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We did, and meanwhile I got busy designing a follow-up model.  That was the Waco 10," Charlie recalls.

Waco's tool and die maker, Bud Schulenberg, developed a split-type landing gear with an oleo shock, the first ever offered on a U.S. commercial plane.  The Waco 20 sold extremely well from the time of its introduction.

Later fitted with the Wright J-5 radial engine, it was called the Waco Sport (ASO).  The company sold 435 out of 1,000 new civil aircraft produced in 1927.  Price of the OX-5 Waco 10--later called the GXE Model--was $2,460.  This same airframe was also offered with the OXX-6 engine, the Hispano-Suiza of 150 or 180-hp (Model DSO), and the Ryan-Siemens of 97 or 125-hp.

About the time the first ASO Sport appeared, Charlie received a go-ahead from Clayt Bruckner to try a set of tapered wings on an otherwise stock Model 10.  Meyers used a slightly-modified M-6 airfoil which changed a good airplane into an exciting one.  Then, when a J-5 Whirlwind engine was substituted for the OX-5, the Waco design Taperwing was established.  The original Taperwing sold for $8,325 at the factory--about $4,500 of this represented the cost of its Whirlwind engine.

In late 1928, Waco Sales Manager Charles Van Sicklen left the company to help form Great Lakes Aircraft Corporation.  He offered Charlie a job, Meyers accepted.

The founders of Great Lakes, learning that Glenn Martin wanted to move to Baltimore, bought the Martin plant and operation at Cleveland, including the balance of a Martin Navy contract for torpedo planes.  Ex-Col. Ben F. Castle was president of G.L.A.C.; Van Sicklen, vice-president and sales manager; ex-Navy Capt. H.C. Richardson, vice-president; P.B. "Zeke" Rogers, Chief engineer; Earl Stewart, project engineer.  But Charlie Meyers, was the first man actually on Great Lakes' payroll (December 1928).

"With a great deal of help from a young man by the name of Cliff Leisy (now with Boeing, I think), I designed the Great Lakes Sport-Trainer, Model 2-T-1, while the rest of the engineering division, including some former martin people who didn't want to move to Baltimore, tried to modify the torpedo plane into a passenger-carrying transport for the civilian market," Charlie told us. "Our 2-T-1 prototype was ready in March 1929.  I tested it and found it tail-heavy.  The simplest and cheapest way to remedy that was to give it 9-degrees of sweepback in its upper wing panels.  The fortunate result was a craft that, even today, remains a favorite with aerobatic pilots.



"Our biggest problem with it was that we were forced to use the English-designed Cirrus in the 2-T-1," Charlie continued.  "Great Lakes had an affiliation with the American Cirrus Motor Co., which had manufacturing rights to the engine in the U.S., and we had no choice.  I wanted the 145-hp Warner, but there was no change of that.  We installed the Cirrus Mark III, a four-cylinder in-line air-cooled engine of 95-hp.  Some later models were fitted with the inverted Cirrus, and some with Menasco powerplants.

"About fifty 2-T-1's were built before we introduced the improved 2-T-1A's in late 1929.  Eventually, the Great Lakes Trainer was flown with full canopies (one of which I lost in flight), with skis even as a single place racer.  We called the 'speedster' version the 2-T-2.  We tried floats, off-the-shelf type which were much too long--they reached back almost to the horizontal stabilizer--and failed to get it certified as a seaplane.  Bureau of Air Commerce inspectors asked for a 7-turn spin.  I kicked her in at 15,000 feet, spun all the way to 2,500 before I could pull her out.  I'd probably have taken to my rag bag if I'd not been afraid of those floats extending almost to the tail.  When I landed the inspectors were packing up to leave.  No certification as a seaplane.

"But the Trainer was a popular craft and we sold a lot of them, I think about 500 or so before a bad guess in the front office and the depression combined to break the company.  Great Lakes' big mistake, in my view, was its decision to build a twin-engined amphibian designed by vice-president Richardson.  It was a biplane powered with a pair of Cirrus engines; but it barely flew even when we substituted a couple of J-6 Whirlwinds.  It taxied like a lost penguin had a a bow wave like a tug in the water, and the Lincoln Highway wasn't long enough to get it off the ground.  And the bosses didn't build just one prototype, they had five of them going down the production lines before the first one was tested.  I started out in that first one, got a little chop, the nit began to porpoise.  Wham! Wham! Bent the hull, knocked the bejesus out of me and ruined the airframe. 

"The depression-diminished sales of the 2 place Great Lakes Trainers (at $3,600 each) weren't enough to absorb the losses incurred by the company's amphibian gamble.  I could see what was coming.  In late 1930 I took a job with Goodrich, conducting tests with their new de-icer boot installed on the wings of 'Miss Silvertown', a Lockheed Vega. Ah! What a fine airplane that was.  It had more instruments than any ship I'd seen up to that time."

This assignment had Charlie flying all over North America searching out bad weather.  During this period he taught himself to rely on instruments.  "That darn ball-bank indicator was the hardest for me to accept," he recalls.  "At first, the position of the ball never seemed to agree with the feeling in the seat of my pants."

In 1931, after "smashing hell out of 'Miss Sivertown' in Canada due to a fuel-line stoppage", Charlie joined Eastern Air Transport [now Eastern Air Lines] as a mail pilot flying Pitcairn PA-7 and PA-8 Mailwing biplanes.  "That was in the fall of 1931," Charlie says.  "Richmond was EAT's base.  We flew north to Newark, and Newark to Washington.  This route was soon extended south to Jacksonville, Miami, and Atlanta.  later, we went to New Orleans and Chicago.  Originally, pilots' salary was based upon flight time: 10ยข per mile daylight.  There was no limit on how much flying we could do;  I averaged around %500 per month."

Meyers was soon transferred to Eastern's passenger runs, flying Curtiss Kingbirds between Atlanta and Richmond. "but you never really know from one day to the next what you'd fly," Charlie said.  "For instance, I took a load of passengers to Richmond in a Kingbird.  Next morning when I returned to the field and looked at the board I saw that I was posted to fly a new Curtiss Condor back to Atlanta--it was one of the early models with Conqueror engines.  I stormed into operations and said, 'Hellfire, I've never flown a Condor!  I don't even know what it looks like!'  But Al Comdat, who had just brought it in from Newark, was still there.  He took me out and we shot a couple of landings in it.  It has so much wing that if you tried to glide it like most airplanes, you'd land in the next state.  But you could chop power and mush it down nose-high and land on a dime.

"Same thing happened with Eastern's first DC-2 in 1934.  George Cushing went with me to Kansas City to take delivery of it from TWA.  While George was taking care of the paper work, I went out on the field to look a the plane.  It was to be the first I'd every fly with retractable gear and flaps,  I found a crew chief who shoed me the retract controls and sort of explained how they worked.  I relayed this new to George when he came our and then we took off.  I called for 'gear up,' and George managed to push the proper lever and we flew to Atlanta.  I keep peering out at those 90-ft wings and marvelling to myself.  It sure looked like a big airplane to me."

Meyers continued as a captain for Eastern.  During WW-2 he was granted leave to ferry bombers across the Atlantic.  In 1946 he returned to the left-hand seat of EAL's DC-4's.  He went on to DC-6's, Constellations and DC-7's.  He retired from the airline in 1956, with a spotless record of 26,000 hours in his logbook.

But Charlie has never retired from flying itself.  Along with a couple of other retired airline captains he owns a citrus grove.  He pilots a Cessna Skyhawk for pleasure.  IN 1966, Charlie taught a grandson to fly.  He and wife Jesse have two daughters, both are married to airline pilots.

Today, still vigorous and appearing at least 10 years younger than his actual age, Charles W. Meyers is still very much "with it."  He's up on all the latest aeronautical news and designs.  We wouldn't be surprised if he didn't re-work that Midget one of the days!

[[upper margin]] See NASM Feb. 1982
WACO HISTORY 1925 on WACO 9 story at NASM 1982 son Geo. Chas Weaver taken from 2nd grade. [[?]] [[?]] finish assembly boys HOW to put [[shock]] landing gears
[[/upper margin]]

[[left margin]] BROKNER  
[[?]] O. 
3 WACO 8's
Left for Michigan 1921
[[?]] Aircraft Co.
Weaver Junkin
Brokner
Schulenberger
[[/left margin]]

[[lower margin]] Died where ?? [[/lower margin]]

[[right margin]] * Family characteristic [[/right margin]]