PlaneSpottingWorld welcomes all new members! Please gives your ideas at the Terminal.

Waco F series

From PlaneSpottingWorld, for aviation fans everywhere

The Waco F series was a range of American-built private pilot owner and training biplanes of the 1930s from the Waco Aircraft Company.

Development

The Waco 'F' series of biplanes supplanted and then replaced the earlier 'O' series of 1927/33. The 'F' series had an airframe which was smaller and about 450 lbs lighter than the 'O' series, while continuing to provide accommodation for three persons in tandem open cockpits. A similar performance to the earlier model was obtained on the power of smaller and more economical engines.[1]

The initial models were the INF (Template:Convert Kinner engine), KNF (Template:Convert Kinner) and the RNF (Template:Convert Warner Scarab), all of which had externally braced tailwheel undercarriages. Many further sub-models followed with more powerful engines of up to Template:Convert.

Operational history

File:Waco RNF NC11206 Pima Msm Tucson 04.91.jpg
Waco RNF of 1931 displayed at the Pima Air Museum Tucson Arizona in 1991
File:Waco UBF NC155Y of 1932 at HARM St Louis 10.06.06R.jpg
Waco UBF of 1932 flown by Texaco preserved at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum, Missouri, June 2006
File:UPF-7 5365.jpg
1940 WACO UPF-7

The 'F' series was popular with private owner pilots for sporting and other uses and continued in production through the late 1930s. The tandem cockpit UPF-7 version was adopted by the Civilian Pilot Training Program and continued to be built in numbers (over 600) until 1942.[2]

The YMF of 1934, which had a modified wider and longer fuselage, was returned to production in March 1986 by WACO Classic Aircraft of Lansing Michigan as the YMF-5.[3] Over 100 YMF-5s have been completed by WACO Classic Aircraft and the type remains in low-rate production.[4]

Considerable numbers of 'F' series biplanes, both original and newly built, remained in service in mid-2009.

Variants (in approximate chronological order)

(per Simpson, 2001, p. 573)

INF
Template:Convert Kinner B-5
KNF
Template:Convert Kinner K-5
RNF
Template:Convert Warner Scarab
PCF
Template:Convert Jacobs LA-1 and new cross-braced undercarriage
PBF
as PCF with modified 'B' wings
QCF
Template:Convert Continental A70
UBF
Template:Convert Continental R-670
UMF
Template:Convert Continental R-670A and longer wider fuselage and larger vertical fin
YMF
as UMF with Template:Convert Jacobs L-4
YPF-6 and YPF-7
Template:Convert Jacobs L-4
UPF-7
tandem training version with wider-track undercarriage and Template:Convert Continental radial (designated PT-14 by the USAAC)
YMF-5
built by WACO Classic Aircraft from March 1986 onwards. In June 2009 the company unveiled the latest updated variant, the YMF-5D[4][5]

Note: from 1936 Waco added year suffixes to designations - e.g. YPF-6, YPF-7, with the numeral being the last figure of the year of manufacture

Specifications (UPF-7)

Template:Aerospecs

References

Notes
  1. Simpson, 2001, p. 573
  2. Green, 1965, p. 307
  3. Simpson, 2001, p. 573
  4. 4.0 4.1 WACO Classic Aircraft (2009). Own the Dream. Retrieved on 2009-06-12.
  5. Grady, Mary (June 2009). Waco Updates Its Classic Biplane. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
Bibliography
  • Green, William (1965). {{{title}}}. Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. ISBN none. 
  • Simpson, Rod (2001). Airlife's World Aircraft. Airlife Publishing. ISBN 1-84037-115-3. 


Template:WACO

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Waco F series".