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 did a lot of flying for the nascent Hollywood movie industry.

Timm was born on October 28, 1893, in Lakefield and spent a few years in Windom, Minnesota before moving to pursue aviation. By the age of 19, he had established himself as a pioneer aviator.

Timm originally started in the aviation field in 1910 when he attempted to build a copy of the Santos Dumont "Demoiselle" monoplane while living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, although it appears this was never completed. The next year he moved to Cicero Field in Chicago, where a group of aviation enthusiasts had gathered. In Chicago, he built a copy of the Curtiss Pusher, which flew in 1911. Timm started a business flying the aircraft in Pennsylvania with a partner. Timm then built another design under contract for the Grinnell Aeroplane Company in 1915, later flying it at town fairs around the mideastern region during the summer of 1916. Later, on April 16 and 17, Lindbergh, as a student pilot, had two more flights with Timm. The two remained friends, and when Timm built another Curtiss Pusher for film use in 1925, Lindbergh later bought it and stunt flew it during the 1928 International Air Tournament. He built another one off design in 1926, the two place monoplane Collegiate. Timm changed the name to Timm Aircraft Company in May 1934, and introduced the Timm T S140, a high wing monoplane twin engine design. In 1965, Timm was contacted by the TallMantz company to design a "one off" movie model called the Tallmantz Phoenix P 1 which had a short and tragic lifespan, being involved in the death of its pilot, Paul Mantz. Timm died on June 29, 1978, two months to the day after his younger brother Wally.