One Week Wonder Returns With the Super Cruzer

EAA will build a Zenith CH 750 Super Cruzer during AirVenture 2027, starting from a crated kit on opening day. Builders, ambassadors and first-time rivet pullers are invited to help.

Every summer, thousands of AirVenture visitors stand in front of a homebuilt and say some version of the same thing: “I could never build one of those.” In 2027, EAA will again try to prove them wrong in seven days.

The One Week Wonder returns to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh next July with a Zenith CH 750 Super Cruzer. A standard Zenith kit will be opened on Monday, July 26, 2027, the show’s first day, with the goal of a finished airplane by Sunday, August 1. Before the show ends, the airplane is to be inspected and ground-run, and then it goes directly to its new owner, the Aspiring Aviators Aero Club of Winter Haven, Florida.

“The One Week Wonder’s goal is to showcase the relative ease of building a kit aircraft – seeing is believing,” said Charlie Becker, EAA’s director of chapters and communities and homebuilt community manager.

The Airplane

The Super Cruzer is brand new. Zenith unveiled it on opening day of AirVenture 2026, after flying the prototype up from the factory in Mexico, Missouri. It is the cross-country member of the CH 750 family, an all-metal, high-wing design with side-by-side seating plus a rear jump seat. EAA lists a 1,900-pound design gross weight and an 800-pound useful load, and the prototype flies behind a 180-hp Lycoming O-360. Zenith estimates a typical builder can assemble the kit in less than 400 hours, and the company said kit deliveries would begin shortly after AirVenture 2026.

Like other Zenith designs, the Super Cruzer is built mostly with pulled rivets and match-drilled parts, which is exactly why it works for a crowd build. A visitor who has never held a rivet puller can learn to set one correctly in a few minutes.

“Aviation technology has changed enormously through the years, but the spirit of individual initiative has not,” said Sebastien Heintz, president of Zenith Aircraft. “It’s been said that building an airplane is worth a college degree. The young people involved with us in the project will have an amazing educational experience in the best tradition of EAA. In addition, being center stage at Oshkosh shows everyone how achievable building an airplane can be.”

Three Wonders So Far

This will be the fourth One Week Wonder in 15 years, and the first three all flew.

In 2014, more than 2,500 people helped turn a Zenith CH 750 Cruzer kit into a flyable airplane during the show. EAA’s Jeff Skiles flew it, as N140WW, from Wittman Regional Airport on August 5, two days after AirVenture closed. Ten years later it was back on display at AirVenture 2024.

In 2018, a core crew of about 100 builders and more than 2,500 visitors built a Van’s RV-12iS. Vic Syracuse made the first flight on Monday evening, the day after the show ended.

In 2022, the project was a Sonex Waiex-B with a Rotax 912iS, built from a complete airframe kit to first taxi in six and a half days. DAR Joe Norris flew it at Oshkosh on August 18, 2022.

Where You Come In

The 2027 build has three ways in.

Walk-up visitors can pull rivets on the airframe and have their names entered in the builders’ log, and they can help choose the paint scheme. Along the way, EAA plans demonstrations of tasks most first-time builders never see up close. “AirVenture attendees can participate in the activity and discover more about such concepts as weight and balance, propeller installation, and fuel flow tests,” Becker said.

Experienced builders can volunteer directly. Aspiring Aviators is looking for homebuilders attending AirVenture 2027 who are willing to work on the airplane itself.

EAA is also recruiting Homebuilding Ambassadors to staff the One Week Wonder tent, explain homebuilding to visitors, teach them to pull a rivet and answer questions about building. Sign-up links for both builder and ambassador volunteers are on EAA’s One Week Wonder page.

After the Show

Unlike a display airplane, this Super Cruzer has a job waiting. Aspiring Aviators plans to use it for its youth flying club.

“This will give students the opportunity to experience aviation in a way that very few young people have,” said Brian Hughes, the club’s president. “More than simply building an aircraft, this project represents the power of hands-on learning, mentorship, teamwork, and the aviation community coming together to inspire the next generation. After the build is complete, the aircraft will continue its mission as an educational tool, providing students with ongoing opportunities to learn about aircraft operations, maintenance, and flight.”