Stock Photo - Fred Weick´s homebuilt W_1A of 1934, one of the first aircraft to employ tricycle landing gear. Weick and a group of nine other Langley engineers built this small experimental airplane in their spare time to study the special needs of the private flyer. The plane was eventually purchased by the Department of Commerce. After leaving the NACA for a second and final time in 1936, Weick incorporated many elements of the W_1 into his design of the famous Ercoupe, a small simple_ to_fly airplane built first by the Engineering Research and Development Corporation ERCO of suburban Washington, DC.