Pepsi Stinson takes top honors at AirVenture

“A Nickel Drink — Worth a Dime.”

That slogan, doubling the value of Pepsi Cola in the 1930s, graces a fresh-paint, new restoration of a Stinson SR-7 Reliant once operated by the American soft drink giant.

Garry and Janne Ackerman of McKinney, Texas, promised the Stinson’s previous owner they would restore it to its Pepsi pride and get it back in the air — and they did, debuting the newly restored airplane at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024, where it became an award-winning airplane.

The base glossy white fuselage with dark blue trim is right out of the Stinson paint book, according to Garry. Add the red Pepsi Cola logo and a hand-painted bottle of the beverage on both sides of the rudder, and this SR-7 looks like a proper corporate aircraft from the 1930s.

“We believe this is the only marketing airplane they ever owned,” Garry says.

The company bought it used in May 1938 and added a banner towing hook that December.

Different owners came and went after Pepsi sold the SR-7 in February 1940. Garry figures it went derelict 60 years ago. He and Janne bought it out of the rafters of a shop in Lincoln, California, 14 years ago. The seller was initially reluctant, but agreed when Garry promised to restore it.

“It was a retirement project for us,” he says.

The Ackermans, with careers in technology and aviation, were ready for something new. That’s when they discovered photography, going all-in for international wildlife trips that occupied their time.

The Stinson remained a basket case until four years ago. That’s when the Ackermans realized their best intentions of restoring the Stinson would only become a reality with a major boost from an award-winning restoration shop, Rare Aircraft of Faribault, Minnesota.

Rare Aircraft figures on spending at least 5,000 hours on an aircraft, according to its website. For the Pepsi Stinson, that grew to more than 10,000 hours on the airframe.

Restoration was required, but Garry is pleased to say, “No Bondo, no filler.”

Some pieces in the basket of parts delivered to Rare Aircraft helped the project along. The streamlined cowling with blisters for each engine cylinder was intact, as were the wheel pants.

The wings and tail had been restored previously during the Pepsi plane’s long sojourn as a basket case project under several owners, but the intervening years demanded a fresh look with walnut shell blasting down to the bare tube structure.

The wing spar is a welded steel truss, fitted with extruded aluminum ribs made from square tubing. Garry says there is very little wood in the SR-7’s classic gull wing.

The Ackermans occasionally commuted from Texas to Minnesota, intent on helping with the restoration, but Garry says, in reality it was best to let the Rare Aircraft team work their own magic.

“They sent us pictures and we sent checks,” he says with a smile.

The Stinson required a vacuum tank for flaps operation. Garry says he was resigned to using a non-Stinson vacuum vessel until an authentic version was found.

When it came time to finalize the instrument panel and its devices, Garry and Janne faced choices of original authenticity versus the modern-day avionics needs of a cross-country airplane in 2024. A section in the inset center of the panel houses a modern transponder, GPS, and comm gear. This allows the Ackermans to navigate modern airspace. Yet steam gauges exist for a traditional flying experience outside of the electronics world.

The Stinson Reliant is well appointed, and the restorers at Rare Aircraft used interior finishes and touches that give the Pepsi Cola aircraft a blend of vintage elegance and modern usefulness. The dual control yokes have aluminum spokes ringed by a wooden wheel made of birch, all finished in a deep black.

Paint for the Pepsi Cola Stinson is from the PPG company, covering Dacron fabric. The company slogan and Pepsi bottle are hand-painted in the style of the era, and visible brush strokes are part of the cachet of this restoration — no modern stencils or adhesive cutouts.

Garry figures on many years of service for this finish, as the Stinson will reside in a hangar when not traveling to air shows and fly-ins.

A vigorous shower one day at AirVenture required a gentle wipe down.

“If I have my way, that’s the last time it’ll see rain,” Garry says.

The Stinson SR-7 is powered by a Lycoming R-680 engine that delivers 300 horsepower for cruising at 140 mph, slowing down to land at 48. It packs a gross weight of 3,600 pounds, up from an empty weight of 2,617.

During AirVenture, Garry was asked when his Stinson made its first post-restoration flight.

“Ah… a week and a half ago,” came the reply, maybe a bit wistfully, since the folks at Rare Aircraft made that flight, delivering the plane to Oshkosh for AirVenture.

After AirVenture, the Pepsi aircraft returned to Faribault next door in Minnesota for a touch of post-first-flight debugging, and to bring Garry up to proficiency in its flight operations.

The Ackermans are working on a travel kit to provide stanchions and a story about their colorful aircraft to take it on the road.

“We built this airplane to share,” Garry says.

With its eye-catching vintage advertising artwork and its functionally modern avionics, the Pepsi Cola Stinson is a useful cross-country antique aircraft with a story to tell.

In the EAA Vintage Aircraft universe, the category of Antique (for aircraft up through August 1945) has a subset for Customized Aircraft. With its smooth blend of 1930s airframe and subtly modernized cockpit, the Ackermans’ Pepsi Cola Stinson SR-7 Reliant took the Antique Customized Aircraft Champion award, with Bronze Lindy, at AirVenture on its debut outing.