The Waco N series is a range of 1930s

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

-built cabin biplanes with a fixed tricycle undercarriage produced by the

Waco Aircraft Company The Waco Aircraft Company (WACO) was an aircraft manufacturer located in Troy, Ohio, United States. Between 1920 and 1947, the company produced a wide range of civilian biplanes. The company initially started under the name Weaver Aircraft C ...

Design and development

Waco introduced the luxury N-series

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 ...

in 1937. It was based on the Waco C-series five-seat custom-cabin Waco with that model's curved pointed wings, but with an unusual fixed

tricycle undercarriage Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle ge ...

and a modified tail with a lower rudder extension to give increased side area. The Waco N was fitted with flaps on all four wings to improve the aircraft's landing characteristics.

Operational history

The prototype, was designated ZVN-7, with the '7' indicating its year of manufacture (1937), and was powered by the

Jacobs L-5 The Jacobs R-830 or L-5 is a seven-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft manufactured in the United States, production started in 1935.Gunston 1989, p.85. Design and development The R-830 was effectively an enlargement of the R-755 ...

engine.Green, 1965, p. 306 Only around 20 examples of the N series were completed, as the AVN-8, and ZVN-8. A few were impressed by the

USAAC The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as the UC-72J and UC-72L. One AVN-8 was used by the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

at Farnborough, Hampshire, for trials with tricycle landing gear. An example of the AVN-8 is maintained in airworthy condition by the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum at Creve Coeur Airport near St Louis Missouri.

Variants

;ZVN-7 and ZVN-8:

;AVN-8:

Jacobs L-6 The Jacobs R-915 or Jacobs L-6 is a seven-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft manufactured in the United States, production started in 1936. Design and development The R-915 was effectively an enlargement of the R-755 with strengt ...

engine

Specifications (AVN-8)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * {{WACO 1930s United States civil utility aircraft N series Sesquiplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1937