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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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Harold Johnson, the “flying mayor” of Moraine, Ohio, is legendary for his airshow performances across the Midwest. Maybe it’s because he’s had ample opportunity to practice: Moraine Airpark lies within the city that elected him.

Or maybe he just has the right attitude: Ask him if the airspace is getting a bit too crowded, and he’ll reply, “There’s plenty of sky up there; you just have to look around.”

Just maybe, though, Johnson gets a little of his top-gun mojo from his wings: a distinctive red open-cockpit sport biplane designed in the 1930s that has remained a classic — a relic from the golden age of aviation. Reliable and sturdy, it has been a fixture at air shows large and small for decades. His aircraft? A WACO.

In Ohio, the WACO biplane has become quite a popular little flyer. West of the Moraine ramp on a July day, as towering clouds filter the setting sun, the plane forms a familiar silhouette. On weekends and evenings, a community of WACO pilots roll the planes onto the grass and give rides to those who have never flown in one — and to those ready to do so again.

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The aircraft has a comfortable cockpit wide enough for two, who get to sit right behind the loud (but reassuring) radial engine. Once it’s airborne and drifting above the landscape, the motor sounds give way to the whistle of slipstreams splitting through flying wires. All too soon, though, the throttle jumps in and the engine quiets down — the pilot’s prelude to landing.

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