I happened to be in the same club in Loveland, OH as Dick when he built the Tipo and the project came to life. I am quite certain of the following facts and dates.

Here is a brief history of the Tiporare:

- In 1977 Dick was flying a Curare built from the MAN plans. My dad and I joind his club in fall of '77 and met Dick and his son Guy. That was probably the hook that started me on my competition career.

- Dick Built two Curares from the Hobby Barn Quality Line kit for Brown in the fall for 1977 for Dave to use at the TOC that year. Which he did. (this was the last year TOC used pattern models).

- In 1978 Dick brought out a modified Curare that he had built over the winter (from wood) for him self. General concensus in the area was that the Curare was a fantastic flying model, but was generally ugly. Dick's model cleaned up the lines of the Curare and made it as considered by most to be prettier. He called it the Tiporare. Combined the word "Tipo" which was printed on the side of SuperTiger engines boxes (Type in italian) with "are" the last half of CurARE. The name was Dick's son Guy Hanson's idea.

- Dick's model was well received, so after the 1978 season, Bill Keller of WK Hobbies and Dick worked together to create a glass foam kit. Dick made a fuse plug with a few further refinements over the wood version he flew in '78 and that became the now classic Tiporare (or T720). At one point the name Antidote was briefly considered for the production model (antidote for the poison Curare), but in the end Tiporare was kept and the rest is history.

- In the 1979 season MANY Tiporares entered the contest trail being flown by Brown, Frackowiak and a ton of others. Dad and I also build one but lost it right before the NATS that year. I had many more Tipos to follow.

- Some years later, WK Hobbies sold to Great Planes and that is how they came to have the Tiporare and Illusion. This was pretty much after pattern had moved on to newer designs. When the Tipo was in its prime, it was a WK kit.