Menasco Motors Company

Menasco C-4 "Pirate engine"

In 1935 Menasco took over American Cirrus Engines (A.C.E.).[3] A.C.E. manufactured a range of air-cooled four-cylinder inline aero engines, originally licensed from the UK.[4]

The best-known Menasco engines are the air-cooled, inverted inline four- and six-cylinder engine series known as the Pirate and Buccaneer, respectively. Al Menasco was deeply involved with air racing and his engines were popular with racers who needed a small displacement engine. None of the early supercharged engines were production designs with ATC ratings. One of the less obvious benefits Menasco offered was his willingness to build custom engine combinations to fit special airplanes for reasonable prices.

An important advantage of owning a Menasco engine was Al's appreciation of the economics of using off the shelf interchangeable parts whenever possible. His company was the only supplier of inverted in-line engines in the early thirties in the USA. They had reasonably high power, and a ready availability of complete engines and repair parts.[5]

Production of certified engines did not begin until 1936 when Art Chester was hired by Menasco for research and development for the C4S (220-230 hp) and B6S (290 hp) engines. Chester was a race pilot who had a reputation for getting the most horses out his four-Cylinder Menasco, and keeping it reliable at the same time.

A new engine was introduced in 1937: the six-cylinder C6S-4 model, rated at 400 hp at 3300 rpm and 70 in of manifold pressure. It was the first Menasco that really had the power potential to win the Thompson Trophy race. The first prototype went to Rudy Kling for his new Folkerts SK-3 racer in early 1937. In 1938 the commercial version of the C6S-4 was ATC certified at 260 hp.

Al Menasco left the company in 1938. Menasco opened a car dealership, tried his hand at grape cultivation and winemaking, and was sought for advice by aviators and engine manufacturers until his death in 1988.[5]

In 1945 Menasco Motor Company changed its name to Menasco Manufacturing Company to better describe the company's business, which had transitioned from aircraft engines to development and manufacturing aircraft landing gear.

More than 80,000 gear sets were produced during WWII, including such aircraft as the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the North American P-51 Mustang, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star.

Beginning about 1946 landing gear manufacturing shifted to include commercial airliners. By the end of the 1990s Menasco Aerosystems was the free world's largest producer of aircraft landing gear, with plants in California, Texas and Canada. A few of the aircraft that gear sets were made for include the A7, F102, C130, C141, the Space Shuttle, F16, F16E, F18, F18E, YF22, B-1, C5A, C5B, B52, and tip gear for the B36. Gear sets for Boeing include the 707, 727, 737, 757, 777 and the KC135. Gear sets were also made for the Lockheed L-1011, Boeing, Douglas, Convair, Martin, McDonnel, Republic, North American and other aircraft manufacturers.

Although the firm built thousands of engines for a variety of training aircraft during WWII, it did not resume engine manufacturing or development after the war, instead focusing on developing its landing gear business. Menasco landing gear became the industry standard, as its reputation for quality was acknowledged across the aircraft industry.