Aeronca, contracted from Aeronautical Corporation of America, located in Middletown,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, is a US

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

components and

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aeros ...

structures for

commercial aviation Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for remuneration or hire, as opposed to private aviation. Definition Commercial aviation is not a rigorously defined category. All commercial air transport and ae ...

and the defense industry, and a former aircraft manufacturer. From 1928 to 1951, the company was a major producer of

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

, and also produced the engines for some of their early designs.Harris, Richard,
Aeronca: Birth of the Personal Plane
," ''AAHS Journal,'' Summer 2007, vol.52, #2,

American Aviation Historical Society The American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) is a non-profit organization "dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of he history ofAmerican aviation.""AAHS Mission," Winter 2019, ''AAHS Journal'', vol.64, no.4, page 242, retrieved May 1 ...

Harris, Richard,
Aeronca/Champion History: Beyond the Bathtub -- Chiefs, Champs & Citabrias
" from articles by Richard Harris first appearing in ''In Flight USA,'' 2003-2004, condensed on author's website. Aeronca is now (2011) a division of Magellan Aerospace, producing aircraft, missile, and space vehicle components at the same location adjacent to Middletown's

Hook Field Municipal Airport Middletown Regional Airport, also known as Hook Field, is a city-owned public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) north of the central business district of Middletown, a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States. The airport ...

History

Origins

Originally formed as the Cincinnati Aeronautical Corporation, the Aeronautical Corporation of America was founded November 11, 1928, in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. The name was generally abbreviated to Aeronca. Backed by the financial and political support of the prominent Taft family and future Ohio senator

Robert A. Taft Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate majority le ...

who was one of the firm's directors, Aeronca became the first American company to build a commercially successful

. The corporation changed its name to Aeronca Aircraft Corporation in 1941. When production ended in 1951, Aeronca had sold 17,408 aircraft in 55 models. AeroncaC-2CF-AOR

Production began with the Jean A. Roche-designed

Aeronca C-2 The Aeronca C-2 is an American light monoplane designed by Jean A. Roche and built by Aeronca Aircraft. Development Roche Monoplane Jean A. Roche was a U.S. Army engineer at McCook Field airfield in Dayton, Ohio. Roche developed an aircraft ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

, often called the "Flying Bathtub", in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, the C designation standing for Cincinnati. The next major model was the

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

, a two-seater, which was developed into the

Chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boat ...

and

Super Chief The ''Super Chief'' was one of the List of named passenger trains, named train, passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The then-modern streamliner was touted in its heyday as "The Train of the Stars" b ...

the next year. The

Ohio River flood of 1937 The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937. With damage stretching from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, 385 people died, one million people were left homeless and property losses reached $500 million ...

at the

Lunken Airport Cincinnati Municipal Airport – Lunken Field (Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport) is a public airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, east of Downtown Cincinnati. It is owned by the city of Cincinnati and serves private aircraft, including the fleets ...

resulted in the entire airport area being washed away. Aeronca's factory was destroyed, along with the tooling and almost all of the very early blueprints and drawings. As a result, two years later the decision was made to move out of the floodplain to

Middletown, Ohio Middletown is a city in Butler County, Ohio, Butler and Warren County, Ohio, Warren counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 50,987 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area in sou ...

. By October 1940 the plant had to expand by to keep up with production demands.

World War II

The Defender, a tandem trainer version of the Chief with a higher rear seat, was used in training many of the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

s who flew in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Several observation and

liaison aircraft A liaison aircraft (also called an army cooperation aircraft) is a small, usually unarmed aircraft primarily used by military forces for artillery observation or transporting commanders and messages. Operation The concept developed before Worl ...

designs were also produced during and after the war, seeing extensive front line use, including the

L-3 L3, L03, L.3 or L-3 may refer to: In arts and media * Live, Loud & Local, a show launched by band The Matches in the Oakland, California region * '' Leprechaun 3'', a film * L3-37, a droid in ''Solo: A Star Wars Story'' * Lower third, in televisi ...

/ O-58. A glider-trainer version of the Defender, the

Aeronca TG-5 Aeronca, contracted from Aeronautical Corporation of America, located in Middletown, Ohio, is a US manufacturer of engine components and airframe structures for commercial aviation and the defense industry, and a former aircraft manufacturer. ...

, replaced the engine with a third seat, facilitating the training of combat glider pilots destined to fly larger craft, such as the

Waco CG-4A The Waco CG-4 was the most widely used American troop/cargo military glider of World War II. It was designated the CG-4A by the United States Army Air Forces, and given the service name Hadrian (after the Roman emperor) by the British. The ...

. Aeronca's World War II designs—the Defender, TG-5 and L-3 variants—differed significantly from nearly all previous and subsequent Aeroncas by replacing Aeronca's traditional three-

longeron In engineering, a longeron or stringer is a load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural fram ...

, triangular-cross-section fuselage with a ''four''-

, rectangular-cross-section fuselage for additional strength.

Postwar

In 1945, following the end of World War II, Aeronca returned to civilian production with two new models, the 7AC Champion and the 11AC Chief. While the Champ shared its tandem seating arrangement with the prewar tandem trainer—and the Chief shared its name and seating arrangement with the prewar Chief designs—both were new fresh paper designs and designed for production economy, sharing over 80% of the components. One of the very few aircraft manufacturers that used an assembly line production layout.Karant, Max,
Flying Check Pilot: The Aeronca Chief
," ''Flying Magazine'', Dec., 1946.Sargent, Sparky Barnes,
A Honey of a Champion!: The Baker family's award-winning Aeronca
" ''Vintage Airplane,'' Dec., 2007, vol.35, #12, Experimental Aircraft Assn. Keyhoe, Donald E., Major, USAF (noted USAF test pilot),
Plane of the Month: The Aeronca Chief
" ''TRUE: The Men's Magazine,'' Sep., 1946. A benefit of the concurrent development was that the new designs had about 80% of their parts in common. Nevertheless, the tandem-seat Champ—resembling the extremely popular

Piper J-3 Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

—was favored by the market, evidenced by its outselling its sibling, the Chief, at a rate of 4 to 1. Between 1945 and 1951, nearly 8,000 Champions were manufactured; while over the same period, approximately 2,000 Chiefs were produced.

New ownership

Aeronca ceased light aircraft production in 1951, and in 1954 sold the Champion design to the new Champion Aircraft Corporation of

Osceola, Wisconsin Osceola ( ) is a village in Polk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,765 at the 2020 census. Located mostly within the Town of Osceola, the village sits on the border with Minnesota, separated by the St. Croix River. It is ...

, which continued building variants of the Champion as well as the derivative design, the

Citabria 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 aircraft, utility and personal use, it is capable of sustaining aero ...

. The venerable aircraft design was acquired again by the

Bellanca Aircraft Company AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983, it was known as the Bellanca Aircraft Company. The company was founded in 1927 by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, although it was preceded by p ...

in 1970 and again to

American Champion American Champion Aircraft Corporation, is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft headquartered at the Rochester, Wisconsin airport. Founded in 1988 on the acquisition of the Champ, Citabria, Scout, and Decathlon The decathlon is a c ...

in 1988, where it remains in production. Aeronca purchased the

Longren Aircraft Corporation The Longren Aircraft Corporation was an airplane design and manufacturing firm founded in 1911 by pioneer aviator Albin K. Longren. From facilities in Topeka, Kansas, Longren produced numerous models of aircraft until its first bankruptcy in 1924. ...

in 1959. However, by 1965 it was nearly bankrupt and a new president, Alfred A. Handschumacher, was hired to return the company to profitability. In the early 1970s, Aeronca was contracted by Bede Aircraft to assemble its first Bede BD-5J Microjet—the world's smallest jet airplane—but, after its experiences with the prototype, Aeronca declined to be further involved with the program. In 1978 Aeronca planned to start aircraft production again with production of a prototype very light business jet, the Foxjet ST600. The project was eventually cancelled due to lack of WR-44 engine availability. Fleet Aerospace launched a successful hostile takeover of the company in 1986. Aeronca now builds components for aerospace companies including

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

, Lockheed and

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

. In its 23-year history as a general aviation and military aviation manufacturer, Aeronca produced 17,408 aircraft spanning 55 different models.

Products

Aircraft

Missiles

GT-1 (missile) The GT-1 (Glide Torpedo 1) was an early form of stand-off weaponry developed by the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Intended to deliver an aerial torpedo at a safe range from the launching aircraft, the weapon proved successfu ...

Engines

* Aeronca E-107 *

Aeronca E-113 The E-113 was a small flat-twin piston engine developed by Aeronca for use in some of their light aircraft. It was an overhead valve development of the Flathead engine, flathead configuration Aeronca E-107, E-107. Design and development Origina ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

"Aeronautical Corporation of America (Aeronca)"
by Roger Guillemette, ''US Centennial of Flight Commission'', retrieved 20 January 2006.

External links

Aeronca Aviators Club
started by Joe Dickey. Has Quarterly Newsletter
National Aeronca Association
associated with the original Aeronca factory.
Aeronca Aircraft History Museum
Director Todd Trainor, supporting various models of the aircraft.
Aeronca Club of GermanyAeronca Club of Great BritainFearless Aeronca Aviators
a very popular Aeronca email list. {{American Champion Aviation in Ohio Manufacturing companies established in 1928 Companies based in Ohio Aircraft manufacturers of the United States Aircraft engine manufacturers of the United States Middletown, Ohio 1928 establishments in Ohio