Bill Waite admits it. He’s always had his head in the clouds.
“I’ve always loved the idea of flying,” he said.
After a life of being surrounded by aircraft, Waite has found a new way to fuel his admiration of all things aerial. For the last two years he’s been the lead drafter, engineer and mechanic for the AC Aircraft Company, appropriately initialed because of the aluminum cans Waite uses to make the craft.
The majority of the planes he creates are World War I and World War II generation fighters but he also makes a variety of civilian aircraft .
Each plane can take as few as six hours or around 12 to complete. It just depends on the intricacy of the design or if it’s a new plane Waite is experimenting to assembly.
His first plane was a bi-wing. It remains one of his favorites, but his ultimate is a tri-wing World War II German fighter plane known as a DR1 Fokker.
“It’s great, that’s what you see on my business card,” he said.
After retiring in 2005 from a 25-year career as fire marshal for Naval Air Station Whidbey Island he wanted a hobby to keep him busy.
He came across the idea of making planes out of aluminum cans while searching the Internet and soon located a book of a dozen plans. But that wasn’t enough for him so he started experimenting with designs — his fleet now includes around 25 plane styles from tiny BeeGee racers to twin-engine bombers.
Some of the leading requests are for the P51 Mustang, F4U CorseAir, EA-6B Prowler and the A6 Intruder.
“Certain airplanes with distinctive characteristics make them more easily identifiable when made from aluminum cans — the belly scoop of a P51 or the angled wings of a CorseAir,” Waite said. “I get a lot of orders for P3s.”
His garage plays double duty as hangar for his fleet. There flies Piper Cubs constructed of Canada Dry ginger ale, a PT17 made from maroon Dr. Pepper, an EA-6B Prowler flying the crisp citrus Fresca colors.
“One of the hardest to come by is Dad’s root beer because they don’t make that much of it,” Waite said.
Whether his planes completely resemble their mammoth siblings is up to the individual to decide, and that’s all right with Waite.
“These aren’t scale models,” he said. “They are meant to be representations of full-size aircraft.”
Waite grew up around aircraft. His father, the late Isaac Waite, was a member of the Navy serving the airwing for 26 years as an aviation technician for A6 Intruders and EA-6B Prowlers, as well as helicopters.
A decade spent in San Diego during what Waite calls the “hey day of Top Gun” helped ingrain his desire to fly.
“I went into the Air Force and all I wanted to do was fly planes, but they put me on a search and rescue helicopter,” he said.
Waite spent nine years in the Air Force. He moved to Whidbey in 1979 and spent 15 years in the Air National Guard with combat communications before retiring in 1999.
After two years of designing and building the aluminum craft his plane business has taken flight. His planes are on regular display and for sale at a number of Oak Harbor businesses. Yes, that is the AC fleet you see at Flyers Restaurant, the Pizza Factory on Ault Field Road, at US Bank on Midway Boulevard and at the Oak Harbor Yacht Club.
But even with the success, Waite insists creating his fleet remains a hobby and any profits are used strictly for fun.
“I’m a member of the Whidbey Cruzers so I go to a few car shows,” he said.
His love of cars is one he shares with his wife, Dorothy. Both own emerald green Mini Coopers — his vintage, hers a new flashy model.
“They’re great cars,” he said.
Bonus? How many car owners can put three cars in their two car garage?
Waite’s Cruzers links help keep him supplied in cans, but Waite also makes special trips to an aluminum can manufacturing plant in Olympia.
“They make four and a half million cans every 24 hours,” he said.
Waite has learned to search high and low for all the odds and ends that are used in constructing the planes.
Each plane is assembled from as few as a dozen cans or as many as two dozen. Each plane can have as many as 10 bottle caps. The radial engines are made from as many as 42 aluminum pull tabs.
Previous to pop can plane production, Waite’s hobby list included woodworking and extensive model building. Now he gets to integrate these skills into his plane production line.
“A lot of parts are made from wood or shaped around wood,” he said. “Plus I had all the tools for woodworking so I adapted their uses for the planes.”
He’s made more than 160 planes in two years and doesn’t see stopping any time soon.
“I like that every can of soda or beer has a uniqueness,” Waite said. “So does every plane made from these cans. No two are ever alike.”
