EAA was founded in 1953 so the Gavin Arts 2023 EAA 70th Anniversary AirVenture Main Event design is based on that era’s style and colors.

Aircraft featured in the main part of the design are, starting top left, EAA’s beautiful B-17G Aluminum Overcast with a powered parachute just below it. In the center is the 70th Anniversary EAA logo and to the right of that are the F-22 demo ship, Bob Hoover’s Ole Yeller P-51 and the Burt Rutan VariEze that premiered at Oshkosh in 1975.

The middle section shows “Aircraft in Film & TV”. The Corsair is for Devotion, the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and F-14 Tomcat are for Top Gun: Maverick and the original Top Gun. EAA’s B-25 Berlin Express was actually in “Catch 22”, and EAA’s No. 209 Corsair featured here is at Oshkosh and was Lt. Tom Hudner’s actual replacement aircraft after he purposely crash-landed to try and save Jesse Brown. Other film aircraft are the P-40 Warhawk from The Flying Tigers, the H -13 Sioux (Bell-47) from M*A*S*H, the world famous Canadair CL-215/415 firebomber as seen in The Expendables 2, and the F8F Bearcat, also from Devotion.

Below the Corsair are the behemoth NASA Super Guppy and the Goodyear blimp which have both made memorable visits to AirVenture over the years. Also depicted in the sky over EAA’s historic Pioneer Airport are a Van’s RV, the aerobatic MX2, the classic Piper Cub, EAA’s P-64, a Cessna 170, the original Breezy now in the EAA Museum, and a Quad City Challenger.

Down the left side below the Young Eagles logo are aircraft that have visited AirVenture or are EAA related including Concorde, a Baby Ace, the 1931 Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogiro Miss Champion, the Rutan Voyager, the 1949 Taylor AeroCar, the UFM Easy Riser, EAA’s Ford Trimotor, a Christen Eagle and a Bell-47. They fly over a blue and white “competition stripe” from Paul Poberezny’s EAA jacket with the current EAA logo at the bottom.

Down the right side under the Eagle Flights logo are Vietnam-era aircraft including the B-52, the Bell AH-1 Cobra, the A-4 Skyhawk, the OH-6 Cayuse “Loach”, the Bell UH-1 Huey, the F-4 Phantom II, the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, the Cessna O-2 Skymaster, and the OV-10 Bronco. They fly over the Vietnam Service Ribbon with the Service medal at the bottom. 

At the bottom center is the 2023 Event theme “Celebrating 70 Years of Dreamers and Doers” that flanks a drawing of the statue at the top of EAA’s Compass Hill, depicting a young family flying small model airplanes and capturing the enchantment of aviation.

On the lower left is a drawing of the Wright Flyer as a tribute to the 120th anniversary of powered flight, and on the lower right is the tribute to 100 years of the U.S. Navy carrier aviation.

The front logo of the adult shirt is a variation of the OSHKOSH sign from the back with the 70th Anniversary EAA Logo flanked by the VC-121 Constellation and the Taylor AeroCar. 

Paul and Kimberleigh Gavin of Gavin Arts created the 2023 design. Together they develop the concept, then Paul researches the aircraft and lays them out and Kimberleigh then hand draws each one. She then scans them into the computer and creates each color area on each airplane piece by piece. She also designed the type and together with her husband Paul finally organized the entire design.