The Thorp

The T-18 was designed to be built from twelve 4' x 12' sheets of aluminum ranging in thickness from 0.016 to 0.040. Ribs and fuselage frames were designed to be hand formed with a mallet over plywood form blocks. Simple aluminum angle extrusions are used for stringers and longerons. The main wing spar caps are made from 1/4 "U" channel on top and a... ngle on bottom with flat sheet for spar webs. John Thorp designed the aircraft to be small, yet strong with excellent take-off and climb performance. The landing gear is a simple "A" frame of heavy wall 4130 steel tubing, heat treated to 180,000 lbs./sq. in. and bolted to the firewall with (3) 3/8" bolts. The engine mount is also attached to the "A" frame allowing landing stresses not to be transmitted directly to the fuselage. This landing gear system has proven to be rugged and durable. The T-18 incorporates the "flying tail" which John Thorp held the patent for. This design also incorporates a sliding bubble canopy, like a fighter style. The T-18 is a very historic aircraft. It was one of the first all metal homebuilts . It was the first homebuilt to use the stabilator or all-flying-tail. The stabilator was designed by John Thorp and was later used by Piper on their line of Cherokee aircraft. Today you can see the extensive use of this design on military aircraft. The T-18 was the first homebuilt aircraft to fly around the world . It was also the first homebuilt airplane to fly to both the geographic and magnetic north poles . The legendary Don Taylor completed all of these feats in the early 1970's. His famous T-18 is now on display in the EAA museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. T-18 plans are available again through Eklund Engineering. They are also developing a kit version, using laser cut parts and of course John Thorp's matched hole tooling concept. The laser cut parts are beautiful and it promises to be a wonderful kit.Read More