Hutto man pilots model aircraft company

When Hutto resident Daniel Brett called Williams Brothers Model Products looking for a part for his scale model plane, he was told the company was going out of business. He asked where he would get the part from now, since the company was the only one that made it.

"Why don't you buy us out?" he was asked.

Following that advice, he put in a modest bid, thinking it would never be enough to purchase the company.

But in December 2004 he received a call that the owners, the Williams family, had voted to give the business to Brett because he was the only one they trusted to honor the company's values.

"It worked out really good," he said. "All of a sudden—surprise—I'm in business. It was kind of a shock."

Brett loaded two big rigs with Williams Brothers equipment and set off for Taylor, where he would begin the new iteration of the company in a leased warehouse. He has since moved the company into a facility on Limmer Loop near Veterans Hill Elementary School in the Hutto ETJ.

His company manufactures scale model aircraft kits and parts. Brett's Williams Brothers Model Products, incorporated in 2006, retained the name of the storied business and the product line. But he said he has made a few tweaks, such as a more realistic-looking tire for some of the German and British model aircraft.

Brett said the Williams brothers—Larry and Granger, who began the company in 1960—did not create molds for any aircraft built after 1939.

World War I aircraft are Williams Brothers' niche, Brett said. He is hoping to branch out into World War II models.

"World War I ... is only about 2 percent of the marketplace," he said. "It gives us a nice niche But we're having to expand our niches."

P.O. Box 878, Hutto, 512-846-1243, www.williamsbrothersmodelproducts.com