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History of the WACO Aircraft Company
Part I - Early Beginings and Rough Times: 1919 - 1923 (Page 2)
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The company, WACO (Weaver Aircraft Company) was founded officially in 1920. Soon, tragedy struck when Weaver crash-landed the Cootie on its first test flight.
While Weaver recovered from his extensive injuries, Brukner, Junkin and Meyers rebuilt the Cootie into a biplane, but money was very short, and these were lean times for WACO. Using surplus parts from other biplanes the WACO team created the WACO 4, a three person biplane, and their first practical design.
Due to lack of funds the Weavers, Buck along with his wife Hattie and infant son little Buck (Speevy), split from the group in 1922 and headed to Chicago and then Wichita so Buck could make some money flying. At the same time Brukner, Meyers and Junkin moved to Medina, Ohio to continue building aircraft.
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| During this time Buck Weaver's brother invented the ice cream treat called the Eskimo Pie. As sales of the treat took off, the group met up again in Boston, MA to help market the Eskimo Pie. At about the same time Weaver's mother was providing candy which was dropped during the barnstorming activities. The recipes for "Mother Weaver's" candy were later sold to the Russell Stover Candy company. Tough breaks forced these WACO pioneers out of the business, and soon they all headed back to Medina to take up airplane building again.
They began building planes around parts from the Curtis Jennie, a WWI military trainer, while making constant improvements. They successfully built and sold two WACO 5 aircraft and one of the WACO 6. By the end of 1922 the, the group was out of money, and sales prospects.
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Again the group split apart, with Weaver and his family heading back to Chicago, and Brukner, Meyers and Junkin this time heading to Troy, Ohio, a small community near Dayton, Ohio and the home of the Wright Aircraft Company and McCook Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). McCook was a good source for cheap, surplus Jennie parts that were used for WACOs.
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