50 Years in Oshkosh — People, Planes, and Radios!
by Icom America
The EAA AirVenture fly-in started in 1953 in Milwaukee and moved to Oshkosh in 1970. This year marks the 50th anniversary of that first Oshkosh based fly-in.
Rick Larsen, EAA’s vice president of communities and member programs, who coordinates AirVenture features and attractions states:
“Over 50 years, nearly every significant aircraft type in the world has landed on the runways at Wittman Regional Airport to be part of the EAA fly-in. More important are the stories of the people who have come to be a part of this event and the legacy of what is now known simply as Oshkosh. That is what we will be celebrating in 2019.”
While most of the events are focused on the people and planes — we ask, what about the radios?
We’ll admit that none of those planes flying in to Oshkosh in 1970 boasted of Icom aviation radios. Although there might have been a few that sported Icom amateur radio transceivers.
Even so, it wasn’t long before a few started showing up with Icom aviation radios beginning in 1985 with the A2 Handheld VHF Airband Transceiver — 4.8 watts AM covering the 118 to 135.975 MHz communication band as well as the 108 to 117.975 Nav band receive only.
Plus, we know that quite a few showed up beginning in 1994 with the A3 and A22 in-hand, which became the world’s best-selling aviation handheld series.
Beginning in 2000, more planes arrived carrying the A5 and A23, which again became the world’s best-selling aviation handheld radio series.
A mere two years later pilots were eager to install Icom’s first panel mount radio, the A200. That was followed by the A6 and A24 handheld radios introduced in 2005 with lots of new features including an auto noise limiter for noisy environments.
In 2007 we entered the avionics panel mount market with the A210 introducing it at that year’s Oshkosh fly-in.
The demand for our radios grew and we obliged our customers with the A220 in 2016 including the TSO version, the A25 series in 2018, and this year the A16. And don’t overlook our A120 mobile and the X-Band Air cross-band repeater.
For us it’s always been about providing fantastic products that support the pure joy and fun of flying. And, there’s no better place for all that to come together than at the EAA Adventure in Oshkosh.
As yet one more example of our engagement on the fun side of things, Icom equipment will be on the air from amateur radio station W9W operated by the EAA Warbirds of America. They will be on 40 through 10 meters as well as 2 meters and 70 cm during the AirVenture. See our complete line of amateur radio equipment on our website.
Congratulations to the EAA Airventure Oshkosh Fly-in on their 50th anniversary. We’re celebrating our own 34th aviation anniversary and very much look forward to participating, showing off our radios, and meeting our customers and their aircraft. See you there! ADD BEFORE FLIGHT.
For more on Icom radio history, view Icom’s history timeline.