Solbrig flying before a crowd
Small Airplane
Cargo Airplane
Airplane Transporting Cargo, 2004
Commercial Airplane, 2004
Early Airplanes
Iowa Soldiers, World War I 
Iowa Soldiers, World War IThe Amazing Monocoupe
In the early 1900s many people were
becoming interested in flight. Not just in watching birds fly, but in humans
taking to the air in machines!
By the time World War I was raging, airplanes were considered necessary aids
in winning the war. They carried people, guns, ammunition and bombs. Improvements
had been made that allowed planes to travel faster and longer distances than
before the war.
Airplanes Built in Backyards
After World War I many home-built
airplanes were put together in backyards and empty warehouses. In the basement
of his farmhouse in Bristow, Iowa, Clayton Folkerts started building airplanes.
After two failures, he finally built an airplane that flew.
In Davenport, Iowa, Don Luscombe had become unhappy with his big, slow drafty
plane. So he began to work on a new design. It would be light-weight and small
with a covered cabin to protect the flyer and passenger from the wind. Luscombe
was sure he could sell such a plane.
The Monocoupe Is Born
Luckily, Luscombe and Folkerts met.
Folkerts could build fine airplanes, and Luscombe knew how to design them.
So in 1926 the Central States Aero Company got under way. The company rented
an empty building in Bettendorf, Iowa, and began manufacturing the Monocoupe.
It was a monoplane - a plane with one set of wings - and like the coupe (a popular automobile) it carried two
passengers side-by-side.
Many small manufacturers went out of business after six or seven planes had
been made. But the Monocoupe was an immediate success.
Word of the plane's good handling and speed spread quickly. Central States
Aero could not keep up with the orders. The problem was getting enough good
engines to put in the planes. So in 1928 Luscombe went to Willard L. Velie,
a Moline, Illinois, automobile manufacturer.
The Velie Company had first started as a buggy manufacturer and later changed
over to automobiles. Now Velie agreed to build aircraft engines. Central States
Aero became Mono Aircraft, Inc., and operations were moved to Moline, Illinois.
The Monocoupe rapidly became one of America's most popular private airplanes.
The Monocoupe Dies
A few years after World War II the demand for small airplanes declined, and many small plane manufacturers went out of business. Monocoupe was one of them. But, to this day, the little Monocoupe that had its beginnings in an old wooden building in Bettendorf is a favorite of antique-airplane flyers.
