The Waco F series is a series of American -built general aviation and military biplane trainers of the 1930s from the Waco Aircraft Company .
7-428: 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 pounds (200 kg) 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. The initial models were
14-553: The INF (125 hp (93 kW) Kinner engine), KNF (100 hp (75 kW) Kinner) and the RNF (110 hp (82 kW) Warner Scarab ), all of which had externally braced tailwheel undercarriages. Many further sub-models followed with more powerful engines of up to 225 hp (168 kW). The most powerful in the range was the ZPF of 1936/37, intended for executive use. The 'F' series
21-570: The YMF-5. Over 150 YMF-5s were completed as of 2017 with new examples being built to specific orders. The WACO Aircraft Company of Ohio Inc had built three replicas by December 2011, which they designated MF . Considerable numbers of 'F' series biplanes, both original and newly built, remain in service. Listed in approximate chronological order (per Simpson, 2001, p. 573) First letter of designation refers to engine installed. From 1936 Waco added year suffixes to designations—e.g. YPF-6, YPF-7, with
28-650: The many uses for the Scarab, the engine was fitted to the Cessna Airmaster and the Fairchild 24 (UC-61 or Argus). Notably, in 1942, it was put into use powering the Sikorsky R-4 , the first helicopter to be put into production. Many of these reliable engines soldier on today, still powering the aircraft to which they were originally mounted. The Warner 145 and 165 hp engines are the most commonly seen of
35-570: The numeral being the last digit of the model year. Data from The Aircraft of the World General characteristics Performance Warner Scarab The Warner Scarab is an American seven-cylinder radial aircraft engine , that was manufactured by the Warner Aircraft Corporation of Detroit , Michigan in 1928 through to the early 1940s. In military service the engine was designated R-420 . Among
42-482: The small radials for US-built pre-World War II era aircraft, in large part because of good parts availability due to the engines having been used on World War II Fairchild UC-61s and Meyers OTWs. Warner engines are also in demand as realistically sized, though far more powerful, replacement powerplants for many replica or restored World War I era airplanes which were originally fitted with rotary engines . Data from FAA Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS)., Jane's all
49-633: Was popular with private owner pilots for sporting and other uses and continued in production through the late 1930s. The tandem cockpit UPF-7 was adopted by the Civilian Pilot Training Program and continued in production until 1942 by which time over 600 had been built. The 1934 model YMF was substantially redesigned with a longer and wider fuselage, larger rudder and other structural changes, and put into production in March 1986 by WACO Classic Aircraft of Lansing, Michigan as
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