The special appeal of Oshkosh–which started out as a confab for home-builders–has been to see what astonishing new creations America's legion of amateur aeronautical innovators had come up with. By that score, this year's air show was disappointing. The most fun–and surprising–new aircraft we came across was the Snedden M7, designed by Ohio pilot and plane-builder Andrew Snedden. It features bright red fabric covering a truss of aluminum tubing, with splays of wire bracing to keep everything in place. The unusual four-wheeled undercarriage looks better suited to a shopping cart. To get into the open cockpit, you have to crouch, crawl under the wing, and climb up into it from below. The most novel feature is its one-on-a-kind inverted V-tail that serves as both an elevator and a rudder via a mechanism that we don't quite understand. With a cruising speed of about 35 mph, the aircraft isn't going to get anywhere fast, but that's okay: "Low and slow is the best way to see things," Snedden says. He has yet to decide if he's going to put it on the market as a kit plane. Either way, he gets top marks for creativity.