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 long-term 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: 1938 RYAN ST-A/ST-M SUPER SPORT

The Ryan Aeronautical Co. introduced the ST, or Sport Trainer, in 1934, followed soon thereafter by the ST-A Super Sport, which was equipped with a 125-hp Menasco C-4 engine. The Guatemalan Air Force bought six of the airplanes in 1938, designated ST-M and including larger cockpit cutouts and two wing-mounted Lewis machine guns. The museum’s example was built from parts of those ST-Ms after World War II, and it was later restored in Guatemalan Air Force colors and donated to EAA in 2003.