The Waco Aircraft Company (WACO) was an aircraft manufacturer located in Troy, Ohio, United States. Between 1920 and 1947, the company produced a wide range of civilian biplanes.
The company initially started under the name Weaver Aircraft Company of Ohio but changed its name to the Waco Aircraft Company in 1928/29.
WACO (referring to the aircraft) is usually pronounced "wah-co"[1] (the first syllable pronounced as in "water"), not "way-co" like Waco, Texas, whose name is entirely unrelated.
Several companies operated under the Waco name, with the first company being the Weaver Aircraft Company, a firm founded by George E. Weaver, Clayton Bruckner, and Elwood Junkin in 1920 in Lorain and Medina, Ohio after they had already been collaborating for several years. In the spring of 1923 this became the Advance Aircraft CompanyinTroy, Ohio, after the departure of Weaver.
Waco's history started in 1919 when businessmen Clayton J. "Clayt" Brukner and Elwood "Sam" Junkin met barnstorming pilots Charles "Charley" William Meyers and George "Buck" Weaver. Although their initial floatplane design was a failure, they went on to found the Waco company in 1920 and established themselves as producers of reliable, rugged planes that were popular with travelling businessmen, postal services and explorers, especially after the company began producing closed-cabin biplane models after 1930 in addition to the open cockpit biplanes.[3]
The Waco name was extremely well represented in the U.S. civil aircraft registry between the wars, with more Wacos registered than the aircraft of any other company. Production types include open cockpit biplanes, cabin biplanes and cabin sesquiplanes (known by Waco as Custom Cabins) as well as numerous experimental types.[citation needed]
During World War II, Waco produced large numbers of military gliders for the RAF and US Army Air Forces for airborne operations, especially during the Normandy Invasion and Operation Market Garden. The Waco CG-4 was the most numerous of their glider designs to be produced. At the same time Waco produced over 600 of its UPF-7 open biplanes and 21 VKS-7F cabin biplanes for the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which supplemented the output of the military training establishments. 42 privately owned models of sixteen types were impressed into service as light transports and utility aircraft with the USAAF under the common designation C-72/UC-72.
Waco ceased operations in 1947,[4] having suffered the fate of a number of general aviation companies when an anticipated boom in aviation following World War II failed to develop.[5]
The final Waco relied on an experimental Franklin engine which, with the cancellation of other contracts became so expensive, that the Aristocraft, which relied on it, was cancelled.[6]
The Waco brand name was briefly revived, in the 1960s and early 1970s—for a scheme to produce, assemble, re-assemble or market a series of modern, all-metal Italian and French lightplanes (semi-monocoque, enclosed-cabin, low-wing, single-engine) under licence in the United States. The program was headed by a "Mr. Berger," and the enterprise was known (in 1968) as Waco Aircraft Co., a subsidiary of Allied Aero Industries, Inc., and based at Pottstown-Limerick Airport, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, with dealers in Connecticut, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, California, and Ontario, Canada.[7] The European WACOs—in some cases replacing the original Lycoming engines with less-popular Franklin engines (Mr. Berger was involved with Franklin) -- were to be manufactured (or at least assembled or re-assembled) in the U.S. by WACO Aircraft Company at Syracuse, New York. Only several dozen (perhaps 65–150) of these European-origin aircraft were sold as WACOs before the death of Mr. Berger put an end to the program. These planes included:[8][9][10][11][12][13]
WACO Sirrus – a relabeled Italian SIAI Marchetti S.205 comparable to the Piper PA-28 Cherokee line, a four-seat touring airplane offered with fixed or retractable gear, and Franklin or Lycoming engines ranging from 180 to 220 horsepower.[8][9][11]
WACO Vela – the Italian SIAI Marchetti S.208, an enhanced, five-seat version of the Sirrus / S.205, with 260 horsepower, retractable landing gear, and flush-riveted, laminar-flow wings—arguably in the same class as the Beech Bonanza line. It came with an autopilot as standard equipment—unusual for aircraft of its class, at that time—and the first fault-annunciator panel in a general aviation airplane.[8][9][7][10][11]
WACO Meteor – a relabeled Italian SIAI Marchetti F.250 / SF.260 fast, acrobatic, three-seat sport / trainer / touring plane, later offered, by others, in manufactured metal versions, metal and wood kitplanes, and as a plans-built wooden aircraft (as for instance, the SF.260, and Sequoia). Marketed in the United States under the name Waco TS-250-3 Meteor, only four were shipped to the U.S.[8][14][10][13]
WACO Minerva – relabeled French Morane-Saulnier MinervaorRallye, a four-seat STOL aircraft designed for use in and out of very small, unimproved landing strips, later produced by French SOCATA as the SOCATA Rallye. (Reportedy, only 3 WACO Minervas were delivered.)[10][12][13]
The WACO Classic Aircraft company (unrelated to the original Waco) began building its WACO Classic YMF in 1986, an upgraded version based on Waco's original type certified design.[15]
Note: Waco civilian designations describe the configuration of the aircraft. The first letter lists the engine used, the second the specific type, and the third the general series. The coding system was changed in 1929 with several letters reassigned, and later with the introduction of the Custom Cabin series, the third letter 'C' was initially replaced with C-S (Cabin-Standard) and finally S.[18] The numeral suffix represents the first year of production if it is 6 or higher (6=1936), or a sub type if 2 or less. Thus EGC-7 is a Wright R-760-E2 (350 hp (261 kW)) engined, cabin biplane airframe, custom cabin model first manufactured in 1937.[17]
Many Waco Cabin Biplanes that were originally sold as civilian aircraft, were impressed into military service in World War II. The United States Army Air Forces classified theirs regardless of type as Waco C-72s, with type letters identifying specific models. Other countries used other designations for their own Wacos.
Most produced model of any Waco aircraft, 1,623 built between 1927 and 1933. Refinement of Waco 9 with 90 hp (67 kW) Curtiss OX-5 V8 engine. Redesignated GXE by Waco in 1928. When letter designations were used, a final letter M indicated it was a mailplane, and the middle letter of S indicated a straight "Hershey bar" wing, while a T indicated the model was a taperwing, with the chord at the wingtips being less than half of the root chord.
Waco JWM: Straightwing mailplane with 330 hp (250 kW) Wright R-975 engine. Derivative of ASO with 14" fuselage stretch. 2 built.
Waco JYM: Taperwing mailplane with 300 hp (220 kW) Wright J-6-9 radial engine. Derivative of ATO with 14" fuselage stretch. 4 built for Northwest Airways
Waco UPF-7: Second-most produced variant, over 600 built. Continental W-670 220 hp (160 kW) engine. Widely used in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. 14 became YPT-14 trainers, but not adopted by USAAF.
^ abcDavisson, Budd, "WACO METEOR/S.F. 260: And still Champeen," (Marchetti S.F.260 Pilot Report) September, 1977, Air Progress Magazine, retrieved February 5, 2017 from author's personal website, Airbum.com
Juptner, Joseph P. (1962). U.S. Civil Aircraft Vol. 1. Los Angeles, CA: Aero Publishers, Inc. LCCN62-15967.
Balmer, Joseph; Davis, Ken (1996). Mrs. WACO – The Early Days of the WACO Aircraft Company as told by one who lived it! Hattie Meyers Weaver Junkin. unk.: Little Otter Productions. ISBN978-1888282047.
Balmer, Joseph; Davis, Ken (1992). There Goes a WACO. unk.: Little Otter Productions. ISBN978-0925436085.
Brandley, Raymond H. (1979). Ask Any Pilot - The authentic history of Waco airplanes and the biographies of the founders, Clayton J. Brukner and Elwood J. "Sam" Junkin. R. H. Brandly. ISBN978-0960273409.
Brandly, Raymond H. (1986). Waco Aircraft Production 1923-1942 (2nd ed.). Troy, Ohio: Waco Aircraft Co. ISBN978-0-9602734-5-4.
Brandley, Raymond H. (1981). Waco Airplanes - The Versatile Cabin Series. R.H. Brandly. ISBN0-9602734-2-5.
Juptner, Joseph (1977). U.S. Civil Aircraft. Vol. 7. Aero Publishers, Inc. pp. 97–100. ISBN978-0816891740.
Kobernuss, Fred O. (1992). Waco – Symbol of Courage and Excellence, Volume 1. Terre Haute, IN: Sunshine House, Inc. ISBN0-943691-07-9.
Kobernuss, Fred O. (1999). Waco – Symbol of Courage and Excellence, Volume 2. Destin, FL: Mystic Bay Publishers. ISBN1-887961-01-1.
Simpson, Rod; Trask, Charles (2000). Waco – Images of Aviation. Tempus Pub Ltd. ISBN978-0752417677.
Spofford, B. D. (October 1929). "Manufacturing the Waco". Aero Digest. Vol. 15, no. 4. Aeronautical Digest Publishing Corporation. pp. 78–80. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
