A Family Reunion: What Oshkosh Means to the Merlin Team

Every July, a small stretch of Wisconsin runway becomes the center of the aviation universe. For one week, EAA AirVenture turns Oshkosh into a gathering of pilots, engineers, builders, and dreamers. More than 10,000 aircraft fly in, and last year over 704,000 people came through the gates, the highest attendance in the show's history.

As we head to Oshkosh this July, we asked members of our team what the show means to them. From first flights, family, and the pull of a field that never quite lets go, their answers say more about why we do this work than any mission statement ever could.

Where The Old and The New Share a Field

Part of what makes Oshkosh singular is that it refuses to choose between honoring aviation's past and chasing its future. Both are parked on the same grass.

"It's the mixture of super old traditional aircraft being present and everything new and exciting that's happening in aviation," says Josh Peek, Merlin’s senior technical sourcing recruiter, who lives close enough to make the trip a regular pilgrimage. "There's a respect level everyone shows each other that you can feel. And it's fun to see every innovation imaginable being displayed or flown in little old Oshkosh, WI."

For Charles Njenga, a principal systems engineer at Merlin, that blend is exactly what pulled him in. "As a college student, Oshkosh opened me up to the wonderful world of aviation, displaying its history and potential future," he says. He remembers the small startups reimagining military, commercial, and private flight, and the pioneers who reshaped the field – from new control theories to new airplane designs. "There is great camaraderie that keeps me excited for the future of aviation," he says. "I cannot wait to see what the future holds, even as I work at Merlin to bring more innovative ideas to such an exciting field."

Al Lawless, Merlin's Vice President of Flight Test and Operations, has attended three times, and the show has never stopped surprising him. "I always find myself simultaneously inspired and humbled," he says. "AirVenture brings a staggering number of passionate people with tremendous dedication to their aviation niche." Stay in aviation long enough, he notes, and you will randomly bump into people from your past and land in all kinds of nuanced conversations about everything from warbirds to flying boats to gyroplanes. "The overall vibe at AirVenture is family friendly," he adds. "Everyone is on vacation, patient, and happy to be there."

The Moment Aviation Grabbed Hold

For a lot of us, the pull started early. Sometimes in childhood, sometimes at the moment aviation stopped being a passing interest and became a calling.

Miles Priebe, a software engineer at Merlin, grew up about 20 minutes from EAA in Neenah, close enough that he still remembers the planes doing loops over the house. Both his parents worked for Air Wisconsin in the '80s and '90s, and the company had a booth at the show. Peter LaCasse, a Merlin software contractor, grew up in Neenah too, and still remembers a friend's dad, who also worked for Air Wisconsin, sneaking a group of kids behind the scenes into a hangar. There, balanced so precisely that a child could push up on the nose and tip it back onto its rear wheels, sat a tiny experimental aircraft. Years later he returned as an adult, this time with his family, and watched an F-22 do things at low speed and low altitude "that seem unnatural for an airplane to do." That was also the trip, he notes, where his wife fell in love with the C-130, an aircraft that happens to be close to our hearts, as well.

For Pat Shine, Merlin’s virtual test environments engineering lead, the seed was planted in 2008, when he went all in on the full Oshkosh experience: flying the famous Fisk arrival, sleeping in a tent under the wing of his Cessna 172, and walking ten-plus miles a day. "I'd been an aviation geek all my life, so it was incredible to finally see the largest airshow in the world," he says. What stuck with him most wasn't the big iron, it was the rows and rows of amateur-built airplanes, and the passion poured into each one. "I think it planted the seed for me to start building my own plane 10 years later."

And for Jonathan Oliver, now an Engineering Test Pilot at Merlin, Oshkosh didn't just spark a hobby, it set a course. He first arrived in 2010 as a college intern working as a camp counselor at EAA's Air Academy. "I went from thinking I'd learn to fly one day to needing to learn as soon as I got home," he says. "I spent my intern money on my private license." That summer began a streak of yearly attendance that reaches 16 events this July, and ultimately led him to his career at Merlin.

Why It Still Matters

Is aviation's inventive era behind it? Spend a week in Oshkosh and the answer is obvious.

"The spirit of innovation is alive and well," Pat Shine says. He points to the year the Martin Jetpack was unveiled to the world – a machine that never became a commercial success, but showcased a genuinely novel approach to flight. Every year, something new debuts in front of the most attentive audience in aviation.

For those who keep going back, the pull becomes about more than the machines. "I used to go to see the new toys for my own aircraft, or to lust over the new airplanes," Jonathan says. "But now, I very much go to see people that I only get to see in Oshkosh. It's aviation's family reunion, and I can't imagine missing it."

That's the spirit we bring to our own work: a deep respect for the century of aviation that came before us, and an equal excitement for what comes next. Building autonomous flight isn't a departure from that tradition, it's the newest chapter of it.

So if you're heading to Oshkosh this year, come find us. We'll be the ones grinning at the old and the new sharing the same field, and glad as always to be part of the reunion.