William got it all nicely together.
I might add that the retractable 415 Ercoupe did have a nose wheel retraction that only allowed to pull in the wheel half way. So half of the wheel would stick out of the bottom cowl. There is just not enough room to get the wheel completely stuffed under the cowling. That way you easily can distinguish between fake and a real picture. Hartmut To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 15:36:16 -0500 Subject: Re: [ercoupe-tech] Re: Is it real or PhotoShop? All, This is becoming a "myth-muddle". There was one Erco 415 model retractible. It flew, lacking only wheel doors and an acceptable shock-absorbing mechanism for the retracting inertia. I know the N# and have static and in flight pictures that I am not yet ready to share. There was also the Erco "Four", now owned by Marv Dunlap, to which Kevin refers. It is likely retractible. Erco did not complete this airframe. There was also the "Ercoach" twin-tailed twin engine pusher, which only made it to the mock-up stage. It looked a lot like the Rockwall Commander/Shriek series, but much earlier, and would have been retractible. Toward the end of Forney production (Carlsbad coupes), a new airframe was provided to Met-Co-aire in Fullerton, CA, for conversion to retractible. This airframe was purportedly stolen and crashed almost upon arrival, so an available 1946 Ercoupe was converted. Again, I know the N# and have static and in flight pictures that I am not yet ready to share. This plane was also crashed and later restored by Larry Kruljac. I have pictures of another production Carlsbad coupe that appears to have the retractable gear installed, together with parallelogram rudders, etc. Alon produced the A-3 Argus and A-4 (four-place) prototypes. The latter is still active, I believe. These statements are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. William R. Bayne .____|-(o)-|____. (Copyright 2009) -- On Apr 9, 2009, at 14:36, kgassert wrote: There was one prototype that was not finished by Erco. It is now being finished in Michigan and is in the taxi test stages. National are coming so who know???? Kevin1 --- In [email protected], "ercou...@..." <ercou...@...> wrote: Ed, I remember reading somewhere a while ago that there was one retractable Ercoupe made. Don't know where it is. Lee ____________________________________________________________ Largest network of startups. Find new startup opportunities. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2131/fc/BLSrjnsClcVpT0q7T6pZJSkYUSjCEePPQ8mDIaPEM8t0YXiU2u22E48c0us/ ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links _________________________________________________________________ Rediscover Hotmail®: Now available on your iPhone or BlackBerry http://windowslive.com/RediscoverHotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Rediscover_Mobile1_042009
