By Catherine Warmkessel
An air show wouldn’t be the same without the smoke that billows out behind each airplane. I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes of an air show, driving with and talking to the smoke oil volunteers.
As a child, I thought the smoke I saw at air shows was condensation, but as I grew I learned I was wrong. In simple terms, smoke oil is a light oil that burns completely at a low temperature.
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh goes through 60 barrels of smoke oil each week of the fly-in convention. Each barrel holds 55 gallons of smoke oil and costs about $1,200. When you do that math, it costs EAA about $72,000.
All of the smoke oil used is from Aeroshell. There are many colors of smoke oil, but EAA only provides the basic white. However, you can dye the oil by just adding coloring.
Smoke oil volunteers pick up oil from pallets of barrels and transport the oil to all the performers. There are three vehicles that are set up for such tasks: a dune buggy, a car, and a pickup truck. When the volunteers are retrieving the smoke oil, they need to be especially careful to not let water get into smoke oil tanks. If water gets into the smoke oil tank of the aircraft, it gets injected into the exhaust manifold and makes steam. When water gets into a filter, the filter expands like a marshmallow in a microwave.
For all their incredible work and effort, smoke oil volunteers get opportunities for the best seats in the house at the daily Oshkosh air show. As I get older, I hope to be able to join the team and give opportunities like this to other youths at Oshkosh!