His well conceived, innovative aircraft designs have stood the test of time.

By Amy Laboda

The first time I saw a Thorp T-18 it was like seeing a ghost. I recognized little details in the meticulously constructed side-by-side, two-place, all metal, low-wing homebuilt, including flush dimpled rivets and an intriguing flying tail (stabilator) I’d not recalled seeing on a taildragger. I wanted to know more about its designer. The builder, an elderly gentleman, smiled mysteriously and said, “Sure you know it. You fly Piper Cherokees, right?” I laughed. As a flight instructor I had logged my fair share of time in Piper Cherokee 140s, Warriors, Archers and Arrows over the years. “Well,” he said, “John Thorp had a hand in designing those, too.”

In fact, Thorp, with his former employer, Lockheed, held the patent on the “all-flying” tail. Instead of a traditional horizontal stabilizer and elevator combination, a flying tail’s one-piece stabilator moves and changes its angle of attack to the airflow, giving the airplane comfortably…

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