By Jack Fleetwood, EAA 694416
This story first ran in the June 2019 issue of EAA Sport Aviation.
When I went to look at the little red and white biplane that was for sale, I had no idea what I was in for. I didn’t need a single-place biplane, but, then again, nobody really “needs” one. I couldn’t really justify buying it, but somehow I found myself asking, “How much?” Buying this airplane made me a member of a pretty exclusive club. Tooters, as we’re affectionately called (sometimes with a snicker), are a group of pilots who love their Little Toot biplanes. The group is headed up by the “Son of Toot,” Tommy Meyer, EAA 64.
Tommy is the son of George W. Meyer, the designer and builder of the original Little Toot. Tommy made sure I knew that he was my friend and that he would be there to help me with anything I needed or to answer any questions about my new plane. He is a man who is proud of his dad’s design and has spent a lot of time keeping the legacy alive. When you’re in his hangar, his house, or his workshop, you’ll see Little Toot memorabilia everywhere. He has shirts, jackets, hats, photos, drawings, model airplanes, magazines, newspaper articles, and much more. He even has several Little Toot projects in various stages of completion. If you get him talking about his dad for long, you may see a tear roll down his cheek.
George Meyer built and flew model airplanes in St. Louis. He also built display models for museums, some of which were even displayed in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. He always thought that if he could build scale models, he could design a full-sized airplane. In the early 1950s, George decided it was time to start building his dream plane. Before beginning the full-sized version, he built an amazing scale model that isn’t much bigger than your hand. When Tommy showed me this model, he moved the elevators and ailerons, and inside the cockpit, the control stick was moving!
In 1957, after many years of dedication and hard work, the airplane was ready to fly. Test pilot Pauline Glasson was the first person to fly it, and she would report back that it was a “sweet flying bird and easy to fly.” Pauline and her husband, Claude, would work together to complete the test-flying duties. Claude would wring it out, flying every aerobatic maneuver it was capable of. When he landed, George asked Claude what he should change to make it better. Claude replied, “Don’t change a thing!”
When George asked his wife, Gay, what he should name the airplane, she suggested it be called Little Toot because Tommy and his brother, Georgie, loved the Disney record (from the film) about Little Toot the tugboat. George thought that was the perfect name, so he reached out to the Walt Disney Company to get permission to use this name. The company not only agreed, but also designed and drew up the Little Toot logo whistle that graces the nose of most Little Toots flying today.
George flew his Little Toot to Milwaukee for the fifth EAA fly-in convention in 1957 where he won EAA’s top award, the Mechanix Illustrated Trophy for Outstanding Achievement. EAA founder Paul Poberezny presented the trophy to George. Tommy has it proudly displayed in his office. The Little Toot was so popular that the EAA used photos of it on its membership recruiting brochures.
George was active in promoting EAA and became close friends with the Poberezny family. The first plane Tom Poberezny owned and flew aerobatics in was a Little Toot named Tinker Bell. When George died, Paul and Tom gave Tommy his dad’s EAA membership number, 64.
When Tommy was in school, George encouraged him to take as many drafting courses as he could. Tommy would later use these skills to draw up the official plans for the Little Toot so that others could build their own biplanes. Because of his detailed plans, an estimated 50 Little Toots are flying today.
In 1959, the Meyer family moved to Pensacola, Florida. Tommy begged his dad to let him take flying lessons, so George contacted the first Little Toot pilot, Pauline Glasson. Tommy spent the summer of his sophomore year in Corpus Christi, Texas, with Pauline learning how to fly in a Cessna 140. He soloed in eight hours and continued flying when he returned home to Pensacola, building time in an Aeronca.
In 1966, Tommy enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. He became an award-winning crew chief on the C-54 and C-130 at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and finally on the C-124 Globemaster II in San Antonio, Texas, at Kelly Air Force Base.
In the summer of 1967, while on leave from the Air Force, Tommy finally got his chance to fly Little Toot. He flew it over his girlfriend’s house showing off for her. Unfortunately, one of his dad’s friends saw him flying low over Corpus Christi that day. When Tommy landed, George asked him if he thought that was a good idea and reminded him that the Little Toot was a one-of-a-kind airplane and easily recognizable. I’m guessing Tommy thinks it was worth it because, a year later, he married the young lady he was trying to impress that day — his longtime sweetheart, JoAn Schanen.
In 1970, George decided to put a larger engine on the Little Toot. He removed the wings and put them in a hangar. They were badly damaged when Hurricane Celia blew the hangar door in on them. George was disheartened and just wasn’t up for repairing them. He asked Tommy if he wanted to undertake the project of rebuilding Little Toot. Tommy said yes, and the plane was moved to his house. However, there was a lot of work to be done and Tommy didn’t have a clue of where to begin. After several years, George told Tommy if he was not going to finish the project, he wanted it back, so Tommy moved it back to George’s house. George would never get around to restoring Little Toot. When he developed lung cancer, he decided to sell it to air show pilot John Epperson. George didn’t tell Tommy of his decision to sell until after the plane was gone.
Like his dad, Tommy learned a lot about airplanes by building model airplanes. Tommy is a National Model Airplane Champion winning the 1960 Nationals, 1964 Nationals, and the 1968 Nationals. Following the years after George’s death in 1982, Tommy honored his father’s memory by holding George Meyer Memorial Giant Scale RC Model Airplane events in Denver, at the Air Force Academy, and in Dallas several times.
One day, Tommy got an offer from Leo Janssens, who had two Little Toots that needed restoring. If Tommy would rebuild Leo’s 180-hp Brute Toot, Leo would give him the Blue Toot built by Jack Routh. Tommy had never restored a plane before, but he didn’t tell Leo that. He said his dad taught him, “Don’t ever tell anybody that you can’t do something. You tell them you can do it, then figure out how.”
Tommy and his friend Phil Witt, EAA 427390, worked on the restoration of the Brute Toot for six months. When it was completed, they watched proudly as Leo took off to fly it back to Florida. Now that the first plane was completed, it was time to start on Tommy’s plane. Tommy renamed it Tommy’s Toot. When it was completed, he flew it to Oshkosh and won the Bronze Lindy at EAA Oshkosh 1997. Two years later, he won the Paul Poberezny Founder’s Award for Classic Homebuilt at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 1999.
After 10 years of trying to buy back the original Little Toot from John Epperson, Tommy finally got the chance. He changed the engine to the 150 hp that George wanted and repaired the hurricane-damaged wings. Finishing it in 2000, Tommy flew it to AirVenture and won the Paul Poberenzy Founder’s Award for Classic Homebuilt again. The award was presented to Tommy by Paul himself. It was an honor for Tommy to receive this award from Paul since he was the one who presented the Mechanix Illustrated trophy to his dad 43 years earlier for the same airplane.
After the successes he’d achieved restoring Little Toots, Tommy knew it was time to start the Big Toot. He started by working on the blueprints. He knew Little Toot was such a solid design that he could take his original drawings and convert them to design the Big Toot.
Tommy’s strategy when building an airplane is to build the wings first. They’re the hardest part, so if you can get through that, he thinks you’re more likely to finish the rest of the airplane. He’s a big stickler for quality. He told me the philosophy he learned from his dad is, “If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it over?”
Tommy was able to acquire the original rib jigs that George had used for the Little Toot. His mother still had them stored in Corpus Christi. As Tommy started the tedious process of cutting out all of the small parts needed to build the ribs, he met a new friend, Kelly Swafford. Kelly offered a quick numeric-control cutting solution for the pieces. This not only sped up the process, but also ensured each rib was exactly the same. As the pieces were received from Kelly, Tommy started assembling the 50 ribs for Big Toot.
Part of Tommy’s wing design was to have removable wing tanks in the upper wing panels. The tanks can be removed from the top, and he even beaded the panel covers to look like ribs so they would blend in with the wings. Tommy learned rib stitching from a dear friend, Minot Piper, from his Air Force days in Guam. Minot visited Tommy in Roanoke, Texas, on several occasions to help him further develop his skills.
Tommy built Big Toot’s fuselage like he was building a scaled-up model airplane. He purchased a large printer so he could print one-to-one drawings of the fuselage sides and bottoms. With full-scale plans printed, he bolted worktables together and started laying the 4130 steel tubing right over the plans.
Learning the welding techniques was a bit of a challenge for Tommy. For easy access, he built a rotisserie to rotate the entire fuselage. Once the fuselage was completed, it was hauled to Able Sandblasting to have it blasted. When it was down to the bare metal, it was moved to National Crosslink Powder Coating in Denton, Texas, for the final step. It was powder-coated in a beautiful rich red and the brightest white color available.
Tommy then drew up the canopy shape, showing the entire side view, and sent it to Texas Aeroplastics. He took the same drawings to a local shop to have two square tubing hoops bent. It took several trimming cycles to get the canopy to slide down the fuselage and into the correct position, but the result was a very nice fit. Tommy then designed all of the hinges and the safety-locking mechanism to lock the canopy in place. For a nostalgic look, he used handles he borrowed from his Gold Medal popcorn machine.
One of the final steps was building the cowling. Tommy started by using the original bug-eye mold his father built in the late ’60s. The bug-eyes fit Big Toot perfectly, but the bottom and top molds would not fit because of the much larger engine he selected. He had to design and build the top and bottom cowlings from scratch. It took months of work. After Tommy sculpted these two plugs, he started making molds out of them. By using a compound cure product, he made a very strong cowling.
After 14 long years, Big Toot was finally ready to fly. When you first spot Big Toot, you may think you are seeing a Little Toot. This is because Tommy designed and built a plane that both honored his dad’s original design and fulfilled his dreams of a two-seater. Big Toot pays tribute to Little Toot on its cowling with a modified Little Toot logo that Tommy revised to have two whistles to indicate a two-place biplane. You can’t miss the fact that Big Toot is a descendant of Little Toot, but this plane is a new design that will stand on its own.
Grady O’Neal of GLO Aircraft Painting painted this beautiful aircraft. Grady has painted hundreds of airplanes and wanted to paint Big Toot as his last aviation paint job before retirement. There was never a doubt that it would have the traditional Toot paint scheme of a red starburst on the top wing, red and white checkers on the bottom wing, the lightning bolt on the side, and a circle of stars on the tail. Tommy chose the tail number N64LT honoring his dad’s EAA number 64 and LT for Little Toot.
Big Toot was ready for its test flights, but as with any plane designed from scratch, there were a few challenges to work out. Tommy’s design was no exception. The combination of a Lycoming IO-540 built by A&E Aircraft Engines of Dallas with a 75-pound constant-speed propeller would prove to be too heavy. To resolve this issue, Tommy worked closely with Catto Propellers, and it built him a custom three-bladed propeller that weighs only 24 pounds.
During the initial test flights, the test pilot reported he was encountering aileron flutter. Tommy had to rebalance the ailerons by using some custom lead weights in the leading edges. This was no easy task, but it resulted in a smooth-flying plane.
Tommy chose Joe Flood III to do the test flights on the Big Toot. Joe has been like a son that Tommy never had, and Tommy said it’s a blessing to have a test pilot of such high caliber for Big Toot.
For better visibility, Tommy bucked tradition on two-seat biplanes and put the pilot in the front seat. When he asked Joe about this, he said, “I wouldn’t change a thing. You can taxi without S-turning. You don’t have to slip it to see when landing. You just fly it and have fun!”
I heard that Joe would be in Roanoke, for more test flying. Tommy and I decided I should come out and do a photoshoot of the original Little Toot and Big Toot together. This would be a historic event. We would have George Meyer’s original Little Toot and Tommy Meyer’s one-of-a-kind Big Toot in the air together. It was an exciting experience for all involved. We believe Tommy is the only son of the original 100 EAA members to follow in his father’s footsteps and design a one-of-a-kind airplane to be shown at Oshkosh.
As with any airplane build, it takes a lot of help and patience from family and friends. Tommy is grateful to those who helped him along the way. His sister, Joy, insisted on fairings for the I-struts, and she even designed them. His friend Bob Borger, who is also building his own Little Toot, worked on all of the electrical components. His friend Bob Corder did the radio installation. He thanks his friend Gary Platner for the initial test flights. He’s very thankful to Joe for many hours test flying Big Toot. However, maybe the most important person in Tommy’s journey is his wife, JoAn, who has always loved and supported Tommy through his sometimes-chaotic life. Without her support, Tommy knows that none of this would have happened.
Tommy spent 14 years working on this airplane to honor his father. I know George would be so proud of Tommy and what he has accomplished. Tommy said he knows his dad is up there looking down with a smile the size of Texas on his face.
I am grateful that I got the opportunity to get to know Tommy. I spent a lot of time with him listening to stories about his dad and about his own adventures. George and Tommy both dreamed of designing their own airplanes, and they both turned those dreams into reality. Tommy spent many years honoring his dad, but now it’s time for Tommy to get some time in the spotlight. It’s time for Tommy and the Big Toot to shine.
Jack Fleetwood, EAA 694416, is a lifelong pilot and photographer. He currently owns and flies a Meyer Little Toot. You can follow Jack on Instagram at jack_fleetwood or on his website at www.JackFleetwood.com.
