The Curare was the plane that set off the whole anhedral craze. When Dave Brown dominated the field with the Curare, folks were obviously drawn to the bent tail and started asking questions. Yes, Dave always said it was there for a reason, but many folks throughout the years spent way too many hours disproving the reasoning behind the bent tail. I finally gave up trying to understand the aerodynamics of it and decided that if it worked for him on that one model, then great.

Was it the anhedral tail that made the Curare so great? Smarter folks than me can continue to hammer on that, but having flown enough pattern "back in the day" as well as some SPA, I am of the opinion that the tail was much ado about nothing, and not enough credit is ever given to the pilot. Other designs had (or offered) anhedral tails. The Bootlegger could be built either way. many built it straight, many built it bent. Both swear by their personal decisions, but many who tried the Bootlegger each way decided it flew a little better with a straight tail. So... a bent tail in and of itself isn't really a factor. I never owned a Curare, nor did I ever see one without the bent tail.

I don't think Wolfgang Matt, or Hano had bent tail models, and I don't think the Joe Bridy designs ever went down the anhedral road. As was mentioned by somebody earlier, the bent tail came on the scene and spread like crazy, then vanished nearly as quickly. As "turnaround" came on the scene (effectively killing most of the joy for the majority of pattern fliers) the planes started evolving into completely different machines bearing little (if any) resemblance to the models that established "the hey day" of AMA pattern flying. Bah... really didn't mean to enter into a rant. Sorry guys.

My memory may fail me here, but I think the Curare, Tipo, Illusion, Bootlegger, Sky Knight represent the bulk of the bent tail models, with the Bootlegger having it as an option. I don't recall the Atlanta or the Aurora having anhedral either.