I attended the Paris Air Show back around 1979. After having attended Oshkosh in 1974, 76, 77, and 78, (and later in 1981 and 1996), I was underwhelmed.

The Experimental Aircraft Association airshow at Oshkosh each year is, bar none, the best aviation event on the planet. As just a teaser, this year, Burt Rutan will stop by with SpaceShipOne on its way to the Smithsonian (where it'll hang between the Spirit of St. Louis and Yeager's X-1, "Glamorous Glennis". Steve Fosset is planning on showing up with his Global Flyer (also on its way to the Smithsonian). It'll be the last time to see either of these planes flying. These, along with thousands of other planes (typically about 15,000 in all, including around 2,000 showplanes in the homebuild, antique, classic, warbird, ultralight, and rotary wing categories).

There will also be a lot of people. It was at Oshkosh that I got to meet C. G. Taylor, Molt Taylor, Pappy Boyington, George Gay, Marge Bong, Moya Lear, and many other famous and not so famous aviation personalities.

The Paris Air Show is about business. There's a lot of that at Oskosh, too, but most importantly, Oshkosh is about the love of flying in all it's forms. Where else could you find aircraft as funky as a turbojet powered ultralight?

As for the flight demonstrations, what I remembered from the Paris Air Show was a bunch of brief demo flights that all began to look alike. At Oshkosh, they close the field for about 3 hours every afternoon and put on a show! There are flybys by dozens of WWII aircraft (some very rare), followed by the top airshow acts around. Watch performers like Patty Wagstaff do maneuvers that put her through +12/-9 Gs (with no G suit) and defy you to figure out the control inputs and leave you gapping in awe. They're there at Oshkosk. It's the greatest show on Earth.