Paul Poberezny, the Baby Ace, and the Basement in Milwaukee Where the Whole Homebuilt Movement Began

Paul Poberezny founded the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in January 1953, running it out of the basement of his family home near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From that modest start, he built the homebuilt aircraft movement into a worldwide community and created EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, the annual gathering that turns a small Wisconsin airport into the busiest airport on Earth for one week each summer. Poberezny’s life’s work was a single idea: that flying should belong to ordinary people, not just airlines and the military.

Who Was Paul Poberezny?

Paul Poberezny was born in 1921 and grew up around Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a teenager, he got his start in aviation when his local high school was given a wrecked Waco primary glider that had been damaged in an accident.

Poberezny rebuilt that glider himself, teaching himself the craft rib by rib and spar by spar. Then he taught himself to fly it - no instructor, no formal training, just a repaired aircraft and a tow rope. That self-reliant, hands-on spirit would define his entire career.

He went on to fly in the Army Air Forces during World War II, serving as an instructor and ferry pilot, and later flew with the Wisconsin Air National Guard. Over his lifetime he logged roughly 30,000 flight hours in about 500 different aircraft types - a range of experience almost no pilot ever matches.

Why Did Poberezny Start the EAA?

After World War II, thousands of veterans who had learned to fly in the military came home to find civilian flying had become expensive, heavily regulated, and tangled in paperwork. Pilots who wanted to fly affordably increasingly turned to building their own aircraft from plans sold in the back of magazines.

The problem was that these amateur builders had no support system. Federal rules for homebuilt aircraft were murky, and each builder was left to navigate the regulations alone, with no shared knowledge and no collective voice.

On a January evening in 1953, Poberezny gathered a small group of like-minded builders at Curtiss-Wright Field near Milwaukee and founded the Experimental Aircraft Association. It began as a simple club for people who loved to build airplanes.

Where Was the EAA’s First Headquarters?

The EAA’s first headquarters was the basement of Paul and Audrey Poberezny’s home on Forest Home Avenue in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. What is now the largest organization of its kind on Earth began as a family operation run out of a house.

Audrey Poberezny managed the membership rolls from the kitchen table, typed the newsletters, and kept the books. When new members mailed in their dollar to join, the letters arrived at the family home. Their children, Tom and Bonnie, grew up with the entire association living downstairs.

This detail captures the essence of the early EAA: the mailing list of the world’s largest sport-aviation organization was maintained by a homemaker with a typewriter.

What Is the Baby Ace?

The Baby Ace is a single-seat parasol monoplane that became the airplane of the early homebuilt movement. In 1955, Poberezny took an existing design by Orland Corben and refined it specifically for the amateur builder.

The plans were published as a series in Mechanix Illustrated magazine, meaning ordinary people - mechanics, mailmen, machinists - could send away for them and build a genuine, airworthy airplane in their garage.

The Baby Ace proved Poberezny’s central point: a person with ordinary tools, ordinary skill, and extraordinary determination could build an aircraft and fly it safely and legally. Poberezny painted his own example brightly and turned it into a flying advertisement for the entire movement. For decades he also flew a personal red-and-white aircraft he called Red One.

How Did the EAA Fly-In Become AirVenture Oshkosh?

The EAA’s annual gathering started as a modest fly-in in Milwaukee in 1953 with just a handful of airplanes. As word spread among pilots, it grew steadily and outgrew each home it found.

The fly-in relocated to Rockford, Illinois for a stretch during the 1960s, but continued to expand every year. In 1970, the event moved north to Wittman Field in Oshkosh, Wisconsin - named for racing pilot Steve Wittman - and it has stayed there ever since.

For one week each summer, this quiet Wisconsin airport becomes the busiest airport in the world. Traffic is so heavy that controllers, brought in from around the country, often can’t use call signs. Instead, they clear pilots by the color of their aircraft, asking them to rock their wings for identification.

What Can You See at AirVenture Today?

Today’s event showcases the full breadth of the flying community that Poberezny built. Visitors walk among thousands of homebuilt aircraft, each representing someone’s evenings and weekends of labor.

The grounds also feature a warbird ramp with P-51 Mustangs, B-17s, and Corsairs; vintage rows of polished aluminum and fabric taildraggers; ultralights flying at dawn; jet demonstrations in the afternoon; and a dedicated seaplane base on the water. Families camp under the wings of their own airplanes throughout the week.

What Was Paul Poberezny’s Legacy?

Poberezny led the EAA for decades before handing the presidency to his son Tom in 1989, though he never stopped attending. He remained a familiar presence on the grounds, touring in a small red convertible, shaking hands and remembering names like the host of a party in his own backyard.

His formal honors include the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy and enshrinement in the National Aviation Hall of Fame. But his more meaningful legacy is measured in the aircraft that ordinary people built and the more than two million young people who have received free introductory flights through EAA’s Young Eagles program.

Paul Poberezny died in August 2013 at the age of 91. His memorial was held at Oshkosh, on the grounds he built, and was marked by a missing man formation flown overhead - the traditional tribute to a fallen aviator.

Key Takeaways

• Paul Poberezny (1921–2013) founded the Experimental Aircraft Association in January 1953 near Milwaukee, launching the modern homebuilt aircraft movement.
• The EAA’s first headquarters was the basement of the Poberezny family home in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, with wife Audrey running membership from the kitchen table.
• Poberezny refined the Baby Ace in 1955 and published its plans in Mechanix Illustrated, proving amateurs could build and fly real aircraft.
• The EAA fly-in moved from Milwaukee to Rockford, Illinois, and finally to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1970, where it became the world’s busiest airport for one week each year.
• Poberezny logged roughly 30,000 hours in 500 aircraft types and was honored with the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy and the National Aviation Hall of Fame.