One Of Sport Aviation's Most Exquisite Biplanes Returns To Life

It's hard to explain my affection for the old Great Lakes... I've flown the bird in a number of versions, ages (some much older than I) and generations... with round engines, inline engines, and the more recent Lycoming iterations... and I have loved them all.

There was a unifying thread in each and every one of those birds... no matter how they were equipped or maintained. They were all the sweetest of flyers... with solid manners, an agreeable spirit, and the ability to make the worst of my early aerobatics look not so bad (especially when I was trying to impress one particular redheaded wonder of the female persuasion that I was the best aerobatic pilot she ever saw... and I think God for the fact that she had such a limited selection to choose from).

Ahh.. those were the days... when the Great Lakes suffered through my very first outside loops, my first (screwed up) English Bunt, and thereafter taught me to do a passable avalanche on the limited energy a big ol' 180 HP bipe could offer. The Great Lakes is a wonderful beast... and I'm glad she lives again.

Brought back to life by the craftsmen at WACO Aircraft, the 'modern' Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 is a fully aerobatic, 180 h.p. biplane with extraordinary handling attributes. With similar design and construction techniques, the Great Lakes is smaller with more simple avionics and systems.

The company boasts that it is the only company in the world that produces NEW FAA and EASA certified open cockpit classic biplanes. The Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 has a list price of $245,520 and comes equipped with a 180 HP Lycoming AEIO-360-B1G6 and aerobatic Hartzell CS Prop. Basic instrumentation includes a TRIG TY91 VHF Com Radio, TRIG TT22 Mode-S-Transponder, JPI EDM 930 integrated electronic engine instrumentation, and a Garmin AERA 500 WAAS GPS receiver. The open cockpit Great Lakes seats two, in tandem, an cruises 120 mph, climbs 1400 fpm and has a range of 260 nm.

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