How it all Began

Brian began modelling in the austere times after the Second World War, mainly carving them from solid wood. He progressed to making his first ‘real’ model of a rubber powered Hellcat. “Not a pretty model, but it was always one of my favourites.” he said. “I built it OK but it didn’t fly that well.”

He continued modelling solid scale models but, when out driving with his wife, he spied a Spitfire in flight at a disused airfield. This was being flown with Galloping Ghost radio and it fired his interest again. Aged twentyfive he acquired his first engine, an ED Baby diesel for a free flight model, before moving on to a Veron Robot a 45-inch model, trainer and later a single-channel Keil Kraft Super 60. Brian then decided that the way to go for him was to design models and build them from his own plans. The main reason for this was his ambition to make scale models. The first he produced was a Tiger Moth; “It would be classed as semi-scale nowadays, but it flew well and gave me great pleasure.” said Brian.

From that he progressed to design the range of scale models he has become renowned for. There are very few clubs that do not have a member flying or have flown a Brian Taylor Spitfire for instance. He made the mouldings for all the kits, producing the fibreglass items himself. Spinners and some other parts were sourced locally.

The highlight of his flying career came when he placed second at the F4C Scale World Championships held in Sweden in 1976. At home he was the National Scale Champion on no less that eight occasions. The first of his wins was with a 60-inch span Corsair with fixed undercarriage, which he says would be unthinkable these days. The last of his National wins was with a Blenheim twin.

These days his flying is limited but he is still building for himself. He began an Avro Anson a while back and is completing that at the moment. A Lancaster is also on the stocks part built, waiting to be completed in the future. Unfortunately these latest designs won’t be available.

From the foregoing you can see that Brian Taylor’s plans have an excellent provenance and by adding them to our range in the Traplet Plans Service, we can ensure that they and the accessories, will remain available to the discerning modeller who wants to produce superb faithful reproductions of the full size aircraft.

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