Wayne WR-1 « Loving's Love »

[Stargazer]

This is from a photo I found in this amazing online archive :
www.ninfinger.org/models/vault/vault.html

It depicts an aircraft that doesn't look like anything I can identify. The aircraft is sitting in a hangar, next to the Boeing SST full-scale mock-up. Judging from the background, where other aircraft are stored, it looks like a museum's storage facility of some kind.

Any help would be appreciated, and if the answer turns out to prove I'm silly (or tired) I'll dump the topic altogether... Thanks!

 

[Sundog]

If you're talking about the white aircraft in the front, it looks like a Midget racer like you see at the Reno air races.

 

[Apteryx]

The Boeing SST mockup was the centerpiece of an air museum in Kissimmee, Florida from the mid-seventies till about 1982. I visited the place in 1980. This building doesn't seem like the same place I saw, but it's possible it looks different due to the original museum furnishings being removed. There weren't any stunt planes, as I recall. I did read that, after the museum closed, the SST remained there for some years, even when the building was being used by a Pentecostalist church group for their services. I remember seeing a photo of the congregation in rows of folding chairs, in the shadow of that beautiful hulk.

I don't know the ultimate fate of the mockup, but I imagine someone on this forum does.

--Ian

 

[Just call me Ray]

IIRC it was scrapped, with only the nose section being salvaged.


I could be wrong though. Hell, I hope I'm wrong!

 

[Retrofit]

On the RH side of the photo, with its W shapped wing, the little white racer looks like a Loving "Love" designed by Neal Loving in the beginning of the 50s.

 

[archipeppe]

On the RH side of the photo, with its W shapped wing, the little white racer looks like a Loving "Love" designed by Neal Loving in the beginning of the 50s.

Brrrr...it resembles a small Stuka....

 

[Stargazer]

On the RH side of the photo, with its W shapped wing, the little white racer looks like a Loving "Love" designed by Neal Loving in the beginning of the 50s.

Hmmm... could very well be, it's pretty similar! Thanks for the tip. Coming to think of it, the bird at the back rings a bell too, but I'm at a loss for a name. Something Culver-ish about it...

 

[aim9xray]

I'm thinking the M-18 -- the Mooney Mite.

 

[Sundog]

I'm thinking the M-18 -- the Mooney Mite.

Yeah, it's definitely that. I fly it often in FSX

 

[Stargazer]

Cool. I was right in saying it looked "culver-ish", since the Culvers were designed by none other than Mooney... just before he set up his own business to produce the Mite! Thanks.

I think the white aircraft is indeed the Wayne WR-1 "Loving's Love", conceived by Neal V. Loving. Didn't know about that one, but I did my homework! It is a great aircraft with a fascinating story. Couldn't find pictures in quite the same paint job, but I think it's definitely it.

Here's some info on Loving:

Neal V. Loving (1916-1998)

Neal Loving was one of the country’s foremost aviators who let nothing stop him in achieving in his chosen field. As a black student growing up in segregated Detroit, he was advised by his high school teachers to stop studying Aero Tech, at the time an exclusively white field. He persevered, and became the first African American to teach at Aero Mechanics High School. When flying a routine training mission for the Civil Air Patrol in 1944, Neal Loving’s glider crashed and injuries made it necessary to amputate both legs below the knee. He was told he would never fly again, but once again proved his critics wrong. Within two years he was back to designing, building and flying planes. In 1950 he built the midget racer Loving’s Love and became qualified as a racing pilot. He went back to school to get a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and worked at Wright-Patterson AFB for the next 20 years. After retirement, he continued an active career in professional societies and authored his autobiography, Loving’s Love: A Black American’s Experience in Aviation.

Loving designed other aircraft, including the WR-2 amphibian and the WR-3 trainer.