Industry | Aerospace |
---|---|
Founded | 1927 |
Key people | Clare W. Bunch [1] |
Products | Aircraft |
Monocoupe Aircraft was a manufacturer of light airplanes originally produced in the late 1920s and 30s. [2] They introduced relatively inexpensive, compact, and sporty aircraft in an era of large, maintenance intensive, open-cockpit biplanes, and the Monocoupe series was one of the first economical, closed-cabin, two-seat, light aircraft in the United States. As a result, the Monocoupe soon became a successful brand. [2]
Central States Airplane Company was established in 1927 to build Don Luscombe's Monocoupe. [3] In January 1928, the company became the Mono Aircraft Division of Velie Motor Corporation. Following Willard Velie's death in March 1929, the Velie interests were sold to Allied Aviation Industries, a holding company. By May, these interests were divided into two separate companies: the Lambert Aircraft Engine Corporation and the Mono Aircraft Company of Moline, Illinois. Both companies passed into receivership in 1931, reemerging in 1932 as the Lambert Engine and Machine Company and the Monocoupe Corporation. In July 1934, the two companies joined under the newly formed Lambert Aircraft Corporation with Monocoupe continuing to operate under its own name.
The company was dissolved in 1940 and its assets passed to the Monocoupe Aeroplane and Engine Corporation of Orlando, Florida. [4] Later, in September 1941, Monocoupe acquired the Bristol Aircraft Corporation of Bristol, Virginia and its Canadian subsidiary Bristol Aircraft Products Ltd. The operations of these three companies were combined under the Universal Molded Products Corporation with Monocoupe forming a separate division of the company. Aircraft production halted during World War II, resuming briefly in 1948-1950 under the name Monocoupe Airplane and Engine Corporation. In 1955, the corporate assets were acquired by a West Virginia aviation group, which reorganized the company as Monocoupe Aircraft of Florida, Inc. and transferred operations to Melbourne, Florida. [4]
The company name re-emerged as Mono Aircraft, Inc. briefly in 1992, in Cheney, Kansas, with the Monocoupe type certificate acquired by Saturn Aircraft & Engineering, Oxnard, California. Aviat Aircraft developed a modernized variation of the Monocoupe 110 as the 200-horsepower 110 Special, and sold a few with modern 200-horsepower engines. [2] [5] The Monocoupe Aeroplane Corporation was again re-established in Grantville, Pennsylvania, in late 2016, to build reproduction Monocoupe 110 Specials with Warner 185 engines and modern technology.
Lycoming Engines is a major American manufacturer of aircraft engines. With a factory in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lycoming produces a line of horizontally opposed, air-cooled, four, six and eight-cylinder engines including the only FAA-certified aerobatic and helicopter piston engines on the market.
Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd (BSEL) was a British aero engine manufacturer. The company was formed in 1959 by a merger of Bristol Aero-Engines Limited and Armstrong Siddeley Motors Limited. In 1961 the company was expanded by the purchase of the de Havilland Engine Company and the engine division of Blackburn Aircraft. Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce Limited in 1966.
Velie was a brass era American automobile brand produced by the Velie Motors Corporation in Moline, Illinois from 1908 to 1928. The company was founded by and named for Willard Velie, a maternal grandson of John Deere.
The Monocoupe 90 was a two-seat, light cabin airplane built by Donald A. Luscombe for Monocoupe Aircraft. The first Monocoupe was built in an abandoned church in Davenport, Iowa, and first flew on April 1, 1927. Various models were in production until the late 1940s.
The Citabria is a light single-engine, two-seat, fixed conventional gear airplane which entered production in the United States in 1964. Designed for flight training, utility and personal use, it is capable of sustaining aerobatic stresses from +5g to -2g. Its name, "airbatic" backwards, reflects this.
Taylorcraft Aviation is an airplane manufacturer that has been producing aircraft for more than 70 years in several locations.
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Howard Aircraft Corporation was a small United States aircraft manufacturer in the 1930s and 1940s. The factory was initially on the south side of Chicago Municipal Airport at 5301 W. 65th Street; during World War II a second plant was opened at DuPage Airport west of Chicago.
The Velie Monocoupe was an American general aviation aircraft manufactured from 1927 to 1929 by the Mono-Aircraft Corp, a division of Velie Motors Corporation.
The Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum, located at Creve Coeur Airport in Maryland Heights, Missouri, United States, is dedicated to restoring and preserving historical aircraft. The airplanes in the collection are all fabric-covered, and most are biplanes from the inter-war years. The museum's volunteers maintain most of these aircraft in full working order. This is one of the largest collections of flying classic aircraft in America.
The Monocoupe 110 Special was a United States sporting and racing aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s.
Donald Arthur Luscombe was an American businessman and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of Luscombe Aircraft, which produced an advanced sheet-metal-fuselage light aircraft during the 1930–1950 time period in the US.
Solar Turbines Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., designs and manufactures industrial gas turbines for onshore and offshore electrical power generation, for marine propulsion and for producing, processing and transporting natural gas and oil.
Willard Lamb Velie was a businessman based in Moline, Illinois. He was an executive at Deere & Company before starting his own companies, which grew to become Velie Motor Company. He developed advanced engines for automobiles and airplanes.
The Central States Aircraft Model 22, Velie Monocoupe, or Monocoupe Model 22 was the first in a series of small, high-performance high-wing monoplanes from Monocoupe Aircraft.
The St. Louis C2 Cardinal family are a series of light sport monoplanes built by the St. Louis Aircraft Corporation during the peak of the Lindbergh Boom after the Spirit of St. Louis flight of 1927.
The Kari-Keen 90 Sioux coupe was a two-seat cabin monoplane.
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