fall of 1986, the company was preparing to launch an initial public stock offering (IPO) when "Black Monday" struck the stock market that October, forcing cancellation of the IPO. New-generation buses: Chaperone and Lifestar In 1985, Wayne introduced the Chaperone, a school bus designed to use a cutaway van chassis. Although the Busette had proven successful in the marketplace, its standard interior height of 63 inches was far shorter than a full-size school bus. In addition, the company sought to adapt the longitudinal-panel construction of the Wayne Lifeguard on a smaller bus. Using the same GM and Ford dual rear-wheel chassis as the Busette/Transette, the Chaperone fit the single-panel construction of the Lifeguard on its body, along with a standard bus-style door. The Busette would remain in production alongside the Chaperone through 1990, when Wayne sold its body tooling to Mid Bus. For 1986, Wayne Corporation introduced the Wayne Lifestar, its first transit-style school bus since the early 1970s and its first transit-style bus with a front-engine layout since World War II. Designed specifically for school bus use, the body of the Lifestar was designed to share the longitudinal side panels of the Lifeguard. Unlike its largest competitors, Wayne did not have the manufacturing equipment or capacity to build chassis in-house; consequently, chassis from an outside supplier was crucial. Supply problems outside of the company's control led to the use of several suppliers for the Lifestar over its production run. Bankruptcy In the school bus marketplace, Wayne struggled alongside its competitors. In 1986, a major potential order for Wayne in Canada was split between Wayne and Ward. During 1987, its Welles factory in Canada was destroyed by fire; to keep the division in business, Wayne had to remodel a separate factory in Windsor; in June 1990, the Welles division was closed entirely. Shortly after the introduction of the Wayne Lifestar, the Blue Bird TC/2000 was introduced; a model similar to the Lifestar, the TC/2000 captured a large share of the school bus segment. In 1991, Navistar, a chassis supplier for the Wayne Lifestar, purchased a controlling interest in AmTran; along with the end of Ward in school bus manufacturing, the purchase also began a period of mergers and acquisitions of school bus manufacturers by chassis suppliers. Richmond Transportation Corporation (RTC) declared bankruptcy in August 1992, with the company put up for auction. Epilogue After the bankruptcy of Richmond Transportation Corporation,