History of EAA’s Waco YKS-7 (NC17716)

EAA’s Waco YKS-7 (NC17716) completed manufacture on May 17, 1937. It bore factory serial number 4623 and was about in the middle of the roughly fifty YKS-7 and ZKS-7 models that Waco built in 1937. Factory pilot Paul Thornbury gave NC17716 its half-hour test flight on May 21, 1937 and declared the plane ready for delivery. The base price for a Waco YKS-7 in 1937 was $5,695.

On May 23 the plane started its delivery trip from the Troy, Ohio factory to its new home in San Antonio, Texas. The delivery trip took eleven flying hours over two days, with intermediate stops in St. Louis, Tulsa, and Dallas.

In 1937 the plane was flown 167 hours, on trips from its home base in San Antonio. By the end 1938 it had accumulated 364 flying hours in the Southwestern U.S. In 1939 the plane was flown to California and back to Texas. Landing accidents were common in this era and on 10/21/39 our Waco had a ground loop accident in Kerrville, Texas, breaking its propeller, and an aileron.

In June of 1940, NC17716 was moved to Scottsbluff, Nebraska. By the end of 1940 it had 580 flying hours. Most civil aviation was greatly reduced during WWII, and NC17716 was no exception. It was flown to Colorado in 1942 and had a landing accident in Colorado Springs. In November of 1942 the plane flew three rescue missions, dropping food and clothing for Army survivors of a B-24 downed at Baldy Mountain, Colorado.

In 1943, the plane was relocated to the warmer climate of Alabama, apparently in Birmingham. It was flown only a couple of hundred hours in the next decade, and it was moved to Houma, Louisiana. In 1958, NC17716 returned to Texas and its Curtiss Reed fixed pitch prop was replaced with a Hamilton Standard 2B20 6134A propeller. Over the next fifteen years the plane remained in the gulf coast area of South Texas and then it fell into disuse.

On November 9, 1982 the plane was bought from J. Cournoyer of St, Louis by Kennneth V. Brugh, Jr. of Greensboro, North Carolina. The plane was moved to Burlington, North Carolina and underwent an extensive overhaul and restoration. The plane flew again on March 7, 1985 and in the succeeding years was flown by Mr. Brugh throughout the Southeast. During this period the aircraft received several updates and modifications. In 1997 Mr. Brugh graciously donated NC17716, along with an open-cockpit Waco RNF, to EAA. In July of 1997, both Wacos began a flight from Rockingham, North Carolina, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Bad weather forced a precautionary landing for NC17716 at a training field in Pineola, North Carolina. The short length of the field made a takeoff risky for the valuable antique aircraft, so it was disassembled and trucked to Spruce Pine, North Carolina. It was reassembled there and then flown to Oshkosh.

NC17716 might have spent its remaining days at rest, simply on display in EAA’s AirVenture Museum. But that wouldn’t have been in the character of this working airplane. In November of 1997, the EAA Museum Committee approved the Waco YKS-7 for active flight status at the Museum’s Pioneer Airport. After extensive restoration and improvements by EAA’s Aircraft Maintenance staff, the airplane has been providing flight experiences for Museum visitors each subsequent summer.