The Flying Bathtub

The Aeronautical Corporation of America was founded in Cincinnati on 11 November 1928 with money and political weight from the Taft family; the future senator Robert A. Taft sat on its board. Its first product, Jean Roche’s tiny C-2 of 1929, looked so odd that it was nicknamed the Flying Bathtub. It was also the first commercially successful American general aviation aeroplane, and Aeronca made its own engines for the early models. The Scout, Chief and Super Chief followed in the late 1930s.

Flood, war and the Champ

In 1937 the Ohio River flooded Lunken Airport and washed away Aeronca’s factory, tooling and almost all of its early drawings. The company moved to Hook Field in Middletown. In the war its Defender trainer taught thousands to fly, the TG-5 glider trainer prepared men for the Waco CG-4A, and the L-3 Grasshopper flew liaison at the front. Peace brought the 7AC Champion, and about 7,200 Champs were built in just four years, outselling the sister Chief four to one.

From aeroplanes to aerostructures

The bubble burst. Aeronca stopped building light aircraft in 1951 after selling 17,408 aircraft in 55 models, and sold the Champion design in 1954; it lives on today as the American Champion line. Aeronca itself bought Longren Aircraft in 1959, nearly went bankrupt by 1965, assembled the first BD-5J microjet and walked away from it, and was taken over by Fleet Aerospace in 1986. It still works at Middletown, now as part of Magellan Aerospace, building structures for Boeing, Airbus and the defence primes.

Fabrieken

• Lunken Airport works · Cincinnati, Ohio — Destroyed in the 1937 flood
• Hook Field works · Middletown, Ohio — Home since about 1939; still in use
• Dayton assembly hangars · Dayton Municipal Airport, Ohio — Leased for postwar production

Mensen

• Jean A. Roche · designer — Designed the C-2
• Robert A. Taft · director, later US senator

Records en primeurs

• First commercially successful American general aviation aircraft, the C-2