Wally Timm (August 8, 1896 – April 29, 1978) was an American aircraft designer, pilot and manufacturer.

Early life

Wally Timm was born in

Lakefield, Minnesota Lakefield is a city in Jackson County, Minnesota, Jackson County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,694 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History Lakefield was laid out in 1879, when the railroad was extended to that poi ...

, and with his family moved to

Windom, Minnesota Windom is a city in Cottonwood County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 4,646 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cottonwood County and is situated in the Coteau des Prairies. Although it is a small, rural farming commu ...

. He worked closely alongside his brother

Otto Timm Otto William Timm (October 28, 1893 – June 29, 1978) was a California-based barnstormer and aircraft manufacturer of German descent. Charles Lindbergh's first flight was flown by Timm. Timm partnered at times with his brother Wally Timm who di ...

in the early days of aviation and was a pioneer in Hollywood films.

Aviation career

Timm started in aviation as early as 1910. Along with his brothers, Otto and Reuben, he first moved to

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

before relocating in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

. Timm began to work as a mechanic, servicing aircraft for Al Wilson, an exhibition pilot, in exchange for flying lessons. He briefly became a wing-walker, but mainly flew when Wilson performed as a wing-walker. In 1920, Timm's piloting skills were noted for flying an outdated biplane with a

Curtiss OX-5 The Curtiss OX-5 was an early V-8 American liquid-cooled aircraft engine built by Curtiss. It was the first American-designed aircraft engine to enter mass production, although it was considered obsolete when it did so in 1917.Smith, 1981, page ...

engine from Los Angeles to Bishop California over the mountains and desert. Trying his hand at air racing, Timm entered the Winter Air Tournament held in December 1920 at Daugherty Municipal Field in Long Beach. The events included a 100-mile free-for-all and a 60-mile handicap race in which Timm took third place in a 1916 biplane built by Eddie Barnhart. Timm joined Mercury Aviation in 1920 as an instructor, although he began to be in demand to fly for the nascent Hollywood film industry. In 1922, Timm and Ruel Short dismantled and relocated one of the

Chaplin Chaplin may refer to: People * Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director * Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin Films * '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983) * ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992) * ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...

Airfield buildings to

Santa Monica Airport Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica Municipal Airport) is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is about from the Pacific Ocean (Santa Monica Bay) and north of Los Angeles International Airp ...

to serve as a hangar for Timm's next ventures.

Flying for Hollywood

In the 1920s, Timm began to fly as one of the pilots that performed "stunts" in Hollywood productions, joining

Paul Mantz Albert Paul Mantz (August 2, 1903 – July 8, 1965) was a noted air racing pilot, movie stunt pilot and consultant from the late 1930s until his death in the mid-1960s. He gained fame on two stages: Hollywood and in air races. Early years Ma ...

and Frank Clarke as highly sought-out talent. One of Timm's early movie stunts involved launching a tethered

Curtiss JN-4 The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for th ...

from the Los Angeles Railway building for the movie '' Stranger than Fiction'' (1921). Timm was only the aircraft assembler and rope cutter on the unauthorized launch. In 1930, Wally and his brother worked with Al Wilson, another early movie stunt pilot, modifying aircraft for the epic 1930

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

movie '' Hell's Angels''. Wally and his brother Otto constructed a replica of a 1900 vintage

Gustave Whitehead Gustave Albin Whitehead (born Gustav Albin Weisskopf; 1 January 1874 – 10 October 1927) was an aviation pioneer who emigrated from Germany to the United States where he designed and built gliders, flying machines, and engines between 1897 an ...

aircraft for the 1938 movie '' Men with Wings.

Aviation manufacturing

In 1934, Wally and his brother Otto joined to form a new company named the Timm Airplane Company at Glendale Airport, to produce the Timm T-S140. The design featured a high wing, powered by twin engines, using new features developed at

NACA The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...

such as flaps and tricycle landing gear. Timm formed the Wally Timm Company in Glendale, California. He purchased the rights to the

Kinner Sportwing The Kinner Sportwing was a 1930s American light monoplane built by Kinner Airplane & Motor Corporation. Design and development The Sportwing was an improved version of the companies earlier Sportster designed by Max Harlow. An enlarged four-se ...

, a side-by-side monoplane training aircraft, and modified it as a tandem-seat trainer to compete for the

Civilian Pilot Training Program The Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was a flight training program (1938–1944) sponsored by the United States government with the stated purpose of increasing the number of civilian pilots, though having a clear impact on military prepare ...

buildup prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The

Timm Aerocraft 2AS The Aerocraft 2AS is a tandem-seat training aircraft developed from the Kinner Sportwing. Design and development Timm formed the Wally Timm Company in Glendale, California. He purchased the rights to the Kinner Sportwing, a side-by-side monopl ...

lost out to a Fairchild design. Wallace Timm

Later years

After World War II, Timm became a distributor for

Taylorcraft Taylorcraft Aviation is an airplane manufacturer that has been producing aircraft for more than 70 years in several locations. The company builds small single-engined airplanes. The Taylorcraft design is a conventional layout: high-wing, fab ...

aircraft at

Whiteman Airport Whiteman Airport (previously known as Whiteman Air Park) is a general aviation airport in the northeastern San Fernando Valley community of Pacoima, in the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The airport was founded as Whiteman Air ...

in California, as well as partnering with Norman Larson in Seattle to sell

Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general avi ...

aircraft. One of their modified Beechcraft Bonanza's, the "Waikiki Beach", was piloted on a world record flight by Bill Odom and is displayed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Timm remained an active pilot into the late 1950s. In his later years, Timm was remembered as a "cultured, refined gentleman of the old school." He died on April 29, 1978 (aged 81) at El Cajon, California.Wynne 1987, p. 164.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Hansen, James R. ed. ''The Wind and Beyond: A Documentary Journey Into the History of Aerodynamics, Volume I: The Ascent of the Airplane''. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2003. * Juptner, Joseph P. ''U.S. Civil Aircraft Series, Volume 8''. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 1993. . * Kelly, Shawna. ''Aviators in Early Hollywood'' (Images of America: California). Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2008. . * Underwood, John. ''Grand Central Air Terminal (CA)'' (Images of Aviation). Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2006. . * Wynne, H. Hugh. ''The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies.'' Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1987. .

External links

The Wally Timm Company

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Timm, Wally 1896 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American engineers Aviators from California Aviators from Minnesota Wing walkers People from Jackson County, Minnesota People from Windom, Minnesota