The Waco CRG is an American open-cockpit sporting

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

of the early 1930s.

Development

The Waco CRG was designed specifically to win the 1930 Ford Air Tour, a transcontinental reliability endurance race. Waco had previously won the race in both 1928 and 1929, and built two CRGs for the 1930 competition. The CRG is a conventional biplane with straight wings with a special M18 airfoil. The landing gear shock struts were extended and featured a tailskid. The Wright Wright J-6-7 radial engine was initially fitted with a speedring cowling.

Operational history

Two CRGs were completed for the 1930 race. To prevent Waco from winning for a third time, Ford changed the rules so that only a

Ford Trimotor The Ford Trimotor (also called the "Tri-Motor", and nicknamed the "Tin Goose") is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933, after 199 had been made. It w ...

could win. The CRGs achieved second and third paces in the transcontinental marathon, which started at the Ford Airport, now the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

automobile testing site. The 1930 competition was over a circular course passing around the U.S. Midwest and neighboring provinces of Canada.Detroit News, 10 September 1930 ''NC600Y'' was flown by

John H. Livingston John H. Livingston (1897–1974) was an American aviator and air race pilot of the 1920s and 1930s. He placed first in 80 national air races. Life John Livingston was born in 1897 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. His first profession was as an auto ...

and ''NC660Y'' by Art Davis, proprietor of the Air Circus bearing his name. Livingston's CRG, NC600Y, still survives. Davis' CRG ended its flying career as a cropduster in Greenville, Mississippi in 1938. Waco CRG NC600Y was re-engined in 1939 with a Wright R-760E-2 and was used by the

Skywriting Corporation of America Skywriting is the process of using one or more small aircraft, able to expel special smoke during flight, to fly in certain patterns that create writing readable from the ground. These messages can be advertisements, general messages of celebrat ...

, for high altitude skywriting as the original Pepsi-Cola Skywriter.

Specifications (CRG)

References

Notes

Bibliography

Aerofiles.com
{{WACO 1930s United States civil utility aircraft G series Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1930