Story and Photography by Jim Roberts
For the Wittman Tailwind pilots at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023, it’s a true homecoming. They’re celebrating the 70th anniversary of an aircraft that was designed by Wisconsin native and aviation icon Steve Wittman, a man who wrote his name in air racing record books in the early 20th century, and who from 1931 to 1969 was the manager of the airport that now bears his name.
Undeterred by a childhood illness that claimed most of his vision in one eye, Wittman learned to fly in 1924.
With the spark lit, Wittman was soon building his own raceplanes. Visitors to AirVenture can see two of his racers on display in the EAA Aviation Museum: the 1934 D-12, Bonzo, and the 1948 Wittman DFA, Little Bonzo. More aircraft and artifacts from Wittman’s illustrious aviation career are on display in the Wittman hangar at the museum’s Pioneer Airport.
In the early ’50s, Wittman turned his talent to designing the Tailwind, an airplane for cross-country travel. In December 1953 his Tailwind Model W-8C was the first two-place homebuilt approved by the FAA to carry a passenger. The design was noteworthy for its speed and efficiency. Born well before the days of kitbuilt airplanes and composite construction, it was a plansbuilt aircraft that anyone with reasonable mechanical skills could build using common shop tools. Following the W-8, Wittman came out with the W-9, a tricycle-gear version, and then the W-10, a slightly larger variant with tapered wings.
One of the many Tailwind pilots gathered at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023, Jim Stanton flew his 2015 W-10 from Arizona to his 60th EAA fly-in convention. His first was at Rockford, Illinois, in 1961, and he’s only missed one gathering since then. A retired professional pilot and accomplished builder, this is his second Tailwind project; the first was a W-8 built in 1964.
When asked what drew him to the aircraft, Jim answered, “I joined EAA in 1959, and the Tailwind was the hot ticket in those days. The only viable choice was the Stits Playboy or the Tailwind, and I realized that the Playboy was no match for the Tailwind.”
What does he like most about the aircraft? “It’s an incredibly docile air-plane; it has incredible control in the stall,” he said. “And I tell people that if you use the parameters of a generous cabin for two people, a decent-sized baggage compartment and decent fuel capacity, and a fixed landing gear, the Tailwind is the fastest airplane in E-AB history that meets those criteria.”
Powered by a Lycoming O-320, Jim’s W-10 carries two full-sized adults, 60 pounds of baggage, and 34 gallons of fuel, giving an endurance of four hours at 170 knots. In a fitting tribute to its designer, his airplane bears the registration num-ber NX14855; the same as Steve Wittman’s racer, Chief Oshkosh, that hangs in the National Air and Space Museum.