Monocoupe Restoration Resources

NC12350 1932 Monocoupe 110

Monocoupe Resources: A collection of Links to useful information for Monocoupe owners. This page is also useful to antique aircraft enthusiasts in general. Check it out.

Monocoupe Articles from various publications over the years.

Monocoupe Photo Albums on the web, some are mine, many are from others.

Pictures of Monocoupe 110, N533W, owned by Norman Cowell. Thanks to Norman for his help.

On the pages about the history of NC12350 you will find information about Tony Little, the plane’s first owner. Tony was a Monocoupe dealer and successfully raced NC12350 in over 60 events in the early 1930’s. Tony was located just northeast of Philadelphia at Patco Field and was an early member in The Pylon Club, a group ov aviation enthusiasts who raced their planes. Tony also loaned NC12350 to Charles Lindbergh on numerous ocassions. Most aviation enthusiasts are familiar with the racing success of the Monocoupe 110 Specials, in particular, NC501W, the original clip wing, which was first flown by John Livingston in May 1932. Less familiar is the incredible racing success of the “long wing” or stock Monocoupe 110’s during the 1930 and 1931 air race seasons and in particular at the National Air Races. I have included a section which highlights the racing success of the stock long wing Monocoupe 110’s.

The majority of this web site is devoted to documenting the restoration of NC12350 to flying status. Above you will find a series of links which take you to pages with pictures and discussion about each stage of the project.

In addition, I have collected and organized a great deal of information for Monocoupe owners specifically and antique aircraft enthusiasts in general. Below, is a link to Monocoupe Resources, which will provides a page of links to Monocoupe, Warner and Lambert Type Certificate Data Sheets, useful information for maintaining Warner motors, some Monocoupe literature, 3-view drawings and an up-to-date listing of all Monocoupes remaining on the aircraft registry.

When I find old articles about Monocoupes, I try to scan them and add them below. I have also included a listing of links to photo albums of Monocoupes. Some of the albums are mine and others are links found while surfing for ‘Coupes.

If you have Monocoupe history in your blood, maybe some old photos stashed away in some shoe box in the attic, or some Monocoupe memorabilia in a drawer at the hangar, I’d like to hear from you. One of my goals with this site is to preserve, in digital format, the history of these cool old planes for generations to come.

You can e-mail me via:

longwing110 ‘at’ hotmail ’dot’ com

Dave Binkley

Sedona, AZ

December, 2011

1-5-2012 added pictures and text to Fuselage Woodwork and Ailerons

12-17-2011 added several pictures to Fuselage Woodwork to show how the top longeron wood formers meet up with the trailing edge of the wing

12-12-2011 edited Firewall Forward section with pictures and discussion of how the Edmondson Owl motor mount bracket assemblies were made.  Linked drawings.

12-9-2011 added a Boot Cowl and Dishpan section

12-7-2011 added a Firewall section with pictures and text on how the firewall was fabricated

12-6-2011 updated Landing Gear Designs in Monocoupe Resources to include links to drawings for the three most common landing gears.

4-23-2011 added new pictures to Instrument Panel

4-8-2011 updated the Landing Gear section with new/revised tailwheel, new tailwheel spring and bungee cord steering.

3-18-2011 added new section, Electrical, with information and pictures of battery box installation and wind driven generator installation

1-2-2011 added section on Fuselage woodwork and added picture to home page of Lynn Lockrow's 90" wingspan clipped wing model

12-30-2010 added updated pictures to Cabin and Controls

12-30-2010 added banner and link to the AAA/APM Fly-In for 2011 featuring Monocoupe aircraft

8-7-2010 added link to Summer 2010 Air Classics article on Mark Holliday's Mullicoupe.  Added to Monocoupe Resources.

8-7-2010 added link to San Diego Air and Space Museum's photo archive of Monocoupe pictures.  Added to Monocoupe Resources page.

8-6-2010 added hyperlinks to Monocoupe prints for control stick attach bracket, short aileron rod, and short elevator pushrod to the Controls section

8-5-2010 updated Cabin section with some pictures of floorboards, seat backs and controls

7-6-2010 added pictures and text on door latches and window latches

7-3-2010 added link to collection of Monocoupe photos posted on Flickr by the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

5-10-2010 added picture of door frames, sheet metal around window area and wood work in that area, added Cam Blazers Monocoupe to Featured Monocoupe below.

4-22-2010 added section on Doors, Windows and Latches with pictures and description of same.

03-03-2010 added "Monocoupe of the Month" to the main page

3-03-2010 no progress for a while now as I'm in the middle of house upgrades and other projects.  Have fabricated a reproduction of the original door latch from scratch and will post pictures of that some time.

1-26-2010 added picture of NC11768 taken at Watsonville, CA antique fly-in sometime in the mid 80's to the Model 90 photo albun.  Also, added 6 pictures of N18176 currently owned by Len Hebert.

1-25-2010 added the Monocoupe Assembly and Maintenance Manual to Monocoupe Resources.

1-25-2010 changed this text box to include scroll bars.

1-17-2010 added Throttle Quadrant section to the Restoration Project.

1-17-2010 added photo of NC11741 sent to me by Len Hebert to the Model 90 photo gallery.

11-18-2009 Well it has been awhile.  On October 9, while working at the hangar, trying to bend a 10’ piece of 1/2” 0.049 tubing into a circle I had a little accident and ended up breaking a rib and a bone in my lower back, along with some soft tissue damage to internal organs.  So, I’ve been out of commission for six weeks.  I’m pretty much back to normal and am starting to get back into the project.  I think for the next month or so I’ll work on simple sub-systems, starting with the throttle quadrant.  Will be posting pictures and updates to “Instrument Panel” as progress is made.  Have prototyped a bellcrank arrangement with material on hand and am happy with how it works and am now waiting for the UPS truck to deliver steel and miscellaneous parts from Spruce.

10-7-2009 Added new pictures of N533W, Monocoupe 110, owned by Norman Cowell to Landing Gear Designs and added second page of pictures to N533W linked below.

10-6-2009 Made corrections to Landing Gear Designs per Norman Cowell’s input.

10-4-2009 added links to Long Island Aviation Country Club and Philadelphia Aviation Country Club.  Added links to Sportsman Pilot article on Monocoupe 110, NC114V.

10-4-2009 made corrections to “History” regarding location of Langley Day, added links to Don Warrington’s web site documenting Langley Day and race results.

10-1-2009 added review of Monocoupe landing gear designs to Monocoupe Resources

9-30-2009 added picture of Monocoupe lineup at Patco Field 1934 to “NC12350’s History”.  Added hyperlink to information about Patco Field to “NC12350’s History”.

9-21-2009 edited hyperlinks to scanned article and web photo albums so that they launch a new web page

9-20-2009 added pics and text to “Landing Gear, Wheels and Brakes” about bending steel patch over attach bushing

9-20-2009 added scanned article about Monocoupe 110 Special N12347 from Sport Aviation 1996.

Latest Updates to this site:

Join the Monocoupe Aircraft Group on Facebook, where Dave Hawro has been posting pictures of his project, along with Alex Koerner and Eric Minnis posting first pictures of their newly acquired projects. Over 50 members participating in the Monocoupe Aircraft Groups now! Check us out!

Final mounting of ailerons—no more clecos holding them on. Now fabricating aileron cables.

Dave Hawro is restoring a 1935 Model 90A. Dave is currently making the tooling to fabricate the wood longeron formers on a CNC machine.

Richard Smith recently completed the annual inspection of NC2064, including new spark plug wires and reported a successful test flight.