WACO taperwing

Flight Journal, Jun 2001 by Davisson, Budd

It was the first of the civilian super ships: an agile, fast beast that would eventually establish itself as the dean of antique airplanes. It was a racer; an acrobat-the sportsman pilot's dream.

By 1928. WACO was well established as a manufacturer of stately, straight-wing biplanes, of which the Model 10 was the most notable. It was a good airplane but not an exciting airplane. Then WACO engineer and test pilot Charlie Meyers developed a set of highly tapered wing panels for it, and an icon was born. They added the new Wright Whirlwind)-5 engine, and the "Taperwing" (a name coined by its public and later adapted by the factory) was on its way.

The three Taperwings that were entered in the 1928 Transcontinental Air Derby finished in first, third and fifth places. Gladys O'Donnell won the women's closed-course race at Cleveland, and the records kept piling up.

Fast as it was, however, it was the Taperwings's ability to dance that made it it Iegend. For early two decades, the WACO Taperwing was the king of airshow aerobatics, and everyone who wanted to wow a crowd, from Johnny Livingston toTex Rankin or Len Povey to Freddie Lund, flew one.

Today, few remain, so Roy Redman's Fairbault, Minnesota, re-creates examples for today's sportsman pilots. Texan Layton Humphrey commissioned Redman to build him this 275hp Jacobs-powered version of the 1928 classic, using WACO factory drawings and RARE. Aircraft's modern materials kit. The result would have made WACO Founder Buck Wearver, who lent his name to his company, proud. - Budd Davisson