Ercoupe
Forney
Alon
Rocket Testing
1999 10th Annual West Coast Falco Fly-In
Ercoupe
" The aim of [the Ercoupe’s] design was to make it particularly suitable for the private owner by having it unusually simple and easy to fly, quick to learn to fly, and free from the difficulties associated with stalling and spinning." designer Fred WeickThe first new 415Cs began coming off the production line in October of 1945. By January 1946 the planes were coming off the production line at a rate of 10 per day.
Several brands of airplanes, including the Ercoupe, were displayed and sold in prestigious department stores. Marshall Field & Company in Chicago offered the Ercoupe for $3,150. New pilots were given free flight instruction through their first solo. The store sold approximately 40 Ercoupes in the first month the plane was on display.
In Denver, at the J.C. Penney Company, eight Ercoupes were sold in one week. The purchasers - two oilmen, two ranchers, a doctor, a store manager, a manufacturer, and a housewife - each paid $250 down and the balance of $2,858.88 (including tax) on delivery.
ERCO delivered 71 aiplanes before the end of 1945. The backlog of Ercoupe orders was so great that in the early spring of 1946 ERCO established a night shift, doubling production to 20 airplanes per day. A graveyard shift was added in the late spring and for peak production reached 35 Ercoupes per day. There were usually 100 Ercoupes or more on the field being tested or waiting to be flown away by dealers or owners.
Then suddenly in September, the airplanes on the field built up to 300. The dealer pipelines had filled up. The production line was totally closed on November 8, 1946. Production of Ercoupes did not resume until February 18, 1947. ERCO produced 4,261 Ercoupes in 1946. 326 of these remained unsold at year’s end.
The slump in the light airplane market that followed was extremely deep and prolonged. Eventually, only three manufacturers survived - Beech, Cessna, and Piper.
