Radial Engine!

OBX Airplanes proudly runs the gorgeous red Waco biplane over the beaches of the Outer Banks!  Our red biplane is like none other in breathtaking beauty & maintained to the top of its class.  In some of our previous posts you’ll see that our red biplane is a 1998 Waco YMF-5C designed using a lot of the designs of the older Wacos manufactured in the 30s & 40s without a lot of the flaws and with many upgrades to include a safer airframe with a phenomenal safety rating, higher horsepower engine and avionics that make each flight more capable & the pilot equipped with more options.  Powering our red biplane is a 275HP! Jacobs R755 Radial engine! You’ll hear the low rumble of the engine as we taxi out and the roar on takeoff. They are timeless, classic & contemporary with all the comforts of a newer plane.  
We often get a lot of questions about the radial engine on our biplane while loading passengers for rides on the Outer Banks.  Our pilots pull the propeller through by moving it counter clockwise facing the airplane and often people wonder if we are setting up to start the Waco by hand when we are doing this.  Oil collects at the bottom of the engine as the engine cools and we have to circulate the oil through the engine so as to not cause damage on start up caused by too much oil pressure in the bottom cylinders.  The radial engine is extremely reliable with 7 cylinders.  The radials were used on these planes when they were designed due to the ease of maintenance at the time, reliability and most importantly durability in times of combat.  They do however work just the same as any 4 stroke piston powered engine which makes them predictable & operationally easy to use.
When you see the red biplane flying biplanes rides over the beaches on the Outer Banks enjoy the low roar of the Jacobs soaring us along at 110 MPH against the big blue sky and over the sea below us and please don’t hesitate to enjoy a flight yourself in the big red biplane!