Harry J. Thalman: born 25 March 1911 at Challis, Idaho, USA.

George Yates of Beaverton, Oregon had been the mentor of Harry J. Thalman’s designs, Yates had been wooden geodetic construction pioneer, Thalman made several trips from Salt Lake City to Beaverton to learn about geodetic construction techniques from from Yates.

Thalman and Player were joined by a third geodetic aircraft builder – John Greenleaf of Portland, OR, to form the Plxweve Aircraft Company in 1940. Greenleaf then arranged financing through Ralph Hemphill of Los Angeles. As a result, the Plxweve Aircraft Co. became a division of another Hemphill-controlled firm – Aero Industries Technical Institute, Incorporated (Aero ITI). Ralph Hemphill became President of the Plexweve division but refused further investment. The money was run through quickly and much legal wrangling ensued.

The T-3 had first flown in 1941

At some point, the partners went their separate ways. In 1949, Harry formed Thalman Aircraft Inc. at Salt Lake City. In the same year, he designed the Talman T-4 which, flew in 1951.

By 1957 Thalman Aircraft Corp. had relocated to Mount Pleasant, UT, with plans to establish T-4 production there. In a letter to Flying Magazine (March 1957, pages 6 & 8), Mount Pleasant resident Rex C. Staker writes that the production T-4 was to be offered with 150-, 170-, or 180 hp engines. According to Aerofiles, Thalman Aircraft also took over a concept from Van Nuys-based ATS (Aircraft Technical Services Inc., Floyd E. Snow) in 1959. That ATS design was described as a 4-place mid-winged cabin monoplane (“reportedly 50 percent complete”).Thalman Aircraft then began reworking this laminar-flow winged design as a “twin-engine development”.

By 1960, Thalman Aircraft Corp. was doing business as Thalman Industries (sometimes given as Thalman Aircraft Industries). However, the firm was now planning to relocate to Roseburg, OR – 900 miles to the west. Roseburg businessman Lynn Andreas had become president and it was Andreas who was announcing the construction of a new factory on 5 acres of leased land at the Roseburg municipal airport. Early reports said that site ground preparation work had begun and that a “plywood plane” would be built. Harry Thalman is quoted, saying that his aircraft will sell for less than $14,000.

According to local media reports, the production type’s structure – under its fiberglass shell – would be an aluminum honeycomb. That jives with an article in Sport Aviation August 1961 – Geodetic Aircraft Structure by Keith D. Powell, EAA. On page 22, Powell writes that Thalman was “now working on another midwing featuring a plastic bonded honeycomb sandwich airframe.” Reportedly, circa 1958, Harry began losing interest in geodetic structures. Lynn Andreas was also president of the Oregon Red Cedar Co.

Contemporary reports say that Thalman was “working on a fifth model which will include a number of modifications, such as a more powerful motor, sweptback tail assembly, and electrically-operated landing gear and flaps.” These all sound like sensible updated for a production variant. But the The News-Review report says that an “all-hydraulic retractable landing gear” was to equip the production type. Needless to say, that Roseburg factory never materialized. In the early ’60s, some airport was holding the parked Thalman T-4 until storage fees in the order of $800 were paid.

By 1963, Harry Thalman was working as a mechanic for Kelsey-Ellis Air Service at Salt Lake City Airport. The T-4 was in storage (and possibly disassembled by then) but Harry was still flying the T-3B. On 15 March 1963, Harry was doing flying cross-country when he flew into a blinding snowstorm. Harry Thalman died instantly when he crashed his T-3B monoplane in a gully outside of Grantsville, UT.

Harry J. Thalman: died 15 March 1963.