VINTAGE WACO BI-PLANES--
at the vintage Wyncoop Aerodrome, Mt. Vernon

The 52nd annual Waco Fly-In Reunion was held, as it has been for more than 20 years, at the Wyncoop Aerodrome; a terrific and ageless landing field with grass runways just south of town.

The field was in world-class trim as it celebrated the visit of these classic airplanes manufactured in Troy, OH in variations from 1920 to 1947.  While pilots and visitors alike savored a dose of aviation nostalgia, an ageless fuel truck rattled and trundled up and down the lines of parked aircraft providing on-the- spot service to thirsty airplanes.

Some military style spit and polish was on hand in the form of Civil Air Patrol personnel who provided precise and careful ground control of these flying machines as they taxied gently to their parking areas.

Pilots wiggle their planes from side to side while moving on the ground because they cannot see over the elevated nose of their planes.

By 1927, 40 percent of small aircraft sold in the US were WACOs.  The sticker price then ranged around $2,500.  Their most successful cabin design, a four-seat UIC, was powered by a 210 horsepower radial engine.  It was introduced in 1933.  The model roaring airborne above is an open cockpit design--a "two holer" as their pilots like to quip.

A pair of the closed cabin designs are being carefully attended by a pair of young ladies as a squadron of these ageless airplanes strutted their stuff in the manner of an era of aviation long past.

Today, airplane travelers often arrive at their airports through an enclosed, multi-level parking lot where they are whisked via an assortment of elevators and escalators to the check-in area where they are often treated to the embarrassing procedures of security.  Then, they wander down a concrete and steel corridor and finally board their departing flight through a metal tunnel hardly ever even seeing the machine that is about to speed them to their destination on a track so far above the Earth the ground is hardly ever visible.

Lots of good stuff has been lost in what we like to call "progress".