Canadian Warplanes 2: WACO ZQC-6 Custom Cabin

WACO ZQC-6 Custom Cabin

(SDA&SM Photo)

Waco ZQC-6 light transport biplane, c1930s. The RCAF had one on strength, Reg. No. CF-BDS, c/n 4598. Built in 1937, it was first registered in Canada on 20 May 1937 to Fleet Aircraft of Fort Erie. It was apparently loaned by the owner C. Wragge of Galt, Ontario to No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) at Pendleton, Ontario for use as hack and ambulance. It then passed to Superior Airways in 1944. CF-BDS crashed after an engine failure 20 miles NW of Fort William, Ontario on 6 January 1951. (CASPIR)

The Waco ZQC Custom Cabins were a series of up-market single-engined four-to-five-seat cabin sesquiplanes of the late 1930s produced by the Waco Aircraft Company of the United States. Custom Cabin was Waco's own description of the aircraft which despite minor differences, were all fabric-covered biplanes.

Nearly all of the Waco Custom Cabins were powered by radial engines (there being one factory-built exception, the MGC-8) and the purchaser could specify almost any commercially available engine and Waco would build an aircraft powered by it, hence the profusion of designations, as the first letter indicates the engine installed. Some models were offered in case someone wanted a specific engine but not all were built. Fuselage structure was typical for the period, being welded steel tubing with light wood strips to fair the shape in. The wings were made of spruce with two spars each, having ailerons on only the upper wings, mounted on a false spar. Split flaps were installed on the undersides of the upper wings, though two designs were used depending on model – placed either mid-chord (OC, UC and QC), or in the conventional position at the trailing edge of the wing (GC and N).

The model N was unusual in being the only model with flaps on the lower wings while the model E was the only one with plain flaps. Wing bracing was with a heavily canted N strut joining upper and lower wings, assisted by a single strut bracing the lower wing to the upper fuselage longeron, except on the E series which replaced the single strut with flying and landing wires. Elevators and rudder were aerodynamically counterbalanced and braced with wire cables. Both could be trimmed, the rudder via a ground-adjustable tab, the elevators via jack screw on the OC, UC and QC, while the GC, E and N used a single trim tab on the port (left) elevator. The main landing gear was sprung with oleo struts, and a castoring tailwheel was fitted on all versions except the VN model, which had a nose wheel. (Wikipedia)

(Alaska State Library, Historical Collections Photo)

Waco Custom Cabin, ZQC-6 CF-BDT. Damaged & towed to Victoria for repairs. Flew for years between Seattle and Victoria, B.C.

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