George Meyer

IN MY SEARCH for an aircraft suitable for a peanut scale with gobs of wing area that would be suitable to compete with the Fikes and Laceys, I came across this aircraft in the 1929 Aero Yearbook. It is the Elias Airsport with a 28-ft. wing span, 7-ft. chord, and aspect ratio of four-to-one. It is ideal. After Lindbergh's epic flight in 1927, the industry was booming and the manufacturers were trying to design aircraft that would be attractive to the airminded youth of the period. The Elias Company, of Buffalo, New York, had started out in 1917 as a government contractor of military aircraft and, after the war, built a variety of commercial and military aircraft. With the demand for an economical, easy to maintain aircraft, Elias produced the first convertible 2-place, side-by-side aircraft, the high-wing Airsport EC-1. A cabin section could be buttoned on in a matter of minutes to produce a closed aircraft known as the Aircoupe-an option that could be purchased at a small additional cost.