This beautiful aircraft was built in 1932 and delivered to Texaco at the Houston (now Hobby) Airport on Christmas Eve to serve as a flying test bed for new blends of aviation fuel. It was flown by pilot Hal Henning all over Texas and the Southeastern US... 1800 flight hours in 2 1/2 years!! hot or cold, rain or shine. Its no wonder Hal left Texaco in 1935 to found Aviall, an aircraft parts supplier now part of Boeing. When he left, Texaco sold the airplane and it remained with one owner for almost 45 years before it was purchased and restored by John Cournoyer, my mentor and friend.
We’ll be flying it to Texas from Missouri soon, and will take it to fly-ins and airshows to promote our scholarship programs. And yes, we'll teach the kids to fly it (probably once they have their CFI). After all, they let 23 year olds fly F-15's, and someone has to be able to take over all this stuff when us old codgers are gone!
WACO began building the second series of the F line around 1930, incorporating many design inprovements from the first series (like the RNF). The new design performed spectacularly. WACO salesman capitalized on this and advertised the airplane could be operated from within 200', which they demonstrated at trade shows by arranging cars in a 200' circle and having the demo pilots take off and land within it. I imagine this was great for sales, but not too popular with the demo pilots. At any rate, the airplane was noted for its spirited performance. The US NAVY also bought 2, which were attached to the airship USS Macon and lost at sea.
Unfortunately, the improved design was a tad too late, as the era of open-cockpit biplanes for travel was coming to an end. WACO built only 14 of these, but among all the WACOs, the F2 has remained the best performer and most sought after. Several have been built from plans as “clones,” but ours is the 100% original 1932 Texaco 17 aircraft.
To hear John Cournoyer speak and see some of his other projects, use the link below to watch an AOPA video about his work.
