kingaltair

My Feedback: (4)

I received four of Tom's planes, TBX-1, Apogee, (sister ship of Perigee), Cirrus, and finally Nimbus III. The car was packed "to the gills"

While there I met and visited with daughter Sheryl as well as Helen. Sheryl is a fun person, and it was interesting to get her perspective on growing up in the Brett household while these planes were being built.

Because Tom was an excellent pilot, and Helen took such good care of the planes over the years, I would say that ALL FOUR of Tom's planes could be made airworthy, and could be flown, but at what cost? Both TBX-1 and Apogee I consider to be "classics". As much as I would love to personally fly them, I really can't with a good conscious. First, my flying skills are not up to Tom's, and my planes tend to require repair from time to time. If I knew that each landing would be as smooth as a commercial jetliner and that nothing would ever happen to the plane I might be tempted, but that would be foolhardy for me--something is going to happen, and it would kill me to see these planes damaged.

Second, I don't know what Tom used to paint his models, but I DO know I can't easily match the original paint schemes, or even be sure that modern paints are compatible with Aerogloss, (which is probably what Tom used.). I can always build my own model of Perigee, and eventually an authentic TBX-1 plan will be available for purchase to interested builders, (not from me BTW). I'll leave it up to the person who labored for years on the plan to make the announcement when he's ready. Instead, I will use the originals as reference models during the building process to make the models I'm building as accurate as possible, or to see how Tom did this or that. Maybe the planes may be displayed at VC/RS or SPA events.

It has been suggested that the planes should be donated to the AMA Museum, but I doubt they would be accepted. We felt the same way about the Taurus II, (Ed Kazmirski's final Taurus.) That plane, while interesting to us didn't really do anything worthy of being placed in a museum. We elected to refurbish and fly it, at least enough to get a feel for the flying characteristics of the plane and to get pictures of it in flight which we did. The Taurus II is still with us after about a total of twenty flights, (two of them on You Tube.) Interestingly, there was some damage done to the plane but it happened when some spectator bent over it to look and a camera fell out of his shirt pocket, puncturing the wing!!

So let's look at Tom's planes. First, Perigee is already there in the AMA Museum after winning the 1962 WC. They don't need Apogee which made the trip as Tom's back-up plane, but didn't fly. Of the four planes, I personally feel that only TBX might prove of value to them, (see November 2016 MA article on the TBX), but its main interest lies in its unusual design, (which won an award at the 1965 NATs), not for its winning record. Tom was nearing the end of his AMA competitive period in 1965, and unfortunately TBX had technical problems that prevented it from finishing very high in the standings at that NATs.

What about the last two models? Cirrus and Nimbus III are essentially unknown designs to the public in general and neither competed on the contest circuit. Still, these are ORIGINAL historic model aircraft from 52-56 years old, and are still in relatively good condition. That said, the OPEN areas of the silk and dope finish is quite brittle and easily damaged (especially on TBX and Apogee, which got the most exposure to the sun and the rigors or flying such as stress/vibration). The silk/dope finish on Cirrus would need some kind of reinforcement before flight as it shows signs of being brittle and prone to damage as well..

Bottom line, for now I'd like to restore each aircraft as much as possible to flyable condition without running the risk of damage by actually flying either TBX or Apogee. Cirrus and especially Nimbus III (more about her later), are possible candidates for flying but nothing along that line will happen anytime soon. Nimbus III, I would say is in pristine, essentially new condition including the silk in the open areas of the wing. For a number of reasons to be discussed later, I presently plan to fly Nimbus III sometime in the future rather than just have it sit in my basement display area next to my shop. I have already asked Helen about how she feels about this, and she considers it an apt tribute to Tom.

Next...new details about Nimbus III...
Duane