Design of the original
Little Toot was started by George Meyer in 1952. Along with drawings, a
scale model was built of the aircraft during the design phase. It was designed with
aerobatics in mind and is stressed for 10
g+/- loads. The
Little Toot is a single seat, open cockpit, biplane with
conventional landing gear. Its design accommodates an optional cockpit canopy. The
fuselage is welded steel tubing aluminum covering. The original tail section is a metal
monocoque truss section from a
Luscome 8A. The wings use
spruce spars with wooden
ribs and are
fabric covered. The upper wing is swept back eight degrees. The lower wing has 2.5 degrees of
dihedral with nearly full-length ailerons. The
landing gear and
wheel pants were sourced from a
Cessna 140 tail-dragger. The aircraft was named
Little Toot after the tugboat that liked doing figure eights in a Disney movie, itself based on
a children's story written and illustrated by Hardie Gramatky. ==Operational history==