The Collings Foundation seems to be on a real tear these days, adding new aircraft to the collection seemingly every other month over the past year. They have just acquired a beautifully restored example of a WACO UPF-7. Rolling off the Waco Aircraft Company’s Troy, Ohio production line in 1940, this UPF-7 still retains its original civil registration NC29324. WACO built more than six hundred UPF-7s from 1937 through 1942, a few of which served as PT-14s in the US Army Air Force. The type is well sort after today, with roughly 80 still on the civil registry. An earlier variant, the YMF-5, returned to production in the mid-80s with the WACO Classic Aircraft Company of Lansing, Michigan.
Pierre Swick, of Waitsfield, Vermont donated the UPF-7 to the Collings Foundation. The tandem trainer will join the organization’s flying history collection. Members of the public will have the opportunity to fly in the aircraft at the Collings Foundation’s Open House events in June, July and October.
