Ercoupe
Forney
Alon
Rocket Testing
1999 10th Annual West Coast Falco Fly-In
Alon
Time after time, the Ercoupe design rose like a Phoenix from the ashes. John Allen, manager of the Beech light twin and single-engine aircraft manufacturing plant tried to get Beechcraft to add the coupe to their line as the company trainer. Olive Beech said no to the plan. Lee O. Higdon had been a party to the negotiations and several years later, Allen persuaded Higdon to look into the cost of setting up a company to revive the coupe.
John Allen and Lee Higdon had both been officials of Beech Aircraft Corporation and had worked for Beechcraft for many years. Allen was hired at Beech as a sheet metal assembler on August 9, 1937 and worked his way through the ranks. Allen’s 27 years with Beech had given him experience in management, manufacturing, production development, cost and production control, and selling. At the time of his departure from Beech, in January 1964, he was manager of Beechcraft Plant II operations.
Higdon was with Beech from March of 1951 to December 1963. He was assistant treasurer of the corporation and manager of accounting. Higdon was a quiet man and had a reputation within the industry as being sharp with the pencil.
The duo formed Alon, Inc., in December 1963. The company name, Alon, was a contraction of the last names of John Allen and Lee Higdon. On March 16, 1964, Alon obtained the rights from Carlsbad. Alon began production of an essentially unchanged coupe in Carlsbad at the old Air Products factory. They produced and flew one coupe there. Then they shut the line down, and moved to the McPherson Municipal Airport in Kansas.
In order to keep costs down, the new company made few changes in the Alon. The Continental C-90-16F engine was installed, thus increasing the power to 90 hp at 2475 rpm. The slide up windows were retired and a fighter-style sliding bubble canopy was used. They lowered the canopy beam 4 inches to make cockpit entrance more convenient.
The instrument panel was redesigned from scatch. The result was a well-designed, pilot-oriented instrument display, set above new rams horn control wheels, which had been lowered and reset at a more comfortable angle. Rudder pedals became standard and two-control was by special order only. The interior was also redesigned. During the course of the A2 production run, Alon introduced a backward-bending, spring-steel main landing gear to replace the original oleo. The last 25 Alons produced were so equipped.
Between 1964 and 1967, Alon produced 245 A2s. Despite producing 137 during 1966, their peak production year, the financial difficulties that dogged Alon’s predecessors struck Alon as well. Production of the Alon ceased in late September 1967.
