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High Sierra RC ClubAMA 1362 - Sam 34Dedicated to the World's Greatest Hobby!! |
Toms' Balsa USA 1/3rd Scale Ercoupe
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The Ercoupe is a 2-seat airplane that was designed by Fred E. Weick for ERCO (Engineering Research Corporation). It was first manufactured in
1939. Production stopped during WWII, and then in 1946, 4309 were made in a single year! For months they made Ercoupes at a rate of over 10 a day!
For a very short period production got to about 25/day on three shifts! Ercoupes were immensely popular, but in the 1947 bust in the airplane business,
only companies with 4-place planes survived. ERCO's 4-place Ercoupe wasn't ready and ERCO stopped making airplanes. The 2-place Coupes were
manufactured by several different companies over the years: Sanders, Forney, Alon, and even Mooney (as the M-10) in the late 60s. At the time it came out, the Coupe was a revolutionary plane. It was one of the first general aviation aircraft with a tricycle gear and the Coupe's designer, Fred Weick, owned the patent on the tricycle gear as we know it. The Coupe was a metal mono-coupe low wing design that came out in a time of tube and frame designs. It was stall proof, it was spin proof, it had no rudder pedals, and it was fast. People who actually flew the thing learned that it was a great flying airplane. If you go look at an Ercoupe on a modern airfield among Cessna 150's and Pipers Cherokees it does not look out of place, but go to a fly-in where the Ercoupe is parked among its contemporaries like Aeroncas, Cubs and Stinsons of the same vintage and it is striking how different and modern the metal-clad, low wing, tricycle gear Ercoupe looks among a sea of high wing, fabric covered taildraggers. But old time pilots thought the removal of rudder pedals was a sin, just as bad was the removal of the tail wheel. Basic flying characteristics are the same as modern aircraft with one exception. In the Ercoupes with linked rudders/ailerons, in a cross-wind, the airplane is landed in a wing-level crab. Though the main landing gear is sturdy, it is not abnormally strong and certainly doesn't "swivel." Yet, due to the natural geometry of a tricycle with a swiveling nose wheel, the airplane immediately lines up with the direction of travel after touchdown. Two-control Ercoupes fly with a demonstrated cross-wind component of 25 mph. Some Coupers regularly fly with even stronger cross-winds. |
Update 12/10/07 - Went over to Tom's house and took a couple of pictures of his planes. Here is the Ercoupe with the moter mounted on it. And, it looks like Tom will go with the color scheme that is shown at the top of this page. You heard it here first folks! From your roving reporter, Dan.
Update 02/25/08 - Tom sent me some more shots of his work. Finishing time!
Updated pictures and videos - 11/04/09
See Tom's Ercoupe in action on HSRCC's YouTube Channel!
