Hey! That's a cute little plane! No, Dad didnt have anything to do with the 40 sized Tipo. I recall Dad using the "Type Rare" term but I don't know if he coined that or it was just picked up somewhere. Certainly the Curare name had a bunch to do with it. I remember seeing Prettner fly in Dayton, Ohio (I think i was Dayton!) in the 70's. It certainly tipped everyone on their ears. It was obvious that this plane and this flier were the cats ass. Dad built some Curares, along with some of his designs,, I ended up straining them through various trees and fences. His description in the first article about the Tiporare was exactly how he always felt about it. It was a Curare with a tummy tuck, boob job, whatever. He never proposed that it was his own thing or that he made a "better" plane. It is just ASTOUNDING how much of an impact on Pattern that one plane had on people. It was just a damn cool airplane. I would venture to say that the planes he designed later had a bigger, long term impact. Look at a Runaround, Excess, EMC2 and see how much the latest F3A planes have in common. I was kitting the Elan, Ariel and Elite at the time he started building the wide, large fuselage airplanes with relatively smalller wings (fuse to wing volume ratio) and so many folks were saying it wouldnt work. He REALLY gave it ALOT of thought at the time and said " I dont care, this makes sense to me" He was right.

Guy
Edit: Now I remember the Supertiger box TIPO thing. It all runs together!!