By Robbie Culver
EAA’s AirVenture Oshkosh is a showcase for aircraft that are not found anywhere else. This year, an example of that is Jim and Mitzi O’Hara’s TTP38 Volar’s Lightning, N38PJ (TT stands for two-thirds scale). It’s the only one in the world, and you can see it at AirVenture in the Homebuilts area by the Brown Arch.
Jim’s nephew, William Presler, EAA 1049504, owner and operator of Volar Avionics, brought the aircraft to Oshkosh to show the world what his uncle Jim created from scratch. William said that after Jim’s passing, “He had left it in his will with the ‘option to buy’ from his estate. It was a more than reasonable price … and the money would go to Aunt Mitzi’s care,” William said. “In many ways, he had left the airplane in my care.”
Building an aircraft from a kit is a lifetime journey. Scratchbuilding an aircraft from plans is next-level craftsmanship. But designing, engineering, and building a two-thirds scale replica from nothing except one’s own mind and willpower is beyond inspiring. It took 25 years of design, engineering, stress test calculations, and fabricating one piece at a time.
William said his uncle Jimmy was a lifelong aeronautical engineer and rocket scientist, and the design and build process could have deterred him “except his clear and penetrating insight into the very nature of flight itself. I don’t know what else to say … somehow … he could just see it. I don’t know how to tell you this, but he could just see it. I know this. I saw it in his eyes.”
As William quite accurately said, “What he did was impossible. He built an airplane that wasn’t possible to build. Two-thirds scale. The world’s only TTP38.”
When William became custodian of this treasure of aviation, he began the journey to bring her back to flight. William said he and his friend Steve Michael “worked all day that first day just getting things cleaned up. Pressure washing the floor, scrubbing the plane, and throwing things away. We could start to see things a little better then.”
Things progressed slowly, and over the course of a few weeks’ work the airplane taxied again, followed by a “second” first flight. William’s immediate goal was to get the airplane to Oshkosh, as well as other air shows.
As Steve taxied the TTP38 up to the Homebuilts area in Oshkosh, I watched William’s face. The look was one of mixed emotion and pride. I asked him what the moment meant to him.
“Relief. Relief. So glad to see her here. What a beautiful moment … just coming full circle for this plane and for my uncle Jim’s dream!”
William, we are so glad you brought her to Oshkosh to share with us!
Be sure to check out the world’s only TTP38 and read the full story of “An Unbelievable Lifelong Project” by Budd Davisson in EAA’s August 2024 issue of EAA Sport Aviation.
For more information and photos of the build, visit FlyVolar.com/TTP38.