Heliventure to Oshkosh
HeliVenture 2007: Helicopter Group Flying to Oshkosh From Paris
Several helicopter enthusiasts from the Union Française de l’Hélicoptère (the French helicopter association) will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first flying helicopter with a group flight from Paris to Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture 2007. “HeliVenture 2007” will depart Paris on July 14 and fly more than 4,600 nautical miles to Oshkosh with a planned arrival on opening day, July 23.
“It’s a dream to be in Oshkosh at the world’s biggest aviation event,” said Renaud Lataillade of the UFH. “Everything is going well, everybody is preparing the last details, and we’re counting the days.”
Their planned flight path will include stops in the United Kingdom, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and the U.S.-about 50 hours of flight time each way. Among the confirmed aircraft are two Squirrel AS-350s, a Squirrel AS-355, a Robinson R44, and an Augusta 109. Two fixed-wing aircraft, a Beech King Air and a Socata TBM 850, will also accompany the flight.
This journey pays homage to French inventor Paul Cornu, who in November 1907 flew the first rotary wing aircraft at Lisieux, Calvados, France. The machine, which had two counter-rotating rotors driven by a 24-hp Antoinette engine, lifted him about five feet in the air for one minute.
Before flying to Oshkosh on opening day, Lataillade said the group would arrive in Fond du Lac on July 21
Sign In
