Visited Helen (Brett) just last week and she’s doing fine at 95. She has been, and always will be Tom’s greatest fan and “cheerleader”. It was a pleasure writing two Model Aviation articles about Tom and his planes, the most recent 9/2021.
I am Tom Brett's grandson, Patrick. He passed before any of my siblings or I were born so I've never seen anything more than pictures of him. Thank you for uploading this.
Great movie - just loved looking at those classic and some not so classic models. Those guys were pretty amazing with what they had to work with; we have indeed come a long way.
It certainly was the "golden era" to me. Models all built by the pilot out of balsa and ply. Simple, inexpensive aircraft that any modeler could duplicate. Very innovative era with all kinds of experimentation
I’m glad you appreciate the videos originally taken as home movies by Chuck Winter. What specifically caused you to “choke up”-just curious. Read my article on Tom in the 11/2016 Model Aviation-a very personal article. Tom was someone I looked up to but never had the nerve to speak to. I got to know Helen later through the videos.
I will look up the article, I remember seeing it in MA, I have to find the issue. I presume Tom is gone, but you can still see how proud his wife is of him and his models while she is displaying them. To me that is touching and somewhat sad. I would love to see them on display - not sure if they are.
Tom's Perigee pictured in the flying shots from 1962 is in the AMA Museum at Muncie. Sister ship Apogee and, the TBX-1, and the rest of Tom's planes are kept at their home in suburban Detroit. That's where the still photos were taken
Man the leaps and bounds this hobby has made are tremendous to say the least, surely I'm not the only one to notice how easy we've got it compared to those guy's back then, and I'm a helicopter pilot, just imagine how much fun it was flying one of those thing's back then, damn I just realized I'm an old fart myself shit, now that I think about it I've been in this hobby since the age of twelve and I'm fifty two now so that put's me having been in the hobby for forty wonderful year's, my God @ the changes I've seen come & go, but all in all I'd have to say that I wouldn't change a thing, except there is this one time when I would have zigged instead of zagged...
As I said in my November 2016 article, Guido's TBX flew very well. You see from those few seconds of the TBX in the air that Tom did a Victory Roll with it--with reeds. Think how much better it would fly on proportional! Work on recreating plans for the original TBX are still underway, and nearing completion.....Duane
There is 5seconds of video showing it in the air. It flew well but the pressurized fuel system caused problems. For those interested, after a couple years of work, accurate plans of the ORIGINAL TBX are close to being available for serious builders. The TBX isn’t a simple plane to build. All Toms planes are intricate. Read 11/16 MA article
Just awesome, the way she stuck by his side at all the competitions. And the planes look like new. As they did then❤
Visited Helen (Brett) just last week and she’s doing fine at 95. She has been, and always will be Tom’s greatest fan and “cheerleader”.
It was a pleasure writing two Model Aviation articles about Tom and his planes, the most recent 9/2021.
I am Tom Brett's grandson, Patrick. He passed before any of my siblings or I were born so I've never seen anything more than pictures of him. Thank you for uploading this.
Great movie - just loved looking at those classic and some not so classic models. Those guys were pretty amazing with what they had to work with; we have indeed come a long way.
Beautiful sound track, along with images from the so called golden era of rc model planes. Good work, folks!
It certainly was the "golden era" to me. Models all built by the pilot out of balsa and ply. Simple, inexpensive aircraft that any modeler could duplicate. Very innovative era with all kinds of experimentation
Thank you for posting this. I got choked up at the end of the video
I’m glad you appreciate the videos originally taken as home movies by Chuck Winter. What specifically caused you to “choke up”-just curious. Read my article on Tom in the 11/2016 Model Aviation-a very personal article. Tom was someone I looked up to but never had the nerve to speak to. I got to know Helen later through the videos.
I will look up the article, I remember seeing it in MA, I have to find the issue. I presume Tom is gone, but you can still see how proud his wife is of him and his models while she is displaying them. To me that is touching and somewhat sad. I would love to see them on display - not sure if they are.
Tom's Perigee pictured in the flying shots from 1962 is in the AMA Museum at Muncie. Sister ship Apogee and, the TBX-1, and the rest of Tom's planes are kept at their home in suburban Detroit. That's where the still photos were taken
Man the leaps and bounds this hobby has made are tremendous to say the least, surely I'm not the only one to notice how easy we've got it compared to those guy's back then, and I'm a helicopter pilot, just imagine how much fun it was flying one of those thing's back then, damn I just realized I'm an old fart myself shit, now that I think about it I've been in this hobby since the age of twelve and I'm fifty two now so that put's me having been in the hobby for forty wonderful year's, my God @ the changes I've seen come & go, but all in all I'd have to say that I wouldn't change a thing, except there is this one time when I would have zigged instead of zagged...
Very nice and slightly sad video. 👍👍👍
I wonder how the TBX-1 flew... MA published plans; I should build one one day.
As I said in my November 2016 article, Guido's TBX flew very well. You see from those few seconds of the TBX in the air that Tom did a Victory Roll with it--with reeds. Think how much better it would fly on proportional! Work on recreating plans for the original TBX are still underway, and nearing completion.....Duane
There is 5seconds of video showing it in the air. It flew well but the pressurized fuel system caused problems. For those interested, after a couple years of work, accurate plans of the ORIGINAL TBX are close to being available for serious builders. The TBX isn’t a simple plane to build. All Toms planes are intricate. Read 11/16 MA article
HI, I WANT to build this plane, it is awesome. Can you help me with the plans. Thanks