Clipwing Monocoupe

The Monocoupe Corp. built only seven Monocoupe 110 Specials (or 110 SPL), also called the Clipwing Monocoupe. The most famous was flown by legendary airshow pilot Woody Edmundson, who, in 1946, replaced the original 145 hp Warner Scarab engine with a 185 hp one that had an inverted flight carburetor and an Aeromatic propeller. He nicknamed the plane Little Butch and flew it for the next 19 years.

- XAVIER MEAL

John McCulloch flies Monocoupe 110S Butch Too over the intercoastal waterway near Venice, Florida.

In 1962, Edmundson sold Little Butch to Eddy Foyle, who wrecked it twice in the next three years. John McCulloch bought was what left of it in 1965 and had it restored by C.V. Stuart in Florida. John flew it a lot but finally gave it to the National Air and Space Museum in 1981.

With its short legs, broad chest, and narrow tail, the 110S’s lines never fail to turn heads.

John McCulloch is the ultimate Monocoupe nut. “Nobody, not even Woody Edmundson, has more hours in 110 Clipwings than I do. I have flown six of the seven original 110Ss and in some others made up from a Monocoupe 90. I have 1,480 hours total, but mostly in my N36Y Little Butch and N101H Butch Too.”

On the ground, owing to its high incidence and the bulging Warner Scarab engine, the pilot has to use his peripheral vision to land because he can’t see what’s in front.