What is an Ercoupe?
The Ercoupe is a 2-seat airplane that was designed by Fred E. Weick for ERCO (Engineering Research Corporation). It was first manufactured in 1939. Production stopped during WWII, and then in 1946, 4309 were made in a single year! For months they made Ercoupes at a rate of >10 a day! For a very short period production got to about 25/day on three shifts! Ercoupes were immensely popular, but in the 1947 bust in the airplane business, only companies with 4-place planes survived. ERCO’s 4-place Ercoupe wasn’t ready and ERCO stopped making airplanes. The 2-place Coupes were manufactured by several different companies over the years: Sanders, Forney, Alon, and even Mooney (as the M-10) in the late 60s.
