A gleaming pair of nearly identical two-tone Waco’s draw admirers in the Vintage area. Photo by Phil Weston

Ben and Jeremy Redman restore airplanes. Their family business, Rare Aircraft Ltd., of Owatonna, Minnesota, is certainly no stranger to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. It is not unusual at all to see examples of their fine craftsmanship on display in the Antique and Classic area.

Some time ago Roy Redman, Ben and Jeremy’s father, began restoring a Waco QCF-2 with the intent of keeping it as a family airplane. But, an opportunity came up to sell the project, and seven years ago it left Owatonna for Florida as a completed restoration.

Apparently the airplane knew of its roots. A month and a half ago the Redmans bought the plane back, and it now serves its originally intended mission: being the family Waco.

The Redman plane, NC11424, is one of a pair of nearly identical QCF-2s parked together in Row 60. The other, NC11457, is a 2006 Rare Aircraft restoration and is owned by Paul Okean of Palm Beach, Florida.

Both are painted in the original deluxe paint scheme offered by Waco when they were built in 1931. The colors of the two planes are slightly different, though according to Jeremy, the dark metallic purple and light blue colors of their airplane are the Waco originals.

The QCF-2s here are two of only 35 examples that Waco built. In its day, the plane was sold as a personal sport aircraft and had advanced features for 1931 like aluminum ailerons on all four wings. Ride operators used a number of the originals, and a few were operated on floats, but most served their owners’ recreational flying needs. Ben indicated he believes there are 12 to 15 of them restored and flying today, along with a couple of examples that were built new from scratch.

Power for the QCF-2s comes from a 220-hp Continental radial engine. The airplanes came from the factory with a lower-powered Continental engine that, according to Ben, was notoriously troublesome, but a conversion to the 220-hp version was developed in the 1960s and is now the accepted power configuration for the model.

"This is the same engine you had on a Stearman, and it is on a 1,600-pound empty weight airplane," Jeremy said. "You get a lot of performance. It’s like a flying carpet; it gets off the ground very fast and it is very nimble."

The restorations Rare completes are more than a few repairs and new fabric. "[NC11457] came as a center section, gear legs, and a rudder," Jeremy said. "I call it a resurrection. It’s not just a fix-up. You end up with a new airplane built to the original Waco specs."

The Redman plane started out with even fewer usable parts. "A guy had bought this one and ended up ditching it into a dry river bed, and it was completely destroyed," Jeremy said.

Rare does add a few upgrades. Those include modern wheels and brakes, an avionics package featuring a comm radio, transponder, and VFR GPS, and an electronic fuel management system.

Waco restorations are a Rare specialty. While the brothers manufacture many of the parts they need themselves, occasionally they rely on others. "There is a fantastic network of Waco people," Ben said. "You call up or go to a show like this and find out there is some guy making this widget or that, or somebody says I have a whole bunch of those [parts]. In some cases you just have to go out on the network and see what you can dig up."

Ben and Jeremy will be at AirVenture all week, and more information about Rare Aircraft is available at www.RareAircraft.com.