Blue Ridge Biplane Rides will offer rides in their historic 1942 Waco open-cockpit biplane at the Montgomery County Airport Picnic and Community Day on Saturday, September 13th from 11 am to 5 pm at the Montgomery County Airport (weather permitting).
John Corradi, a retired United Airlines Boeing 777 Captain, will be providing rides in his 1942 Waco ZPF-7. He has logged well over 23,000 hours of flight time during a flying career spanning over 40 years. He has flown tail-draggers for over 25 years and has been flying his Waco in the Bealeton Flying Circus Airshow since 1999.
First of all, it's a WACO, pronounced wah-ko. Way-ko is in Texas. Now you know. The first owner of this Waco is unknown. The aircraft logs begin in 1944 with the note; 'Previous logbooks lost in inverted flight. Time to date; 34 hours.' She was owned by a flight school for a few years before a member of the Weaver family, as in Weaver Aircraft Company... WACO... bought it back. The aircraft remained in Dr. Weaver's possession for almost fifty years, until purchased by the present owner in 1999.
Wacos were in competition with the Boeing Stearman for military contracts as primary trainers in 1939-40. The Stearman was chosen for many reasons: easier to produce, for one. A Stearman has about 1,200 parts, a Waco over 5,000! And the bottom wing on a Stearman sits about a foot higher off the ground, allowing a student pilot to get away with the occasional misjudgment on landing, although a Waco is a bit easier to land. At any rate, over 12,000 Stearmans were manufactured, compared to only about 1,200 total Wacos, 600 of which were UPF-7s, the three-place open-cockpit biplane you see here. The War Department persuaded the Waco factory to switch to glider manufacturing during the war, and Waco never resumed aircraft production. 1942 was the last year for these magnificent machines.
Come on out to the MCAA Picnic and Community Day to experience a piece of aviation history! Single rides are $60 and double (gotta take your sweetheart) rides are $100.
Read more about John and his Waco on the Blue Ridge Biplane Rides web site.
See you all there!
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