Fearless Flying - The Ercoupe Story

hi my name is Don Abbott I've been an avid coop fan ever since I was a kid when I'd ride my bike down the gravel road to the local airport during the past 50 some years that I've been a pilot I've owned and rebuilt six or coops as a television producer I've always thought that making a documentary about the ercoupe would be a good idea it would be a great injustice to aviation history if there was no chronological video record of the coupe's evolution several books and articles have been written about Fred Mike and his remarkable install a ball unspent Abul or coop with information obtained from those documents and the assistance of many coop experts we've tried to assemble the most accurate data for our video but as in any case of retracing archival footsteps we probably have overlooked some if you find anything missing that you can shed light on or see any misguided or just plain wrong information please contact us and we'll do our best to correct it in some cases there were simply no pictures available to substantiate our story like when aluminum became unavailable in the outset of world war ii and the heavier underpowered wooden model 415 CA was designed and tested but never certified or produced we've tried to stay on the path of history of the to place her coop although we do depart and talk a little bit about the several dreams of a four placed plane and some other items we thought would be of interest our coop story begins in the late 30s small personal airplanes were being developed as trainers sport planes and family transports what Jim Piper's cub was a sight so common that to non-pilots it became the generic name for almost any small plane in the sky and there were many with names like a ranca Stearman wakow Porterfield swift funk Stinson and Taylorcraft every airplane at that time had a few things in common most had a main landing gear mounted forward of the center of gravity and a small tail wheel both of which contributed to ground blue Bing and nose over accidents but more importantly they would all spin the spin was the most common killer of flight aircraft pilots and passengers when the wing of a plane would stall while flight controls were crossed the plane would enter a spin an accomplished pilot could recover from a spin but too often the results were catastrophic the spin was identified as a chronic and very serious problem even before World War one in 1927 the Guggenheim Fund devoted to aviation safety attempted to resolve the problem by organizing the International safe aircraft competition to design a spin proof airplane the $100,000 prize went to Kurtis aircraft for the design of the Kurtis Tanager dr. George Lewis of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics one of the judges in the competition surmised that the contest only sparsely addressed the issue of the spin and that more concentrated research was a necessity a young aeronautical engineer by the name of Fred white had been previously employed by NACA where he had conducted extensive propeller research and developed a completely enclosed engine cowl for air-cooled engines it happened that the director of research used to come around to the various technical people in the Army and Navy air services to see whether the NACA could carry on research that would be helpful to them and I asked for research on full-sized full-scale propellers and it wasn't too long before the doctor Lewis the director of research invited me to come over and talk in his office and he said how would you like to have a wind tunnel large enough for that well that would be four times as large as any wind tunnel that the NACA had at the time and it seemed out of the question to me but at any rate they did build such a wind tunnel called the propeller research tunnel and invited me to come and run it realizing his talents dr. Lewis invited Fred to return to NACA to work on the problem of spins Fred agreed with the condition then he could also work on designs for new airplanes that would not spin Fred fostered the idea of designing a to control to place safe comfortable airplane that was easy to fly late in 1931 Fred invited several of his co-workers at NACA including his close friend Bob Sanders to join in a private hobby venture to design and construct a safe airplane suitable for the private pilot a high wing pusher design with tandem seating emerged incorporating a unique but steerable tricycle landing gear we finally chose the single type of airplane and went ahead and built the first one and my one car garage progress went slowly but the airplane finally wound up in the full-scale wind tunnel at Langley field in the spring of 1934 we had a number of special features we wanted to be able to land it almost regardless of the conditions make it very easy to land at that time and since World War one all of the airplanes manual Serg are built even in including the little planes and the military planes and the airliners were all taildraggers will either first tail skids and then when the runways got to be paved tail wheels and of course they will work satisfactorily but it takes a certain skill to keep them on the ground after you've landed unto keep him going straight when they tend to swerve to one side or another so we worked up a particular type of gear which turned out to be what I called the tricycle gear in 1936 and that has stuck as the name since we wanted to make an arrangement if possible that would simplify the controls so the control wheel when you moved at four neft would move the elevator in the usual way but when you turned it it would steer the airplane in the air and also would turn the nose wheel so that on the ground you started in taxiing Fred's spin proof easy to fly to control airplane soon became the center of attention for the Bureau of air commerce Fred loaned the w1 to the US government who conducted more tests and determined that the airplane was okay for a flight test modifications to the original design took place in the winter of 1934 and the into the spring of 1935 as the w1 became the w1 a more tests were conducted after which the aircraft was offered to the Smithsonian Institution with no room to store complete airplanes a two foot model was constructed and the w1a was salvaged for parts and destroyed two production airplanes were built that utilized several design characteristics of the w1 a the Stearman Hammond y1 s in the late 30s and the Anderson Greenwood a g14 of the late 40s both were produced only in small numbers and eventually slipped into history in 1936 fred was invited by Henry Berliner to join his newly formed engineering and research corporation of Washington DC they offer included provisions for Fred to proceed with the design of a 100 mile per hour private airplane that would be economical and comfortable with our experimental w1 we didn't give a hoot was there anyone else liked it or not we were just trying to find out certain features and after we had found some good ones he gave me the opportunity of putting these into a little airplane that could be sold to the public since short-field capability was not a prime concern Henry convinced Fred to design the aircraft in the tractor configuration with the propeller in front the design of the ercoupe took a long period of development we'll say because it was easy for me to get some of these characteristics in our w1 which was a pusher and did not have the slipstream going over the wing and which had vertical fins and rudders outside the slipstream on booms we finally did get it to work satisfactory but it did take some work Fred proceeded to create a two-place airplane with an all-metal structure featuring side-by-side seating doped fabric covering on the outer panels of the wings and good pilot visibility because he wanted simple but responsive handling characteristics both in the air and on the ground he incorporated two high thrust line low wing position and disturb all tricycle-gear the propeller slipstream acting on the three tens original single vertical stabilizer and rudder produced excessive yaw so two additional outboard fixed vertical fins were mounted on the horizontal stabilizer progressive flight tests led to the complete elimination of the original vertical tail an installation of a create fins and rudders at each end of the horizontal stabilizer although the plane was designed for a 60 to 65 horsepower engine none were available so an air-cooled 37 horsepower continental a 40 engine was fitted for initial testing one of Continentals employees Harold Morehouse had completed design of an engine similar to the a 40 but for fifty to seventy-five horsepower but Continental had no interest in producing it until there was a significant demand Morehouse privately suggested to Fred that aerco develop and manufacture its own engine Henry Berliner agreed and Morehouse was hired Fred's desire to use an inverted in-line engine resulted in the four-cylinder Eco il 116 in the fall of 1938 Berko moved to a new facility in Riverdale Maryland the original production prototype of the model for 15 with the echo engine was completed and certified late in January 1940 almost immediately Continental announced the availability of their 65 horsepower engine with a price tag of $425 approximately half of what it costs a co to produce the il-1 16 fred was able to redesign the motor mountain cowling to accommodate the flat-4 engine and the original production prototype became the 415 c4 Continental hurkos advertising firms suggested adding UPE to aerco and the name her coupe was born even though some casually called the airplane the ercoupe friend would correct them by saying it is the coupe the art coupe design was finally finally given a approved type certificate by the CAA and immediately they started training people to fly the people who had no further pronto previous flight experience and who varied over quite a cross-section of the population the plane proved to be so easy to fly that the average instruction time prior to soloing was just 4 hours and 18 minutes for several years the CAA issued a special to control only license for those learning to fly in her goose no doubt about it Fred White's Turkey was an aviation innovation to first-time fliers the earth coops simple flight characteristics became second nature seasoned pilots namely those with only tail wheel experience were amazed mystified and sometimes horrified especially when faced with crosswind takeoffs and landings after one of the editors of The Saturday Evening Post flew the coop a very positive story broke contributing to the all-time high level of enthusiasm at the Ergo factory Henry Berliner began production of the second batch of 100 or coops eventually the pre-war orders number nine soon Europe was at war it would not be long before echo could not obtain aluminium so the model 415 CA constructed of wood was designed and tested 110 metal her troops had been produced and two more were assembled from parts on hand when the production line came to a halt like so many other companies aerco adapted their facility to the war effort making machine tools propeller blades and machine gun turrets Fred White was made vice president of engineering Bob Sanders a pilot in the Naval Reserve was called into full-time service Henry Berliner enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a major he worked hard day and night for several years he became weak and was stricken simultaneously with meningitis and pneumonia gangrene set in and doctors had to amputate his entire right arm during the last year of the war he was sent home later to receive the Distinguished Service Cross in August of 1941 scientists were working on the jet-assisted takeoff or jato program for the army the urk kook was requisitioned as a testbed because it was the only small light plane available with metal construction and a strong wing spar for mounting the rocket modules the jato units produced approximately 28 pounds of thrust for 12 seconds where the 285 pound Overland takeoff distance was reduced from 905 feet to 438 feet and time from eighteen point eight seconds to nine point five seconds on August 23rd 1941 an ER coupe made the first American man flight of an aircraft propelled by rocket thrust alone during the war the Air Force purchased an air coupe and initialized flight evaluation of the y/o 55 as an observation aircraft two more coupes were tested as xpq 13 man carrying aerial target aircraft but in all instances it was determined that the ercoupe was not suitable for military service fred White's unique tricycle gear appeared on countless military designs once the NACA pilots tested it officially the word spread about what it would do so they put it then into the dc4 which is the first transport plane that had it at the same time it soon got around into the military and the PA 39:38 the b25 some of those World War two planes and it so it it got into general use very quickly no one will ever know the full extent of its contribution to the war effort which resulted in fewer operational accidents more missions flown and an overall better safety record than conventional gear aircraft over the course of the war as world war ii wound down Berko shifted engineering efforts to prepare for high-volume production of improved post-war earth coupes automated punching and riveting machines of eco-design resulted in an assembly line capable of producing ten airplanes in an eight-hour shift the post-war 415 seat would be powered by a seventy five horsepower engine with starter generator and battery a second wing tank would increase fuel capacity to 23 gallons allowable gross weight was increased from eleven hundred seventy-five pounds to twelve hundred sixty pounds the airplane was only offered in a to control version with a single foot pedal for braking an attended sunshade was optional Sid Cohen a retired school teacher and avid ercoupe enthusiast from Wisconsin has been a coop owner for almost three decades sid is often called on by coop owners all over the country for his vast knowledge of her coops well I think it's a beautiful airplane I think it's just designed so well and just the fact that when I land at airports people come out and a lot of people say wow is that beautiful the whole design is really well thought out from the tip of the spinner all the way to the back of the tail the wings are fabric covered in this one this is an earlier version of the air coops they started putting metal sheeting on the wings in about 1956 they're full span ailerons on the air coop so even when you're in really slow flight you have good lateral control of the airplane most airplanes have a single vertical tail right in the middle and we said the ercoupe does not have rudder pedals when they first flight tested these airplanes they found that the swirling air coming around the fuselage it kind of corkscrews around the fuselage it comes back we'd hit a vertical tail and try to push the airplane off to the side and so a pilot of an ordinary our plan has to hold rudder pedal in order to go straight down the runway but if they put the two tails they separated in two rather than one and put them outside of this corkscrewing air then there was no problem the elevator here is limited in up travel so that the airplane won't stall we said before it won't spin it won't stall either because you cannot pull the tail down far enough cannot lift the nose up high enough to make the wings stall you have two seats side by side in here side by side to me is the ideal way of going the fuselage is a little wider than a tandem seat airplane but when you're talking to your passenger or your friend you're looking right in the face they ask you a question they can see your face you're not looking right at the back of somebody's head oh the instruments in the ercoupe are rather basic we've got air speed indicator tachometer turn and Bank indicator vertical speed indicator altimeter oil pressure oil temperature and then voltmeter so there's not anything really complicated at all compass yeah and I do have a couple of radios in there the airplane is way ahead of its time designed in 1939 really and put in a production in 1941 the trailing length landing gear pushes out the landing the twin tail the fuel system the electrical system full span ailerons these things all make flight much safer and simpler I would say that this airplane should be designed in 1980s or 1990s it was 50 years probably ahead of its time and it flies so wonderfully it's such a simple flying machine you don't have to think about putting flaps out or putting gear down landing gear down or lifting landing gear up or any of the other complicated things that most airplanes have you just fly you just fly it was the world ready for a plane so easy and so safe to fly what would the returning war Eris's think of a plane you steered like a car that would hardly stall and would not spin and safely operate in crosswinds that kept other designs on the ground no question the ER coupe was revolutionary but was there a market for a plane like this the sale of over 4,000 herbs in the first year of post-war production confirmed a resounding yes Marshall Field's and company of Chicago sold 40 air coups in one month from its 5th floor store for men the plane including flight instruction through solo could be purchased on an installment plan for $3,150 which just happened to be the average year's salary at the time a new automobile cost around $1400 so owning a Turku was quite a luxury JCPenney and company sold eight coupes in a week from their denver store other retail outlets for the ercoupe were Wanamaker's Jordan Marsh Gimbels l-bomb burger and RH Macy & Company soon Fred Wieck was working on fitting the ercoupe with federal skis Edo Aircraft Corporation of Long Island New York advertised the coming of floats for the ercoupe but they were never offered up elevator travel restrictions had to be removed to achieve rotation of the floats off the water that made the aircraft capable of spinning and as a result the CAA required flight testing to determine successful recovery from spins the test pilot unable to recover from a spin had to parachute to safety loss of the test ship convinced all parties that the earth coop was incompatible with operation on floats in the spring of 1946 kirkko added a night shift doubling production to 20 planes a day more orders came and a graveyard shift increased production to 35 airplanes a day an average of 100 per coups on her Cofield were being tested or awaiting pickup by dealers or owners by summer Henry Berliner challenged his organization to complete 50 airplanes a day at the beginning of fall supply overtook demand and the number of unsold arrghh oops on the field soared to 300 really after a while the boom for us and for all the others had the graveyard shift was let go than the night shift and finally the day shift was cut back until the line was completely shut down early in November all along Berko had never ignored continual research and development starting with serial number 813 the steel main landing gear was replaced with an aluminum one which would be easier to retract an experimental retractable earth loop was completed except for wheel well doors on October 29 1946 flight testing revealed a 10 mile per hour speed increase over the non-retractable her coop from the spring of 1941 fred was working to satisfy dealer request on the for place 150 to 200 horsepower twin-tailed low wing retractable earth coupe in the fall of 46 the CAA changed its light plane air worthiness and certification requirements relaxing structural standards as a result her Co expected both new and existing post-war for 15 C models would be allowed an increase of gross weight from 1260 to 1400 pounds the CAA persisted in strictly enforcing extreme testing standards apparently written to penalize aircraft characteristically incapable of spinning in other words the ercoupe while the earth coop demonstrated equal safety at both 1260 and 1,400 pound gross weights with original 13 degrees of up elevator travel the CAA would only approve 9 degrees of travel for certification of the model for 15 deep the D model was built with a new airline type throttle and trim quadrant an extension of the stainless steel firewall over the fuselage tank revised fuel lines and other minor changes unfortunately the 9 degree limitation of elevator up travel resulted in an unacceptable reduction in a pilot's ability to flare during landing only to 415 DS were completed although some owners have converted their coops to DS to obtain the higher gross weight allowance Peugeot continued production at a slow rate while awaiting certification for the model 415 CD while it was identical to the D except with the original 13 degree up elevator travel and 1260 pound gross weight CAA certification was not granted until a full five months later Henry Berliner concluded that with the Destiny dependent on a bureaucracy clearly discouraging any development of an aircraft characteristically incapable of spinning the future of echo apply elsewhere in the summer of 1947 Bob Sanders newly formed company Sanders aviation incorporated but everything echo had on hand pertaining to the earth coup including worldwide sales rights to the outside world about the only sign of the transition was the aircraft data plate which now read manufactured by engineering and research corporation for Sanders creation Riverdale Maryland Bob Sanders idea of a split elevator design to improve the landing characteristics of the earth who was adapted for the new 415 e earth coupe the e also featured an 85 horsepower continental engine a larger nose wheel and was certified with a gross weight of 1,400 pounds an F model identical to the e but with a fuel-injected engine was never produced sales of general aviation aircraft continued to plummet and early in 1948 Henry Berliner surprised thread-like with his decision to exit the light plane business entirely when this became news fred quickly received an invitation from texas A&M to become a professor and research engineer this resulted in his reinvention of the agricultural airplane and the design of the ag-1 on January 28 1949 Sanders gained certification of a 415 G model dubbed the club air it sported a racy full paint job bubble windshield and a kiddy seat in the baggage compartment additional standard equipment included a two-way radio with speaker and microphone a tramatic feature allowed the pilot to trim the wings level for hands-off flight advertising touted an air conditioning system which was merely a vent in the nose cow operated by a push pull cable continuing to produce both the E and G models through December of 1950 Sanders also advertised a 415 H economy model a bare-bones seventy-five horsepower plane without electrical system there are no records that the 415 H was ever certified or solved the last Sanders earthy was completed on December 30th 1950 by that date there were just over 5,000 examples of Fred White's innovative design residing at airports all across America but her story is far from over in 1954 the type certificate drawings Wright's tooling and remaining ercoupe parts were sold to the parts division of best aircraft a year later the assets were sold again this time to 40 industries of Fort Collins Colorado 40 manufactured and sold a line of battery-powered soldering irons and welders it was determined that their sales force of 600 could function better by the use of private aviation as a primary method of transportation studies revealed that the air ku was best suited to the company's needs it was obvious that when Forney elected to manufacture airplanes the ercoupe was the first choice under the leadership of JAC Forney the new aviation division made replacement parts for the ercoupe Luscombe silver and Temko swift after tooling up and constructing to new buildings Forney started making over 350 changes to the Sanders model for 15 G to make the 40 f1 ercoupe they introduced a 90 horsepower engine all-metal wings bucket seats a newly designed instrument panel an improved trim system newly designed bubble windshield larger rectangular rear windows and spring steel shock absorbers on the main landing gear flight tests were completed in the spring of 1956 and by fall Forney was prepared to produce one airplane every 15 days Forney created three versions of the plane for three distinct markets they were the Explorer expediter and the exacta in 1959 gross weight was increased to 1,450 pounds with the introduction of the Forney f1 a trainer Forney was soon approached by a small group from beach aircraft headed by John Allen and Lee Higden with the idea of Beach utilizing the ercoupe as an entry-level trainer in a proposed arrangement Forney would commit 100% of their production to Beach who would finance the project and provide additional production equipment negotiations continued for about a year with the final agreement ready for signature by olive and Beach mrs. Beach rejected the project which was a major setback for forming a discouraged Forney signaled the industry that the ercoupe project might be for sale a California promoter and member of the board of Air Products Corporation quickly organized a plan to leverage purchase and resale of the ercoupe the promoter knew the city of Carlsbad New Mexico was in an economic slump looking for a new industry citing the booming economy of Wichita Kansas he convinced the city fathers that the aviation industry specifically the air group would be the city Savior manufacturing was relocated and the first Carlsbad ercoupe came off the line in December Air Products entered into an agreement with the California company met co-heir to produce a faster version of the ercoupe met co-heirs founder Tom Hebert had previously improved the coupe's nose gear to eliminate shimmy and designed a metal wing and speed kit for the ercoupe the future of the ercoupe was again dismal the facility which only made 25 Carlsbad coupes and a little over a year was permanently closed in February of 1962 John Allen at Lee higdon were both very disappointed when a levan Beach vetoed their plans for the Beach ercoupe trainer when they heard of the plight of the city of Carlsbad and Air Products they formed a corporation a contraction of their names halen incorporated and started negotiations to purchase the ercoupe they personally move 14 truckloads of tools to McPherson Kansas and set up an assembly plant on the airport to make a new and improved a lon air coop a to the first of which flew on October 24th 1964 the a2 was a sleek version of an old design but modern enough to compete with other manufacturers cosmetic features while still retaining much of the original white coop character side and rear windows were replaced with the new sliding canopy side beams were lowered to allow for easier boarding the Continental c90 16f engine featured a vacuum pump to facilitate gyro flight instruments the instrument panel was completely new with standard gauge arrangement and sexy ram's horn control wheels the interior featured a large baggage compartment bucket seats and tasteful fabrics accented by wire light trim similar to that used on automobiles rudder pedals were standard on the a-line air coupe but the ship could be ordered into two control version also halen's future looked bright with new innovations in the works like the a3 a faster version of the a2 and the a4 for place single tail ercoupe 245 a la Nair coupes were built from 1964 to 1967 when financial difficulty set in and production stopped halen heard that moody aircraft was looking for a two-place trainer as a transition aircraft for therefore place line a deal was struck and Mooney produced the Mooney a 2a Air Group at Alan's Macpherson facility before production was moved to Kerrville Texas many more modifications were being created eventually these would turn many true coop lovers away from the Muny versions the plane which was to become the Mooney m10 cadet was fitted with a new canopy with square windows to coordinate with the new square rear windows a spring steel landing gear was also added but the crowning blow was the replacement of the twin tails with a Mooney type single tail the most pleasing modification to coop cult members was the renaming of the airplane in February of 1969 moon ease financial Domino's began to fall ownership of the corporation went from a bankrupt Mooney to American electronic laboratories then to Butler Aviation and finally to arrow star production to the m10 cadet ceased at the end of 1970 Fred wieck's design had survived for over 30 years out of the five thousand six hundred and eighty-five various models built there are still over two thousand air groups and oku registered with the FAA univer aircraft incorporated purchased all the assets certificates drawings and tools for the second time bowing never to manufacture the Uruk ooh but to continue manufacturing parts as long as they were required to this day Univ air maintains a complete inventory of her poop parts many parts and modifications for the Ergo are available through sky port services a division of safe flight aviation in Middletown Ohio sky parts inventory contains everything from the smallest part to major upgrade kits supplemental type certificate SAR available for engine conversions an increased useful load for the model c and c d several modifications produced by candy engineering from 1960 to 1980 three including nose bowls wheel pants and modern instrument panels are also available through Skyport Skyport has seen many owners over the years including Larry Blauvelt and later dick Wiley who probably had more knowledge of the ER coop than anyone but Fred Wieck until recently Skyport was owned and operated by John Cooper while during the five years that I had Skyport I was the only one talking to people on the phone and yeah I met probably a thousand ercoupe owners over those five years I knew it was very interesting and very rewarding I got to say I enjoyed every minute of it we bought all our parts through Skyport and I kind of was deemed the ercoupe mechanic around town and one thing led to another John Cooper and I developed a relationship and somehow I ended up buying the place not sure how that happened my wife asked me every day when I get home from work how that happened but we're here in Middletown now as of last November things are going great we're trying to build our inventory back up trying to get some dust some old old prints off and get some new parts going again and try to try to help the ercoupe fleet stay alive the earth coop is well known for its modifications through the years instrument panels are a reflection of the owner and no to earth coop panels are the same kim black Sethe who had only partial use of his arms was the first quadriplegic to receive a pilot's license all because of the unique to control design of the earth coop when she was only 18 months old al Verna Williams legs were amputated at the hips in an auto Street car accident as a teenager she took flight instruction in an air crew she was refused her private license because she could not operate a three control airplane even though she had passed her flight test in a to control airplane al Verna appealed to the courts in Washington and won after several years raising the family she took up flying again in 1972 when she and her pilot husband bought a 1945 coupe recently Jessica Cox an amazing young lady from Arizona born without arms received her pilot's license in an earth coupe the best part is she made it look easy the ER coupe has given the freedom of the skies to Kim a Verna and Jessica and so many handicapped pilots who if not for the ER coup might have never known the experience of flying is a pilot many famous characters have flown the coop it was John Travolta's first airplane musician comedian Victor Vargas so loaded an air-cooled film star Dick Powell flew around Hollywood in the coop Sam Walton's first corporate aircraft was an ER Cooper she flew the Scout new locations for his Walmart stores the ercoupe has starred in many TV shows and movies like the road to Rio the ER coupe became an air show star in 1947 it was actually too aku's joined at the wing root and tails the strange airplane was flown extensively in air shows by the Thrasher brothers who looped rolled and spun the Twinner coo over the years the ER coupe has been the subject of numerous magazine and newspaper articles and has even been featured as a Christmas ornament by hallmark several books have been written about the man behind the Earth coupe the machine itself and the experiences of flying the coop the air coop owners club started in 1976 by skip carton has been the number one vehicle for coop owners to stay in touch and informed the ercoupe Club got started because everywhere I went they were ercoupe sitting around and I'd say well where's guy well he doesn't fly with anybody's around and I said what do you mean he said he waits almost dark when everybody goes home and comes and flies it because they were so maligned by the other pilot you're not a real pilot that's a hurt around the early seventies I decided to start air coop owners club and I think we started with 15 members and eight and a half of 14 newsletter one sheet and then it just continued to grow and grow and grow went up to Akash and my son and didn't expect to see over you know 15 20 people the tent was absolutely standing room only one of our members and Tulsa wanted to have a flying dub hall and I said well that's great so we had a fly in it Tulsa and drilled tremendous amount of air kick I think we had 50 60 air coop and he said I want to do a national and dub really spent about a year on this thing of his own time and a lot of his own money calling people they said hey want you to be a telecoil in 19 seventy-six that was our first national want you to be there won't you be there and he said he told me he said we're gonna have two hundred ercoupe Syntel o'clock we had a ended up with a hundred and ninety nine air cooks on Sunday and people were beginning to leave on Sunday the two hundredth ercoupe who had gotten welded in donned Dunkley from Indianapolis flew in and that was two hundred ercoupe that's absolutely the biggest and best flying air coupons club of a half then we contacted Fred why can't talk to him about it and he was a fairly excited about it he agreed to be on the board and so that was our first real contact with him and that developed the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Fred we've got members in Greece France South America Australia Mexico Canada so we're truly an international organization now Fred white joined the Piper Aircraft Company in 1957 where he was instrumental in the design of the piper Pawnee and the cherokee line of personal and business airplanes after retirement at 70 he and his wife Dorothy continued to live in Vero Beach Florida Fred passed away July 8th 1993 at the age of 94 one can only wonder where aviation would be today if back in the 40s the CAA had actively promoted more advanced research of airplanes characteristically incapable of spinning instead of looking the other way in AOPA pilot magazine Thomas B Haynes wrote the ercoupe comes to mind as a brash new design that should have changed the face of aviation but instead turned out to be just a mole on its cheek well that's our account of the amazing coop I remember the day I passed my private pilot check ride my instructor congratulated me with a firm handshake and this sober advice Donnie said buy any airplane you want except an ER coupe and all that time I thought he knew everything about aviation it's difficult to fathom that once there was no airplane that could deliver one so safely from and to the earth the earth coop became a reality because of a young aeronautical engineer and his vision for a better and safer future for us all we'd like to thank Sid Cohen skip Cardin William Bain Kim Black Sethe Jean Gagliardi John Wright junior and senior and John Cooper and all the folks at Sky port and all the others who helped with the making of this video I especially would like to thank Gary schlenz for the great job of research and editing I hope you've enjoyed our video account of Fred wieck's / coop we certainly enjoyed making it [Music]

Channel: AbbottVP

Views: 597,576

Rating: 4.8470964 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, Ercoupe, airplane, Fred Weick, Ercoupe Model 415-C, tricycle gear, private flying, don abbott

Id: DPxsh6fnSoU

Length: 47min 0sec (2820 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 05 2019