“Golden Wings” Waco S3HD HD Acrylic Print 30 x 20

“Golden Wings” , 2017 – Photographer: Jessica Voruda

Archival Pigment Print on Metallic Photo Paper
Face-Mounted to Optically Clear Acrylic
30 x 20 in / 76 x 51 cm

The Waco S3HD “Super Sport” NC14048 rests on a grass field in the American Midwest, its black fuselage and golden yellow wings forming one of the most recognizable silhouettes in the antique biplane community. The two-piece sliding canopy, whose rear section slides forward to open what would have been the gunner’s position, is the detail that gives the S3HD its unmistakable military vibe. Every strut and wire intersection is tightly faired for reduced drag. The hand-formed aluminum cowling and wheel pants demonstrate the craftsmanship that defined prewar American aircraft.

The S3HD was the first of thirteen Waco D-series aircraft built between 1934 and 1938, and the only one delivered as a civilian sport plane. The twelve that followed were military export fighters sold to Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Brazil, configured to drop small bombs and carry wing-mounted Browning .30 caliber machine guns. NC14048 was the exception, built for sportsman pilot Miles H. Vernon of New York and the only S3HD delivered without fittings on the lower wings for bomb racks and guns. In every other respect it is identical to its militarized siblings, which makes it the sole survivor of the entire D-series breed. Powered by a 450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior and cruising at 145 knots, the “King of the Waco biplanes” is now owned and flown by John Ricciotti of Barrington, New Hampshire, nearly a century after it left the Waco factory in Troy, Ohio.