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The rather grandly-named Aeronautical Corporation of America (Aeronca) was formed in 1928 by a group of Cincinnati, Ohio businessmen hoping to profit from the recent boom in US civil aviation. With initially no product to sell, they settled on the ultralight monoplane designed by Air Corps engineer Jean Roche, which was productionised as the Aeronca C-2 ‘Flying Bathtub’ and became the World’s first successful major-production ultralight aircraft, largely down to the reliability of the 2-cylinder engine Aeronca also manufactured to power it. By 1935 however, the writing was on the wall for the Flying Bathtub line (after over 500 had been produced), as the CAA banned the production of light aircraft with wire-braced wings, which required careful maintenance, seen as a potential safety hazard. So Aeronca had to create a more modern successor and hedged their bets by designing two.... First was the model K, which was effectively an updated replacement for the bathtub, with slimmer lines, strut-braced high wing and the same 2-cylinder 36 h.p. engine. The other was the model L, an altogether more sophisticated affair, with a low-mounted cantilever wing and very 1930s-looking trousered undercarriage. Although the prototype had the usual 2-cylinder engine, that proved adequate only for a single circuit of the airfield to determine much more power was required. This was found in the shape of the locally-produced 5-cylinder Le Blond radial, with 85 hp, which gave the hoped-for performance. Although it was well-received, it was comfortably outsold by the cheaper model K, which evolved into the popular Chief when fitted with 4-cylinder engine. The Aeronca factory was flooded in 1937 and some of the model L tooling destroyed, so the management decided to cease production after 66 had been completed. Only a handful survive, with only one currently in airworthy condition, as shown in this very informative video with vintage lightplane test pilot extraordinary Andrew King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEtvvrJjHqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVZjyX7jro It’s one of my favourite 1930s lightplanes and I built this model almost exactly 30 years ago and it won the 1/72 scratchbuilt and vacform class at the 1993 IPMS UK Nationals. Model is 100% scratchbuilt from plasticard using my take on Harry Woodman’s techniques, including the Le Blond engine and Sensenich prop.