In the Ercoupe, designer Fred Weick had devised a system whereby rudders and ailerons where coupled, so that the pilot only needed a steering wheel to maneuvre its airplane through the skies. To make it spin-resistant, it did not have rudder pedals (which are typically the cause of spins if misused), ailerons and rudders being interlinked to the large car-like steering wheel instead. Good the idea may have been, but it limited the aircrafts crosswind landing abilities to a large extent. Instead of becoming everyman's aircraft it became somewhat of a flying curiosity, even though a substantial number were built after the war.

The Ercoupe has been the subject of production runs by several aircraft manufacturing companies. After its first flight in 1937, the Engineering and Research Corporation (Erco for short) started series manufacturing but had to stop during the war, with a backlog of no less than 900 ordered aircraft. Its all-metal construction was the cause of the production stop, because precious metals were reclaimed for the American war effort. Production restarted in 1945, but the massive sale of small wartime aircraft (Piper Cubs, Taylorcrafts, etc...) at virtually give away prices meant that interest in the Erco dwindled. Financial difficulties for Erco lead to the sale of the company to Sanders, who continued to build the aircraft under the name of Sanders Ercoupe. This was the start of several subsequent changes of design ownership, including Universal Aircraft Industries (Univair), Forney, Alon and, finally, Mooney.

In Europe, the Ercoupe was imported by the Belgian company Intair who succeeded in selling several examples both in Belgium and the rest of Europe. A few of these aircraft remain airworthy.

Erco 415 Ercoupe OO-ERC

The first batch of Ercoupes imported into Europe by Intair were shown to the press at Antwerp airport on April 16, 1947. The appropriately registered OO-ERC was amongst these aircraft and it is probable that these pictures show the aircraft on this occasion.

(pictures kindly supplied by Jean-Pierre Lauwers)

Erco 415CD Ercoupe OO-RAK

(picture used by kind permission of Darryl Gibbs, CNAPG)