The sour economy isn’t dissuading pilots from descending on Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisc., this week. Organizers at the Experimental Aircraft Association are expecting about 100,000 planes and hundreds of thousands more people to come to AirVenture this week, similar to last year’s numbers, the Wichita Eagle reported. GA manufacturers have been hit hard in the last year, so AirVenture this week may not have as many unveilings as in years past. Even still, attendees can look forward to visits from the Airbus A380 and the WhiteKnightTwo in separate appearances later this week. Cessna will give an update on its SkyCatcher program, which was delayed when two of its test planes were involved in spin-related crashes. Hawker Beechcraft has said it will make an announcement, and Diamond is rolling out almost its entire product line. Diamond will have both new versions of the Twin Star on display, along with a mockup of the D-Jet and two D-Jet test planes. The company is also bringing the HK36 motorglider back to the U.S. market and will announce upgrades to the DA20, a two-seat plane used by a growing number of flight schools, it said in a news release.

Last week’s Paris Air Show gave Airbus a chance to gloat on several fronts, as it tallied 58 firm aircraft orders for the week – well beyond the two firm orders Boeing pull in but less than a quarter of last year’s tally for Airbus at Farnborough, England. And Airbus said it remains in a strong position to bid on the U.S. Air Force’s forthcoming midair refueling tanker contract, the London Telegraph reported. Airbus plans to again offer a modified A330, which would be built in Alabama. Boeing said it would give the Air Force a choice of a modified 767 or larger 777. The latter would likely be more expensive, but would be able to hold more fuel and cargo than the A330. Last fall, the Air Force withdrew the contract after awarding it to Airbus, when the Department of Defense found that Boeing had been unfairly penalized in scoring the competing offerings. But Airbus remains confident it will prevail again in a contract that could mean $35 billion of revenue for one of the companies in the coming years.