The Aeronca 100: the inside story of a rare bird

Murray Kirkus tells the story of a rarely seen Aeronca 100, a small, unique aeroplane with an intriguing history and roots in early 1920s America.

When Christopher ‘Kip’ Netherclift’s  Aeronca 100 took to the air on 1st November 2006 following restoration, it was the first time the aircraft had been airborne since an accident at Drasa near Lautoka, Fiji, almost fifty years earlier. 

Shipped to New Zealand in a damaged and dismantled state in 1965, the aircraft remained in storage – with its twin cylinder JAP engine used to power a Luton Minor – until restoration began a decade ago.

Roche of Dayton
The Aeronca 100 had its beginnings in the GL-2, a glider designed by Jean A Roche of Dayton, Ohio in 1923. Roche, born in France, had emigrated to the US with his family at the age of 12. The young Roche was fascinated with aviation, and while still at high school, had applied to patent a wing pivoting system, which he claimed stabilised aircraft in turbulent air.

Graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, Roche worked for several aviation firms, later taking a position as assistant chief engineer with the Standard Aircraft Company, New Jersey. However it was not until he joined the US Army Air Service that his full potential in aircraft design was realised.  Assigned a task that involved developing a glider for student training, Roche designed the GL-2.  Many of its construction features found their way into a diminutive single-seat aircraft Roche built at home.

By the time Roche had completed construction of his homebuilt aircraft, he had been joined by fellow Army Service employee John Doshe.  Doshe was an accomplished mechanical engineer, and had developed a love for flying after witnessing Orville Wright at the controls of a Wright Flyer.

Finding power
Securing an engine with which to power their aircraft proved troublesome for this pair of aircraft builders. Money sent off to Germany to purchase a Haake aero engine disappeared, after which they learned the company had gone out of business.  A borrowed 18 hp converted Henderson motorcycle engine produced insufficient power to get the aircraft off the ground.

It was here that another Army Air Service employee offered a solution. Harold Morehouse had previously built a small twin-cylinder air-cooled engine for his employer to use with blimps. Roche, upon seeing this engine, realised it was the type of powerplant they required, and ultimately he, Doshe and Morehouse entered into an agreement whereby the latter would develop an engine specifically for the aeroplane.

Morehouse’s engine proved a success, and on 1st September, 1925, John Doshe took the aircraft on its maiden flight. Over the following twelve months the aircraft made more than 200 flights, on one occasion climbing to over 20,000 feet.  But a serious crash occurred when Roche stalled the aircraft close to the ground, and while the airframe was repairable, the damaged engine was a different story. 

Morehouse had by this time moved on, and his engine had been put into production by the Wright Aeronautical Corp. of New Jersey, and so any repairs to the damaged engine were out of the question. Enter fellow McCook Field workers Roy Poole and Robert Galloway.

Engineers, Poole and Galloway were encouraged to take up where Morehouse had left off and develop a new engine around salvaged parts of the damaged one. Roche approached the Gorvo-Nelson Co. of Detroit with a proposal that they produce the engine commercially, if he was able to put the airframe into production.

Designated E-107 it was this Poole/Galloway designed engine that went on to form the basis for the Aeronca  E-113C engine which powered the C-3, and which was ultimately produced in a dual ignition version in England by J.A.Prestwich Ltd. and known as the JAP J99.

Becoming Aeronca
Around May 1929 the Aeronautical Corporation of America (its name shortened to Aeronca for convenience) completed a deal with Roche whereby, in return for granting the aircraft designer 220 shares in the company, it would obtain all design and construction rights to the aircraft.

Aeronca set up a workshop in a farm barn in Newton, Ohio, employing Jean Roche, Roy Poole and Robert Galloway to develop the aircraft for commercial production.
Aeronca’s first production C-2 took to the air on 20 October 1929, just as effects of the Depression were beginning to be felt. 

However, enthusiasm for the little single seat aeroplane appeared unhindered by the economic situation, and orders flowed in.  164 aircraft were produced in the first two years, by which time the Aeronautical Corporation of America had moved into to the premises of the nearby defunct Metal Aircraft Corp.

Moving up
A plan by company executives to develop the C-2 into a two place aircraft, while not meeting with Roche’s approval, went ahead anyway. The additional horsepower required for what would become a heavier aircraft was obtained by reworking the E-107 engine using cylinders from a standard five cylinder Warner Scarab radial engine. The new engine, designated E-113C, was only four lbs heavier than the E-107, and power output had been increased from 26 to 36 hp at 2400 RPM.

The side-by-size two-seat C-3, which entered production in January 1932 had, essentially, a widened C-2 fuselage. The C-3 retained the C-2’s open cockpit, however it had a new tripod type undercarriage. The price was just US$235 more than the single seater, and despite the Depression, sold well.

By the end of 1932 one hundred and eleven C-3s had been sold. This aircraft was referred to as the “Collegian” by Aeronca employees Refinements followed which saw oleo shock absorbers available as additional extras on the main landing gear struts, and a “winter cabin” was developed. These were actually left and right side door and window panels which could be retro-fitted to existing aircraft.

Bigger, better & then British
Sixty nine C-3s were sold in 1934 while the company continued to refine the design. The fuselage was widened yet again, and plywood formers and longerons were added to give the fuselage a more rounded appearance. Doors and windows became permanent, and the undercarriage was redesigned. The following year the C-3 Master emerged. Two hundred and fifty Masters were sold before the end of 1936, including 14 of a floatplane version known as PC-3.

Two C-3 Masters were imported into the UK in September 1935 by Light Aircraft Ltd, who soon realised the potential to manufacturer the aircraft under licence in England. Following negotiations with the American company, the Aeronautical Corporation of Great Britain Ltd, referred as Aeronco, was formed in 1936 and a manufacturing plant established at Petersborough in Cambridgeshire. But before production of the British aircraft could commence, 14 more American built C-3s were imported. 

The British built aircraft, known as the Aeronca 100, were powered by JAP J99 engines produced by J.A.Prestwich Ltd. These engines differed from the American E-113C in having dual ignition, a requirement necessary for the aircraft to receive British certification. Refinements and alterations were made to the airframe as well, bringing the aircraft into line with British requirements.

However the British love affair with the Aeronca was not as intense as that on the other side of the Atlantic, and Aeronco found itself with unsold aircraft. In August 1937, just six months after construction had commenced, all work at the factory ceased. The company announced colossal financial losses for its first year of operation and when receivers took over, 21 Aeronca 100s, one Ely 300 and two Elycraft 700 variants had been completed.

Aussie Aeroncas
Three new Aeronca 100s were imported into Australia, two by Aerial Transport Co. Ltd. of Sydney. Both were assembled at Mascot in early 1937 and it is one of these aircraft, VH-UXV c/n AB.105, which survives today.

UXV suffered damage early on in its life, and had been pushed into the back of a hangar on Mascot aerodrome where it was discovered by the Clancy Brothers who purchased the Aeronca for £100. The Clancys were three young Sydney lads who had come to prominence a few years earlier with their own design, the Clancy Skybaby. The Aeronca had flown 50 hours by that time. Taken back to their Rosebery, Sydney home, the lads rebuilt its broken wing, and on 28th January 1938 towed it back to Mascot behind a truck for its first post-rebuild flight.

They then sold it to Jack McSparron at Ardlethan, NSW, Allan Clancy flew the aircraft down to its new owner, staying a week, and teaching the owner to fly.  Jack Clancy was later to recall that a week or two after Allan delivered the aircraft, McSparron had been taking joy flights from the Temora Show Grounds in it.

The aircraft remained at Ardlethan for the duration of the war and it is unknown if it was flown during this time but when the engine was overhauled by Marshall Airways in 1948 (by which time the aircraft was owned by E.D.Jones of Paddington) its logbook recorded 337 hours running time.

Off to Fiji
The following year VH-UXV was shipped to Fiji aboard the R.M.V. Mootah, where in October it was registered as VQ-FAJ to G.J.Webster and J.P.Meehan. Four months later, Meehan’s name was removed from the ownership papers. Then in November 1950, ownership changed again, and this time J.P.Meehan became its sole owner.

In January 1951 VQ-FAJ crashed on Singatoka golf course on the island of Viti Levu.  Tom Saunders, a Nandi Aeradio operator, acquired the wreckage and set about rebuilding the badly damaged aeroplane.  New wings were built by Aero Contracts in England, and a new engine, built in 1937 but never used, was also purchased. 

Dope and fabric was obtained from de Havilland and instruments from TEAL in New Zealand Saunders undertook a considerable amount of flying in the rebuilt aircraft, and in December 1956 when the JAP J-99 was sent to England for overhaul, it had logged 416 hours in service. The Aeronca’s last flight in Fiji took place on Saturday 6th December 1958 when it crashed at Drasa near Lautoka, the circumstances surrounding this crash being currently unknown.

New Zealander Colin Feldwick heard about the damaged aircraft languishing in Fiji’s tropical climate, and after negotiations, secured the remains which were shipped to New Zealand in November 1965 aboard the Argentinian Reefer.  It was to be more than three and one half decades and another change of ownership before work began to restore the by now rare aircraft back to flying condition.

Purchased in the mid-1970s by Christopher ‘Kip’ Netherclift, the aircraft was once again relegated to storage while its J99 engine was, after some work, installed in a Luton Minor. Two decades later the Luton, minus its powerplant, was sold, and in 2002 work at last began to put the Aeronca back in the air.

Following its first post restoration flight in November 2006 the Aeronca chalked up just 12 hours in the air, including one cross-country flight to Wings over Wairarapa, before the J-99 engine, living up to its reputation for unreliability, lost compression in one cylinder. Taking the opportunity to have the engine (along with the original J-99 which first powered VH-UXV back in 1937) overhauled, the rare Aeronca has again been grounded. However, as this is being written, overhaul of these engines is almost complete, and AMW may be back in the sky before these words are read.