EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at the Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. The southern part of the show grounds, as well as "Camp Scholler", are located in the town of Nekimi and a base for seaplanes is located on Lake Winnebago in the town of Black Wolf.

The airshow is arranged by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), an international general aviation organization based in Oshkosh, and is the largest of its kind in the world. The show lasts a week, usually beginning on the Monday of the last full week in July. During the gathering, the airport's control tower, frequency 118.5, is the busiest in the world.

EAA was founded in Hales Corners, Wisconsin in 1953 by aircraft designer and military aviator veteran Paul Poberezny, who originally started the organization in the basement of his home for builders and restorers of recreational aircraft. Although homebuilding is still a large part of the organization's activities, it has grown to include almost every aspect of recreational, commercial and military aviation, as well as aeronautics and astronautics. The first EAA fly-in was held in September 1953 at what is now Timmerman Field as a small part of the Milwaukee Air Pageant, fewer than 150 people registered as visitors the first year and only a handful of airplanes attended the event. In 1959, the EAA fly-in grew too large for the Air Pageant and moved to Rockford, Illinois. In 1970, when it outgrew its facilities at the Rockford airport (now Chicago Rockford International Airport), it moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Much of the convention's growth and prominence on the world stage is credited to founder Paul Poberezny's son, aerobatic world champion and longtime EAA president Tom Poberezny, who became chairman of the event in 1977.

For many years, its official name was The EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In. In 1998, the name was changed to AirVenture Oshkosh, but many regular attendees still call it as The Oshkosh Airshow or just Oshkosh. For many years, access to the flight line was restricted to EAA members. In 1997, the fee structure for the show was changed allowing all visitors access to the entire grounds. EAA AirVenture holds nearly 1,000 forums and workshops, in addition to their many vendors which bring a variety of aircraft supplies, general merchandise, and name brand sponsors such as Piper, Cessna, Cirrus, and many others.

The 2020 AirVenture convention and air show was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

AirVenture has hosted the debut of numerous revolutionary designs. Van's Aircraft founder Richard VanGrunsven debuted his RV-3 at the 1972 AirVenture Oshkosh, a homebuilt that defined new ways of aircraft performance. VanGrunsven would eventually go on to build more homebuilts than anyone else in the world, exceeding the annual production of all commercial general aviation companies combined. In 1975, aircraft designer Burt Rutan introduced his VariEze canard aircraft at Oshkosh, pioneering the use of moldless glass-reinforced plastic construction in homebuilts, a technique that several aircraft went on to adopt in the ensuing years including composite airliners. At the 1987 AirVenture, Cirrus Aircraft's founders, the Klapmeier brothers, unveiled the VK-30 kit aircraft, which later led to the creation of the successful SR20 and SR22, the first designs to incorporate all-composite fiberglass construction, glass cockpits and airframe ballistic parachutes for use in manufactured light aircraft.

Other past notable designs introduced at AirVenture include Frank Christensen's Christen Eagle II aerobatic kit biplane in 1978, Tom Hamilton's Glasair 1 in 1980, and Lance Neibauer's Lancair 200 in 1985.

At the 2018 AirVenture, Jack Bally introduced his Bally Bomber B-17, a one-third scale, single seat homebuilt intended as a replica of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and Mike Patey introduced DRACO, a highly modified PZL-104 Wilga made for STOL and bush flying.