Le Chic Geek
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News stories tend to exaggerate because it looks like he just needed to emergency land in the woods (which thankfully left the pilot and co-pilot fine, and the vintage craft only slightly bent).
Everyone was fine, everything’s okay. So, why bring it up?
When I see a plane from the 1940s, I have to mention it!
This is a late 1940s Ercoupe. Ercoupes use tricycle gears–basically backwards-for-the-day landing gear which keeps it from tipping forward when landing. You have one wheel in the front and two in the back. I think the two-seater planes like this look adorable, but that’s the less technical side of me speaking.
Here’s an example of the taildragger style plane, the popular style back then:
The other thing that fascinates me about the Ercoupes is that you can put the windows down and catch a breeze.
I’ve heard flying an Ercoupe is an amazing experience. I’ve always wanted to learn to fly and fly around into a two-seater plane, so I hope I get the chance to some day. But I’ve noticed the Ercoupe owners also have a special relationship with their planes.
Check out this video of a Ercoupe its pilot set to music. Besides the good action shots of the plane, it also is a great example of this special relationship. It reminds me a movie montage of a couple’s relationship.
But Ercoupe also had great ads.
You can see the tricycle landing gear in action up there. In addition to the plane, I would love the outfit of the woman on the left running towards the plane.
22 miles to the gallon! That’s better than my Chevy Malibu. And ‘d love to take a free demonstration flight, if only I could find a Ercoupe dealer-airport.
Have you ever flown a Ercoupe? Or been the “co-pilot”? Please tell me, and make me as jealous as you can!
Disclaimer: I don’t know if you can tell, but I like Ercoupes.
A very minor correction — a tricycle gear is what we see on almost all modern planes, two main gears and one up front. An Ercoupe is a tail-dragger, where the wheel is under the tail.
The closest I’ve come to flying an Ercoupe would be flying the two-seater Cessna 150. In that plane, the windows don’t roll down, but they do pop outward from the bottom to about a 30 degree angle. I can imagine it’s a much more exciting feeling in an Ercoupe!
Whoops, what I should have said (which I will edit) is it was backwards from its day. Trail-draggers were popular then but the Ercoupe ended up being a pioneer in stability from its use of the Tricycle Gear.
How much of a breeze do you get from the Cessna with the windows popped out like that?
With the windows out, you get quite a bit more noise but only a bit of wind. Of course you can always stick your hand or arm out like in a car cruising down the freeway. That said, the Cessna 150 cruises at about 100 MPH, so it’s not too different than speeding and doing the same thing in a car.
Except you are above the earth 😀 that sounds great!
Matthew, did you look at the picture? An Ercoupe is NOT a tail-dragger.
Oops, yep! Thanks for the correction to the correction.