About Us The Black & White Biplane is one of the finest open-cockpit sport biplanes ever built. Originally, back in the 30s when the WACO Aircraft Company was the leading manufacturer of sport aircraft in the world, this model, the YMF-5 was considered their crowning achievement. When WACO was revived and new planes started coming out of the factory, Ninety-Nine Yankee was super special. During World War Two, WACO switched to building big gliders that were used to drop soldiers and materiel into the European theatre of war. After the war, with all the new production techniques that had developed during the massive wartime push for new airplanes and manufacturing technology, it was no longer going to be possible to continue to offer a handbuilt airplane like the WACO. The company's founder and president, Clayton Bruckner, decided to discontinue building biplanes. Over the years, a group of dedicated WACO fans kept their antique airplanes flying, and with time the flying public's appreciation for these jewel-like machines increased. In the early '80s a group of daring entrepreneurs, engineers and pilots decided to revive the type certificate and build a brand-new WACO YMF-5. They had to be daring; who would have thought of starting up a production facility for a 1935 model biplane? The Black and White Biplane was built in 1986 as Serial Number 2. Number One was a prototype, and was built alongside Number Two. All the refinements that were tried and tested on Number One were incorporated into Number Two, and the cost of handbuilding the airplane is thought to have exceeded a million dollars. The result was that Number Two, given the tail number N99Y, was the first production aircraft out of about 120 built to date. It exudes the workmanship and quality of one of the world's finest machines. The WACO factory is alive and thriving and continues to build and maintain these splendid airplanes. The Black & White Biplane underwent a disassembly, inspection and rebuild in 2007. It has the honor of being the lightest of the WACO F-5s known, barely tipping the scales at 1998 pounds, which is a big plus for anything that flies. The engine on the WACO is the Jacobs R755-B2. The Jacobs is a seven-cylinder radial engine that puts out 275 horsepower. The sound of a radial is often compared to being like a Harley-Davidson motorcycle instead of a chainsaw. Your friends and family will love the sound of the airplane as they watch it fly overhead, and inside the cockpit the deep roar adds to the excitement of ride.