Though he’s spent the last two decades designing missiles for the Navy, the Kodiak for Quest Aircraft and has become the world leader in composite float production at Aerocet, Tom Hamilton still stands out in the homebuilt community for what he accomplished with the Glasair and GlaStar series of airplane kits. Tom’s talents with a pencil and slide rule, along with his youth and entrepreneurial spirit, led to a high volume of kit sales.
After Tom received a degree in business, he went into the science side of schooling for dentistry, but soon realized “That clearly wasn’t what I was being called for.” He switched over to aeronautical engineering in a non-matriculating manner. “I studied specifically for designing an aircraft that I could end up flying. Following some wind tunnel tests at the University, my dad was gracious enough to let me start the building process in his garage.”
