usually found on the vertical stabilizer of aeronca champs . type operating division industry commercial aviation and defense industry founded 1928 headquarters middletown ohio key people taylor stanley conrad dietz parent magellan aerospace website aeroncainc.com aeronca contracted from aeronautical corporation of america located in middletown ohio is a us manufacturer of engine components and airframe structures for commercial aviation and the defense industry and a former aircraft manufacturer . from 1928 to 1951 the company was a major producer of general aviation aircraft and also produced the engines for some of their early designs . 1 2 aeronca is now 2011 a division of magellan aerospace producing aircraft missile and space vehicle components at the same location adjacent to middletown s hook field municipal airport . contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 world war ii 1.3 postwar 1.4 new ownership 2 aircraft 3 missiles 4 engines 5 museum displays 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit origins edit the aeronca aircraft corporation was founded november 11 1928 in cincinnati ohio . backed by the financial and political support of the prominent taft family and future ohio senator robert a. taft who was one of the firm s directors aeronca became the first company to build a commercially successful general aviation aircraft . 3 when production ended in 1951 aeronca had sold 17 408 aircraft in 55 models . aeronca c 2 registered cf aor in the canada aviation museum rockcliffe ottawa ontario 2006 production began with the jean a. roche designed aeronca c 2 monoplane often called the flying bathtub in 1929 . the next major model was the scout of 1937 a two seater which was developed into the chief and super chief the next year . in 1937 there was a major flood at the lunken airport resulting in the entire airport area being washed away . aeronca s factory was destroyed along with the tooling and almost all of the very early blueprints and drawings . at this time a decision was made to move the operation to a more stable area . middletown ohio was chosen and the company has remained there ever since . 1 2 all of the airplanes produced from the start of production in 1929 to 1937 are known as the lunken aeroncas . the first aeronca built in middletown was produced on june 5 1940 and after this time all aeroncas were built here . world war ii edit the defender a tandem trainer version of the chief with a higher rear seat was used in training many of the pilots who flew i world war ii . 1 2 several observation and liaison aircraft designs were also produced during and after the war seeing extensive front line use including the l 3 l 16 and o 58 . 1 2 a glider trainer version of the defender the aeronca tg 5 replaced the engine with a third seat facilitating the training of combat glider pilots destined to fly larger craft such as the waco cg 4a . 1 2 aeronca s world war ii designs the defender tg 5 and l 3 variants differed significantly from nearly all previous and subsequent aeroncas by replacing aeronca s traditional three longeron triangular cross section fuselage with a four longeron rectangular cross section fuselage for additional strength . 1 2 postwar edit 1946 7ac champion in 1945 following the end of world war ii aeronca returned to civilian production with two new models the 7ac champion and the 11ac chief . while the champ shared its tandem seating arrangement with the prewar tandem trainer and the chief shared its name and seating arrangement with the prewar chief designs both were new designs and very similar to each other . 1 2 4 5 6 1940 aeronca 11ac chief a benefit of the concurrent development was that the new designs had about 80 % of their parts in common . nevertheless the tandem seat champ resembling the extremely popular piper j 3 cub was favored by the market evidenced by its outselling its sibling the chief at a rate of 4 to 1 . between 1945 and 1951 nearly 8 000 champions were manufactured becoming one of the most popular light planes of all time ; while over the same period approximately 2 000 chiefs were produced . 1 2 4 5 6 new ownership edit aeronca ceased light aircraft production in 1951 and in 1954 sold the champion design to the new champion aircraft corporation of osceola wisconsin which continued building variants of the champion as well as the derivative design the citabria . the venerable aircraft design was acquired again by the bellanca aircraft company in 1970 and again to american champion in 1988 where it remains in production . 1 2 in the early 1970s aeronca was contracted by bede aircraft to assemble its first bede bd 5j microjet the world s smallest jet airplane but after its experiences with the prototype aeronca declined to be further involved with the program . 1 2 in 1978 aeronca planned to start aircraft production again with production of a prototype very light business jet the foxjet st600 . the project was eventually cancelled due to lack of wr 44 engine availability . 7 aeronca now builds components for aerospace companies including boeing northrop grumman lockheed and airbus . in its 23 year history as a general aviation and military aviation manufacturer aeronca produced 17 408 aircraft spanning 55 different models . aircraft edit date of first production is given aeronca c 4 a cabin biplane design proposed by aeronca manager conrad dietz . concept rejected in favor of the c 2 . 3 aeronca flying bathtub family aeronca c 2 1929 single engine single seat tube and fabric high wing monoplane with tailskid aeronca c 1 cadet 1931 single engine single seat light sports aircraft roughly a c 2 with a c 3 engine . aeronca c 3 1931 two seat side by side development of aeronca c 2 aeronca c 100 1931 english built variation of aeronca c 3 aeronca l 1935 single engine two seat side by side low wing monoplane with conventional tailwheel landing gear aeronca chief family prewar aeronca k 1937 single engine two seat high wing monoplane with conventional tailwheel landing gear aeronca 50 chief 1938 single engine two seat side by side high wing monoplane with conventional tailwheel landing gear and 50 hp engine aeronca 65 super chief 1938 aeronca chief with 65 hp engine aeronca world war ii military family aeronca defender 1938 single engine two seat tandem high wing monoplane with conventional tailwheel landing gear soloed from rear seat precursor to the 7 champion aeronca l 3 1941 military version of aeronca champ aeronca tg 5 1942 army glider trainer based on l 3 structure aeronca lnr 1942 us navy designation for aeronca tg 5 aeronca l 16 1944 military liaison aircraft ; basis of aeronca 7 champ aeronca 7 champion champ 1945 single engine two seat tandem high wing monoplane conventional tailwheel landing gear soloed from front seat aeronca 9 arrow 1947 single engine two seat low wing monoplane with retractable landing gear . one built ; not put into production aeronca 11 chief 1945 new design but similar to the pre war chief but with a wider cabin and different wing aeronca 12 chum 1946 aeronca s competitor to the ercoupe . two prototypes built ; not put into production 8 aeronca 15 sedan 1947 four seat aircraft with fabric covered fuselage and full metal wings missiles edit gt 1 missile engines edit aeronca e 107 aeronca e 113 museum displays edit aeronca museum brighton michigan exhibits pending now in restoration at brighton airport mid atlantic air museum reading pennsylvania 1936 aeronca c 3 master 1937 aeronca model k see also edit erco ercoupe luscombe piper cub taylorcraft b references edit a b c d e f g h i j harris richard aeronca birth of the personal plane aahs journal summer 2007 vol .52 2 american aviation historical society a b c d e f g h i j harris richard aeronca champion history beyond the bathtub chiefs champs & citabrias from articles by richard harris first appearing in in flight usa 2003 2004 condensed on author s website . a b donald m. pattillo . a history in the making 80 turbulent years in the american general aviation industry . p. 18 . a b karant max flying check pilot the aeronca chief flying magazine dec. 1946 . a b sargent sparky barnes a honey of a champion the baker family s award winning aeronca vintage airplane dec. 2007 vol .35 12 experimental aircraft assn. a b keyhoe donald e. major usaf noted usaf test pilot plane of the month the aeronca chief true the men s magazine sep. 1946 . aeronca to build foxjet . flight international 230 . 28 january 1978 . retrieved 2008 03 27 . alan abel drina welch able and paul matt . aeronca s golden age . p. 135 . aeronautical corporation of america aeronca by roger guillemette us centennial of flight commission retrieved 20 january 2006 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to aeronca . aeronca aviators club started by joe dickey . has quarterly newsletter national aeronca association associated with the original aeronca factory . aeronca aircraft history museum director todd trainor supporting various models of the aircraft . aeronca club of germany aeronca club of great britain fearless aeronca aviators a very popular aeronca email list . v t e aeronca aircraft civilian 11 chief 50 chief c 1 c 2 c 3 champion defender k l sedan t military l 3 l 16 lnr o 58 tg 5 experimental arrow chum eagle built under licence pt 19 pt 23 v t e magellan aerospace subsidiaries aeronca aircraft bristol aerospace haley industries mayflower aerospace orenda aerospace presto casting company former subsidiaries fleet aircraft fleet canada v t e champion aircraft aircraft champion lancer citabria decathlon companies aeronca aircraft corporation champion aircraft corporation bellanca aircraft corporation american champion aircraft corporation v t e american champion aircraft champion citabria decathlon scout companies aeronca aircraft corporation champion aircraft corporation bellanca aircraft corporation american champion aircraft corporation retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title aeronca aircraft & oldid 742662054 categories manufacturing companies established in 1928companies based in ohioaircraft manufacturers of the united statesaircraft engine manufacturers of the united statesmiddletown ohio1928 establishments in ohiohidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschespa olfran aisitalianoportugu s edit links this page was last modified on 5 october 2016 at 01 13 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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