Percy Wrote: > > She flew with the Southern Oregon Ercoupers as > >a cub reporter, > > Greg Responded: > What's that? Someone who calls all small planes (including > coupes) 'Piper Cubs?' :-) > > Of Coupe Content: I now understand better the whole > raison d'etre behind the Coupe. On Monday, on a > whim, I stopped by a local little field and started > to check out in their very original Aeronca 7AC. > 1946, around the time of the 415's hitting its > stride. No phone, no lights, no starter. > > Damn, but that thing is actually hard to fly! ... > > And I thought about what a revolution the little Ercoupe > was in a world where 'little airplanes' were pretty > demanding critters
You are so right, Greg.
And the Aeronca 7AC was an improvement over the Piper 'Cub' - you
flew from the front where you could see better! Fred Weick had those,
and other drawbacks of the Cub in mind when he designed the `coupe:
* tricycle gear, for ground handling, and so you could apply brakes
with out the plane going up on its nose (hard on props, etc.)
* side-by-side seating for ease of instruction & communication
* metal construction, to cut down on the frequent recovering w/cotton
and the list goes on and on.
Percy
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