Taylorcraft Aircraft

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Taylorcraft Aviation

Type of Company	Corporation
Founded	1935
Headquarters	Brownsville, Texas
Key people	Harry Ingram, Owner and President
Industry	General Aviation
Products	Light aircraft
Website	taylorcraft.com

Taylorcraft Aviation is an airplane manufacturer that has been producing aircraft for almost seventy years in several locations. The company builds small single-engined airplanes known for their speed and efficiency on limited horsepower engines. The Taylorcraft design is a conventional layout, high wing, fabric covered, two seat aircraft. Of interest is that the basic design has remained unchanged since 1936, yet this same design is still relevant and viable as a personal sport aircraft today. The designer Clarence Gilbert Taylor can rightfully be called the father of private aviation in America, as he first designed the Taylor Cub, which became the Piper Cub, and then designed the improved successor to the Cub (the Taylorcraft).

Taylorcraft was started in 1935 by C.G. Taylor after splitting with financier William T. Piper (Taylor Aircraft Company) after Piper forcibly bought out Taylor of the company bearing his name. Taylor shared Piper's dream of making airplanes as common as cars for Americans, and designed an inexpensive and easy-to-build craft to compete with the heavier craft which were common at the time. The classic battle between engineer and businessman quickly caused a rift between the two. Piper took advantage of Taylor's absence during an illness, and instructed Taylor's junior engineer Walter Jameneau to modify the Cub to be more attractive and marketable. Taylor returned from his illness and raised the roof in anger, upon which Piper leveraged Taylor out and renamed the company Piper Aircraft.

Taylor vowed to build a new personal aircraft superior to the Cub in all respects, and succeeded. The Taylorcraft was faster, more comfortable, more attractive, and more modern by the standards of the day. Piper and his updated Cub were also vindicated, selling far more aircraft and creating the icon of private airplanes for all time.

During World War II, many light aircraft were used for training, liaison, and observation purposes. Taylorcraft's DCO-65 model was called the L-2 by the United States Army Air Forces and served alongside the military version of the Piper Cub in WW2.

After the war, production boomed until the company reorganized in 1946, and produced few aircraft during the 1950s.

In 1965, Charlie and Dorothy Feris purchased what was left of the company and started production again in 1970. Mr. Feris died in 1973 and Mrs. Feris kept the company going until her retirement in 1985.

New owners moved production to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania until business problems forced the company to close again in 1992. The current owner, Harry Ingram, moved the plant to La Grange, Texas in 2003 and on April 25, 2005 it was announced that the factory was moving again to the border town of Brownsville and outsourcing the labor. As of September 2006 financial troubles have once again delayed the planned production of new Taylorcrafts, with a sheriff's sale of assets having been held in relation to lawsuits and judgements against Ingram.

The Taylorcraft company has had a long and very checkered history of bankruptcies, liens, loans, foreclosures, questionable stock solicitations and ownership by dubious individuals over its 70 year history. Only the quality and brilliance of the original design in 1935 has kept the "T-craft" alive in the face of these financial woes. As with most aircraft of the period, there is a fanatically loyal group ofowners and restorers who rebuild, fly and foster enthusiasm for the design.