Posted Friday, Sep. 02, 2011 BY PATRICK M. WALKER
pwalker@arlingtoncitizen-journal.com
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Jim Doyle, an airframe stress engineer for Lockheed Martin, is one of two pilots from Arlington to receive a prestigious award recently for building or restoring a biplane. The other, Phil Witt, is a quality assurance engineer for Triumph Aerostructures-Vought Aircraft Division who is on assignment in China.
In late July, the men won bronze Lindy awards at the Experimental Aircraft Association's fly-in convention, AirVenture, in Oshkosh, Wis. Gold, silver and bronze Lindys were awarded in 11 categories, from homebuilt and vintage aircraft to warbirds and ultralights. More than 2,500 planes were eligible for the top awards, of which fewer than 75 were given.
The men's awards came in the plans category: Doyle for his 2010 Skybolt and Witt for his 1961 Meyer's Little Toot. As Witt put it, the award "is the biggest recognition my plane and a person like me can receive from the aviation community. This is our Super Bowl, and I got a ring."
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The Little Toot
Like Doyle, whom he has not yet met, Witt's fascination with flying began at an early age with model airplanes and then advanced to large-scale radio-controlled airplanes.
"The normal progression would be to build and fly the real thing, and that's what I did," says Witt, who was born in Fort Worth but soon moved to Arlington, where he graduated from Sam Houston High School in 1970.
He became working partners with Tommy Meyer of Meyer Aircraft in Flower Mound, the son of the designer and builder of the original Meyer's Little Toot.
The amateur-built plane, which first flew in 1957, is named for the then-popular Disney character, Little Toot the Tugboat.
Witt's plane, nicknamed Tinker Bell, was originally built entirely by hand in 1961. It is a single-seat aerobatic biplane with a Lycoming 160-horsepower engine. It weighs 955 pounds and has a wingspan of 19 feet 6 inches.
Because of his China assignment, Witt, 60, knew that he wouldn't be able to fly his plane to Oshkosh this year. A close friend came to the rescue, volunteering to fly Tinker Bell to AirVenture.
"What a stroke of luck that was because if it were not for him, the prize would not be mine today," Witt said. "I can't thank all my friends enough for the help in getting my plane to Oshkosh."
He plans to retire when he returns from overseas in March, but he won't be hard to find.
"I am sure I will spend many more hours at Meyer Aircraft doing what I love the most," he says, "building and flying airplanes."
Patrick M. Walker, 817-390-7423
LJ: for the record, it was Bill "Rocks" Lightstone who flew Phil's Tinker Bell to Oshkosh, accompanied in a group of 4 Little Toots with Gary Platner, Russ Keith and Stan Graham; plus Tommy Meyer providing much unheralded assistance to all.
