It was suggested to me by a certain flying trucker to cover this in my next plane-of-the-week. So here it goes:

http://greatlakesaircraftcompany.com/GLACHistory.html

To begin with let me say the shortest explanation of what the Sport Trainer is:
The Great Lakes was born 9months after a WACO and a Pitts had a very kinky night in a motel.

Now on to business....

The Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 currently just entering production at WACO Classic Aircraft marks the 3rd time the Great Lakes has re-entered production while you could also buy plans for them around 40 years ago. Only a deserving aircraft would be in that many separate production runs by separate manufactures each 3 decades apart!

The Great Lakes Aircraft Company started life in 1929 producing various biplanes for civil and United States Navy use in the form of float planes, seaplanes, and torpedo bombers. Shortly after they came into being they produced the first 2T Sport Trainer biplane that started the lineage we know today as the Great Lakes.

The Sport Trainer is a 2 seat open cockpit biplane that is aerobatic. The 2T-1A is stressed for rather mild aerobatics of ~+5gs and -3gs. However, there have been more g-capable models over the many decades. The most confusing part of the Sport Trainer's legacy lies in the engines installed.
There have been a bewildering array of engines hung (sometimes barely) on the front of this little biplane. 2Ts were first built with rather tiny 90hp inlines. After the Great Lakes Aircraft Company went under, the plans after World War II were put up for sale at various times. Talking to my boss about this it sounds extremely confusing who actually was selling the plans. Proof you should not believe everything you read on the internet! (except this of course  ;)  ;D ).
When the plans were up for sale, they sold like hot cakes and the homebuilders did what they do best- modify aircraft. Soon you could see the 2T with RADIALs hanging on the front! Eventually another production run was started in the 70s after the plans were taken off the market. This time yet again the engines were changed. 2Ts were being equipped with Menasco's, Cirrus', Ranger's (also on original 2Ts), and of course Lycoming's. Today, at WACO Classic we are going to build them with Lycoming engines (the IO-360 and the AEIO-360). On the note of engines I MUST include one of the most remarkable 2Ts I have ever heard of. Someone apparently was displeased with the rather pedestrian performance of the 2T (compared to modern airshow aerobatic planes)...sso this fella decided to cram a 400hp TURBINE engine into the cowl!
http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepGreatLksTrbn.html

With that we move to the plane's qualities. As noted previously, she is not stressed to handle full-on, hardcore, balls-to-the-walls aerobatics that we are used to seeing at airshows today (thank you Sean D Tucker). Also, being a design from the 20s and 30s, she is a little heavy. In fact, the modern Great Lakes 2Ts have about 1/3 the power loading of a typical airshow Pitts or Extra. The roll rates are also no where near the insane 400-500degrees per second rates of the modern planes...HOWEVER, the Great Lakes is extremely forgiving, stable, precise, and smooth on the controls. These characteristics have given her the devotion of many owners. From a design stand point (mine), I can say they are built tough. Proof of this is Chandler Aviation has been doing aerobatic training on 4 2Ts for around 30 YEARS! Literally every day these 4 Great Lakes go up doing aerobatics and yet they keep on going. See, the 2T is built very similarly to our WACO YMF-5s: 4130 Chromoly steel tubing, fabric and aluminum skinning, Sitka spruce for spars and other forming pieces. She has stamped (well formed by us) ribs in the flying surfaces unlike the WACOs wooden ones. Still, she uses a network of steel tubing for the fuselage creating a built in roll cage for the occupants just like our YMF-5s. The characteristic swept upper wing provides gentle stall characteristics and better handling as well.
I should mention one universally said con of the 2T: tight cockpit. You have to be a dang anorexic midget to fit in it comfortably yet some how people love flying it so much they suck it up (or in) and squeeze in anyways. But seriously, what aerobatic plane is comfortable anyways?! Myself and my boss checked out a Christen Eagle II at a local museum (Kalamazoo Air Zoo) to try to get some ideas for the 2T upgrades. We both got inside it and I can say, getting in is still interesting even with that bubble canopy! So, one major thing we are doing to the 2T is to make some room in the pits for pilots.

So, that said, to sum up: The Great Lakes 2T Sport Trainer is a heavily adored aircraft but was the victim of the Great Depression. Said economic disaster heavily limited the production run and even killed the original company. Thus there are no where near as many 2Ts out there as is possible. Thus us at WACO Classic see it fit to bring this gal back and keep her around for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately there is not one Great Lakes 2T available for any flight sim I could find. Any developers reading this please PLEASE try making a high quality one for FS2004/FSX!! I heard of a project 2T for that 'other' sim (X-Plane) but I did not see any end result photos or news. Basically this plane is not well known but well loved by those of us that know her.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_2-T-1

http://www.greatlakesairplane.freeservers.com/greatlakes/airshow.htm

http://greatlakesaircraftcompany.com/GLACHistory.html

I must mention this adorable little 'baby': the Baby Great Lakes:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/kitspages/babygreatlakes.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Great_Lakes

So there you have it, I hope you have an interest in this airplane now. I honestly knew nothing of it until I was first introduced to it, but now I cant get it out of my head!  8-)

Hagar wrote on Jun 27^th, 2012 at 7:42pm:


Nice shots Hagar!
I will try to post some pictures of the 2T-1A that is being restored here. The process has been retarded because us in the engineering dept keep wanting to take measurements.

Flying Trucker wrote on Jun 29^th, 2012 at 9:23am:


Yeah I was wondering what was going on, I edited it several times to try to make the links clickable, re-pasted links, re-did the entire post, and then I gave up 

So your father's GL had a Warner Scarab? Well there is a perfect example of the wide array of engines hung on these planes!