In the world of aviation, some names fade with time — others leave contrails that never dissipate. Andre Tomalino is one of the latter.
A glider pilot with the Army Air Corps during World War II, Andre returned home and did what real aviators often do — he got back in the air. In 1945, he founded Paramount Air Service, a banner-towing outfit based in New Jersey.
For decades, it served as both a fixture of the summer shoreline and a launchpad for aspiring pilots. Many of us cut our teeth on the taildraggers he kept flying, gaining skills, confidence, and character under his wing.
Andre was more than a great pilot — he was a mentor, a storyteller, and a purist when it came to stick-and-rudder flying. He had little time for jets. “Jets are for kids,” he’d say with a wry smile, handing out T-shirts bearing the phrase to his pilots — many of whom would go on to fly everything from corporate Gulfstreams to airliners. But we all knew what he meant. Real pilots, he believed, learned their craft low and slow, in taildraggers.
Andre flew west in 2012 at the age of 91. When Paramount Air Service’s assets were sold and the company name retired ten years later, it quietly marked the end of an era. But not the end of Andre’s legacy.
In 2025, when I launched Taildraggers.com — a community and marketplace devoted entirely to tailwheel flying — there was only one phrase I felt worthy of our banner: Jets Are For Kids.
I didn’t coin it. Andre Tomalino did. And I want to be clear about that — because giving credit matters, especially in a community built on heritage, respect, and those who came before us. Using that phrase to represent Taildraggers.com is my way of honoring Andre, his values, and the timeless appeal of tailwheel aviation.
Andre Tomalino launched the careers of hundreds of pilots by giving them their very first flying job.
I am honored to be one of those pilots. He left a mark not just on the beach towns of the Jersey coast, but on generations of aviators. His spirit lives on every time a taildragger lifts off a grass strip, rudder dancing, tail held high.
Here’s to Andre — a real pilot, a true original, and the man who reminded us all that Jets Are For Kids.
— Kevin Laufer
Founder, Taildraggers.com
Paramount Air Service, Class of 1995
