What About These Other Airplanes?

A spotter’s guide to the EAA Aviation Museum aircraft around the grounds

EVERY YEAR, MORE than 10,000 aircraft fly to Wisconsin for AirVenture. Of those, nearly 3,000 are showplanes — vintage aircraft, warbirds, homebuilts, aerobatic airplanes, etc. — that are displayed around the grounds. But some visitors may notice other airplanes parked here and there that didn’t fly in at all, because they’re part of the EAA Aviation Museum collection. Because our museum exhibits rotate, many of these aircraft are only viewable by the public during AirVenture, spending the rest of the year in longterm storage on the convention grounds. Each day, we’ll highlight one of these airplanes that you’ll see as you wander the neighborhoods of AirVenture.

AIRCRAFT: STITS SA-11A PLAYMATE

DESIGNER RAY STITS built the SA-11A Playmate as a simple and inexpensive homebuilt in the late 1960s. The side-by-side two-seater was powered by a 125-hp Lycoming O-290, and featured quickfolding wings that made the airplane fit in a standard-size garage. Ray donated the prototype to EAA in 1969.