Left: A Just Aircraft demonstrating its amazing rate of climb at the Fun Fly Zone. Below: Aeroshell Mall is the center of activity for most visitors to AirVenture. It is where the large, unique aircraft are displayed. AirVenture 2017 by Roy Beisswenger America’s Aviation Showcase This year’s eaa AirVenture, held 24-30 July 2017, was a great event. While the week’s weather started a little cloudy and rainy, by the end of the event the weather was as sunny and optimistic as the people attending the convention. This year’s AirVenture showed a reversal of a nearly one decade trend in aviation. The prior trend, at least for commercial exhibitors, was fairly negative. That trend was not because of AirVenture, itself. It was because of the general economy. Aviation is a recreational activity for most of the people at AirVenture. So when the economy turns down, so does the desire to make new purchases. This is the same for all ‘luxury’ items including motorcycles, recreational vehicles, boats, and other big-ticket purchases. With the economy doing well and the stock market booming, people feel they can maybe make a purchase that they have been putting off. That means that this year saw a lot of buyers. And it was probably better than a normal good year, since there was a decade’s worth of pent up desire! And it was a good year for AirVenture itself. Crowds were up from last year, 5% up. That means that a total of 590,000 people were attending. To understand this big number, it
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