Weick, Fred (1899–1993)

US aeronautical engineer. His designs include the Erco Ercoupe 1936, remarkable for its safety and simplicity of design, and the Piper Cherokee in the 1950s, the first cheap all-metal aircraft, of which over 30,000 have since been built.

Weick developed the fully enclosed engine cowling that streamlined and reduced the drag of cumbersome radial aero engines, and a novel form of undercarriage that he called ‘tricycle landing gear’, which has since become the standard configuration. Impressed by the safety of the Erco Ercoupe, the US Civil Aeronautics Authority reduced the time for a trainee pilot to fly solo from eight to five hours when flying an Ercoupe.

Life Weick became interested in aviation as a child. On graduating from the University of Illinois as a mechanical engineer, he took a job converting surplus bombers into mail planes. He made his first solo flight 1923 – a journey of 160 km/100 mi in bad weather – but it was not until 1939 that he bothered to obtain a pilot's licence. He continued flying until the age of 84.

Work In 1923 he joined the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, DC, working on propeller technology. He was invited to run the propeller-research wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA. While working for NACA, he developed the streamlined cowl and continued his pioneering work on propeller design. His interest in aircraft stability and control led him to develop a safe, simple aeroplane for private owners – the Weick W-1, which first flew 1934. In 1936 he was invited by the Engineering and Research Corporation (Erco) of Washington, DC, to develop a commercial version of the W-1, and the Ercoupe was born.