EAA photo/Will Campbell