Waco UPF-7            N32135                 (c/n  5767) 

                                 

                                  The US government's CPTP pilot training program was enacted on 27 June 1939 to provide a
                                  backlog of pilots which would be available in the event of war.  Many aircraft manufacturers jumped
                                  on the band wagon hoping to secure contracts to provide the necessary aircraft to the flight schools.
                                  Borrowing from the successful sporting models UMF and YMF, Waco came up with the UPF to fill
                                  the training school bill.    A few went into the Army Air Corps as the YPT-14 but by far the bulk of
                                  the 600 or so machines built in the 1941-42 period went to the civilian schools.  This nice example
                                  was shot at the 'top end' of Hawthorne Municipal Airport (adjacent to Prairie Ave) in 1963.  The
                                  C-46 belonged to the Ibex Corporation.   There resides, at Santa Paula Airport in California, a
                                  nicely restored example of this ubiquitous biplane (photographed below in July 2010).

                                    Waco UPF-7  NC219                                                             (c/n  5302)