Model Airplane News Cover for February, 1950
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The February, 1950 issue shows a small boy dressed in a cowboy suit playing with a model airplane. At first sight, it is a nostalgic look at childhood. However, a closer inspection shows that the airplane is powered by the massive finger-chopping Morton M-5 model radial engine. Although parents were a lot less "safety conscious" back then, if you gave a nine year-old a Morton you may as well have given him a chainsaw. The cover is highly improbable.

About the Engine

The Morton M-5 was originally manufactured in the 1940s and was the first miniature radial engine made for model airplanes. They cost about $40 back then. $40 then has the same purchasing power as $600 today. If you want a Morton, be prepared to pay at least a four figure sum in the collectibles market.

     

The Morton M-5
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The engine was designed by Glen Morton of Morton Aviation and was based on the full-size LeBlond radial aircraft engine made in 1928.

About the Model Airplane

The model of the WACO UPF-7 was made by the Burgess Battery Company in the years immediately after World War II. It was specifically designed to use the M-5 engine.

WACO UPF-7
...made for the M-5
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If you are interested in building this model, you can order it from the Academy of Model Aeronautics The AMA Model code is 23376 and the plan designator is POND 31F3; plans cost about $30 in 2010.

About the Full-sized Plane:

The Waco UPF-7 is an unusual airplane,an obsolete design that became quite popular. In the early 1930s, biplane trainerswere supplanted by new low-powered monoplanes in flying schools and in private aviation. The Army and Navy used biplane trainers into the mid-1930s. WACO introduced the UPF open cockpit biplane in 1937 and captured a small market niche of nostalgia flyers. The UPF was made between 1937 and 1942 and sold about 600 copies, more than any single Waco model that preceded it.

  

WACO UPF-7 Open Cockpit Biplane
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Here is a video that features a restored UPF-7:

Click here to learn more about the WACO UPF-7.

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