I have the Stafford ercoupe kit. Having owned and restored a 100% scale ercoupe I can tell you its not fully scale (it uses a flat bottom clark-Y airfoil which the 100% scale does not at all have). But the fuselage is very good and actually comes out the ercoupes shape including the main wing fillet. Very impressive. It was still available by the new folks who own Stafford as recently as 2 or 3 years ago, I saw it at Toledo. But they had no idea how to assemble the plane, suggesting the box be used for a building jib for the fuse. I used an adjusto jig and it came out very straight. If you are looking for a nice standoff scale plane it would work out. For actual scale that airfoil is going to be an issue as well as the fact that the model's ribs run straight fore and aft. The 100% scale ercoupe has a geodetic wing structure. But If you want to do scale it obviously would really lend itself to a lost foam wing. The airfoil shape would be easily available from Wag Aero who holds the type certificate.
The 100% scale plane has a number of interesting firsts to its credit. It was the first production plane that would neither stall nor spin. It accomplished the first US rocket powered flight and the JATO rocket bottle system was developed on the Ercoupe during WWII at Wright Patterson. I have the photo of the last flight in the JATO development series with no propellor on the plane, the U.S.'s first all rocket powered flight. It was the Boeing primary trainer for the 707 being the only other aircraft available capable of landing in a crab as a jet with the motors on the bottom of the wing does. It is certified for just about the highest cross wind landing of any aircraft and I know no owner who has not done a 30 plus knot cross wind landing in one. And it outflies to this day every primary trainer produced by Piper, Cessna, or Beech. I have considerable time in all of them and have flown plane to plane next to them all. It ain't even close. All from a dinner in New Jersey between designer Fred Wick and Charles Lindberg. Was a productive dinner. We lost the wrong companies in the aviation depression of 1948. BTW, there was a single 4 place ercoupe prototype being built at the time the ERCO Corp went under in 48. I was acquired by a retired Ford Engineer, Rich Dunlop, about 10 years ago. It is based in Milford, Michigan and is nearing first flight. It is a retractable built on a 2 place ercoupe fuselage with the cockpit lengthened for a second row of seats behind the standard positioned ones. The fuse was not widened. The 4 place has flaps which the 2 place does not and the rudders are about 3 times larger. Seeing as it has not been flight tested I do not know if it was designed for non-spin and non stall as the original was. Dick is a meticulous craftsman and superb engineer. He is the third owner of the bird since ERCO went away and the only one that the designer Fred Wick was willing to confide in and share engineering info with (though it took several years before Wick was comfortable that Rich knew what he was doing and would do it right.)
bob branch
Topic: Ercoup Plans (Read 4474 times)