Oshkosh stages its biggest electric-aircraft showcase, but none can yet carry a passenger

The 73rd EAA AirVenture Oshkosh handed its Boeing Plaza to the future of flight on Tuesday, staging what the Experimental Aircraft Association billed as its most ambitious showcase yet of electric aircraft, eVTOL platforms and autonomous drones.

The July 21 innovations program read like a roll call of advanced air mobility. BETA Technologies, Bye Aerospace, Jetson, American Drone, MagniX, Zipline, Merlin Labs, Airhart Aeronautics and Amazon's delivery unit all brought hardware to Wittman Regional Airport, with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University rounding out the ground displays. For the first time, several competing electric platforms — Bye Aerospace, Jetson, BETA, American Drone and ScaleWings — were slated to fly together in the afternoon air show.

"The collection of innovations taking the stage on Tuesday represent just part of where aviation is headed," said Rick Larsen, EAA's vice president of communities and member programs.

Spectacle ahead of certification

The subtext is the gap between the display and the market. Oshkosh has assembled arguably the largest single gathering of electric and hybrid aircraft ever seen, yet not one of them can be bought or flown in commercial passenger service today. Most remain in flight testing or working through type certification with the FAA, whose inaugural eVTOL Integration Pilot Program missions were flown only earlier this month.

For a convention that draws more than 700,000 visitors and over 10,000 aircraft across the week, the emerging-technology day has become a fixture rather than a novelty — a public progress report on an industry that has burned through billions in investment without yet putting a fare-paying passenger in an electric cabin. The Twilight Flight Fest, headlined by drone-delivery firm Wing, closes the day.

AirVenture 2026 runs through Sunday at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.