Private Air & Private AirMart | Sensation, Reborn pg. 2

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Ode to a Legend : Sensation, Reborn

Flyers who want a sporty, timeless biplane need answer only one question: New WACO or WACO Classic?

By: Dan Patterson
May/June 2007 , Page 34

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Sensation, Reborn pg. 2

The plane gets its name from the initials of its original maker, the Weaver Aircraft Company of Troy, Ohio. Founded in 1920, WACO would become synonymous with easy-to-fly aircraft for the next 26 years. It also represented pioneering aviation engineering: Its fabric-covered fuselage was constructed from welded steel tubing and shaped with wooden formers and stringers; the wings were fabricated with spruce spars, spruce and wooden ribs and aluminum leading edges. Linked ailerons on both wings, meanwhile, provided positive and responsive control. When it came to handling and performance, the WACO was stable and forgiving.

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The jewel of the WACO hangar, and the company’s last open-cockpit model for the barnstorming pilots of the 1930s, is the gorgeous, rugged YMF-5. Part of its mystique stems from the demise of the WACO company, which ceased airplane production in 1946, a victim of the postwar general-aviation bust.

A happy footnote: In an aviation first, a new company, WACO Classic Aircraft Corporation, was founded in 1986. It took a then-50-year-old design and manufactured the plane anew, employing veteran talent from Piper, Taylorcraft and Ford. Maintaining the sanctity of WACO’s original design, the team modernized the aircraft with more than 300 engineering changes.

Today, the brand remains a particular favorite among aviation enthusiasts. Each summer, at Historic WACO Field in Troy, Ohio, both new and classic WACOs line up together. Among its aficionados, consensus reigns: After the last WACO flies, the skies will merely become air.

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