Tiger Tim
Well-Known Member
Hi all, looks like I’ll have the opportunity to start playing with a Little Toot soon. Is there anything I need to know?
I don't know your experience, so forgive me if I state some obvious safety points.Hi all, looks like I’ll have the opportunity to start playing with a Little Toot soon. Is there anything I need to know?
That's just criminal!I intentionally left out that it’s going to be a bit before she flies.
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Looks like a good project.I intentionally left out that it’s going to be a bit before she flies.
Oh yeah, she’s built like a bridge. Just a little sport biplane good for +/-10G!I always loved the Little Toot. Best I remember it’s usually heavy, especially compared to an S1S
All of the above? I think the golden age of homebuilding (IMO) in the 50’s and 60’s is underrepresented, it looks like a sporty little runabout good for the occasional lazy acros, and there was a promise made to the previous owner’s widow.Are you interested because of the historical aspect, or the specific bang for the buck, or the flight performance, or what? Are you saving an old uncle's prize possession, like the Rush song "Red Barchetta"?![]()
Little Toot wasn't designed as a Pitts substitute. George Meyer was a big man and built the airplane big enough for himself. George was a master builder but not highly experienced as a pilot and made an airplane that a Cessna 140 pilot could jump into and fly. He also built it as stout as the Navy aircraft he'd been working on in Navy O & R. Being the 1950's, he designed it to be able to use parts from Cessna 140 and Luscombe as building a homebuilt inexpensively was a big part of the motivation back then. You can credit the Pitts for the inspiration of a small, fun biplane.One thing historically you have to remember is the Pitts was not available to the public when the Little Toot, Starduster 1, and the Smith were introduced. There had been about five Pitts made for airshow pilots, mostly for women. They played small plane is cute as part of the act.
These alternate planes were designed because the want of a Pitts. When Curtis said aww shucks, people really are serious about wanting Pitts plans, did the S1C come out. Of course once Pitts plans were available, most dropped the substitutes for the real deal.
The Toot and Starduster being “bigger” airplanes were never going to have the performance of a Pitts head to head. The Smith gets into being pretty small. All the designs were educated guesses on how big a Pitts really was.