By Tomas Kellner
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The annual EAA AirVenture fly-in at Oshkosh, Wis., the world’s largest gathering of aircraft enthusiasts, which takes place at the end of July, attracts 10,000 planes from around the globe and over 500,000 visitors. GE Aviation’s Brad Mottier first came here as a teenager and rarely missed a year over the next four decades.
Mottier, who leads GE’s business and general aviation business – that means all GE aircraft engines that are not being used by the military and commercial transport - sat down with GE Reports this week to talk about the history and the spirit of the place. “There is a sense of liberation, of self-direction about Oshkosh,” he says. “When you’re a pilot, you have a heightened sense of freedom and in many ways are not bound by decisions that someone has made for you. You set your own course.”
Tomas Kellner: How did your family get into flying?
Brad Mottier: Both of my parents were pilots. They started flying after World War II. My dad was an amphibious tank mechanic. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps on Guam in the South Pacific. My mother was a WAVE, serving in the women’s reserve in the U.S. Navy. They met after the war ended. They decided to make up for the lost time and live on a broader scale.
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Above: “In the 1970s, my father bought a 1949 Navion plane, similar to this one, and we used it to fly to Oshkosh, ” Mottier says.Top image: Mottier runs GE Aviation’s general aviation business. One of his units makes the composite flexible wing trailing edge for the Airbus A350. Image credits: Adam Senatori/GE Reports
TK: What kind of plane did they fly?
BM: It was a Cessna 120 and they got it before they even got their pilot’s licenses or bought a house. They flew it from Indiana, where they lived, over the Rockies to the West Coast and down to Mexico. They even made it to the Florida Keys.
Before my brother and I were born, my mother, Phyllis, would sometimes take the plane and go quail hunting at my Dad’s family’s farm in Central Illinois. She would land there, take her 410 shotgun, get some quail and fly back home with dinner.
TK: When did you first start flying with them?
BM: I’ve always had passion for aviation. I must have been 18 when I first came to Oshkosh with my father in a Cessna 172, which can seat four people. That was in the 1970s. The next year he bought a 1949 Navion and flew that plane down here for the first time. That was a miserable trip. It rained the whole time, there was standing water in the field and we ended up sleeping in the plane. But that was part of the fun.
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“My father used to camp under this tree with his friends for many years,” Mottier says. GIF credit: Adam Senatori/GE Reports
TK: What was Oshkosh like then?
BM: It was much smaller. In the 1970s, it was predominantly a show for people who were building their own airplanes. The certified aircraft manufacturers, who now have a very large presence, fit inside a fairly small space. In many respects, it was less commercial than it is today. In the evening we would go to the Theatre in the Woods, sit on folding chairs or on the ground, and watch old aviation movies. There were no big concerts like now. The show is now more upscale. It has grown up. Today’s it’s a celebration of all aviation.
TK: Last year there were 10,000 planes at Oshkosh and 500,000 visitors. But walking around, it seems to me that everyone knows each other.
BM: This place has a special spirit. There is a sense of liberation and self-direction about Oshkosh. It’s both inspirational and aspirational.
TK: Can you explain it?
BM: Flying gives you freedom and perspective. There’s a sense of accomplishment from being a pilot that’s not readily available in many other earthbound activities. When you’re a pilot you are in many ways not bound by decisions that someone has made for you. When we flew up here from Cincinnati on Sunday, for example, we didn’t talk to air traffic control the whole trip. We designed our own route, obviously following air space restriction, and flew up the Lake Michigan coastline past Chicago. The views were amazing! That’s the liberation I am talking about.
And that’s just the big picture.
Here at Oshkosh, there are many people who build their own planes. That’s an entirely new level of freedom. They choose the design, the engine, the propeller, the avionics, and wheels their planes will have. A lot of pilots here have been innovating within technical and financial constraints and that’s forcing them to use their imagination, be very creative.
Mottier has been coming to Oshkosh for four decades. Two years ago, he arrived in his yellow Aviat Husky.
TK: When did you start flying?
BM: I got my license when I was studying engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. In fact I flew myself to my first job interview. The job was more than three hours away driving and the company agreed to cover the cost of my plane.
TK: Did you get that job?
BM: Yes, I did, and in many ways I still have it. It was with a tiny company called Slick Electro, which made ignition systems for piston engine aircraft. That company grew into Unison Industries, which was in 2002 acquired by GE. At Unison, we made electrical and mechanical systems and components used on aircraft, but also communication satellites, the International Space Station and even nuclear submarines. Our magneto ignition system flew on the Voyager, the first plane to fly non-stop non-refueled around the world in 1986 and is now in the Smithsonian Museum.
TK: Do you own a plane?
BM: Yes, I fly an Aviat Husky, which is a small bush plane like you see in Alaska I live in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I’ve taken it as far out west as Jackson Hole, Wy. and north as Lake Placid, N.Y. I have also flown it to Miami several times. I like my Husky because it can take off and land in a very short distance and you don’t need paved runways. I fly about 150 hours a year. My parents’ philosophy was to live their lives to the fullest and I believe an airplane is the perfect vehicle to help do that.