January 2009 179
ESTABLISHED IN 1969, the Model Aviation Hall of Fame
honors those men and women who have made significant
contributions to the sport of aeromodeling.
The list of members is long and distinguished. These people
have made contributions to model aviation through volunteer or
administrative activities, product development, competition
performance, or a variety or combination of activities.
The Hall of Fame Selection Committee is composed of past
AMA presidents and one Hall of Fame member selected from
each of the 11 districts by the respective vice presidents.
Each year a new class is inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame and the winners are announced in MA. Anyone may
submit a Hall of Fame nomination form.
For a nomination form or further information, contact Jackie
Shalberg at (765) 287-1256, ext. 511, or find the current form
online at www.modelaircraft.org, document 152.
The committee has selected the following people for the 2008
Model Aviation Hall of Fame.
Modell Aviiattiion Hallll off Fame
Cllassss off 2008
Ralph N. Andrae
Ralph Andrae is possibly best
remembered for inventing and patenting a
retractable landing gear for RC models.
Ralph was born in Chicago in 1938.
Growing up near O’Hare Airport, he spent
many hours
sitting in a
field adjacent
to the airport
watching the
aircraft of the
day come and
go. At the age
of 8, Ralph
was already
designing
airplanes,
little knowing
that he would
someday
make a living
with his knowledge of the hobby and
innovative mind.
The American Art Institute of Design in
Chicago is where Ralph honed his drafting
and design talents. He became a design
engineer for Bastian Blessing Company, a
company specializing in the design and
building of commercial restaurants. He
worked with the team that developed kitchen
equipment for McDonalds.
With drafting facilities available at the
company, Ralph was able to create the
blueprints for the scale model aircraft plans
he sold to hobbyists of the time and later used
to launch his career in the hobby industry. He
advertised his T.B.F. Avenger plans in Model
Airplane News, then went on to draw and sell
plans for a number of scale World War II
models including the A-30 Baltimore
Bomber, the F4F Wildcat, and the Zero
fighter.
By 1967 Ralph had purchased a building
in Morton Grove, Illinois, and was able to
turn his endeavors into a full-time operation:
Wing Manufacturing. He developed and
patented the first operating retract system for
model aircraft and sold nearly 250,000 retract
sets before the patent expired.
Ralph began developing and selling foam
wings for the main line kits on the market. He
also began producing the “Short Kit,”
providing the hard-to-duplicate aircraft parts
such as the cowl, canopy, wingtips, landing
gear wire, etc., along with plans and
instructions. The short kits included a number
of warbirds and Ralph sold thousands.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force approached
Ralph to develop Remotely Piloted Vehicles
(RPVs) for use as target drones and
surveillance aircraft. He had to construct a
launch system for the airplanes since they had
no landing gear.
Other products developed by Ralph
included a wheel-well cover door hinge and a
“T” type control horn with three mounting
screws instead of two to allow the force of
the load to be centered over the mounting
screws, eliminating the twist that sometimes
occurred on other control-horn designs.
Ralph designed and built all of the
machinery needed to produce his products.
He developed a hobbyist line of hot-wire
foam cutting equipment that he also sold to
architectural firms, upholstery businesses,
and the general public.
Aircraft Ralph developed included an 80-
inch B-25, an HP 200 short kit, and displayonly
versions of the Beaver bush plane that
sold to a liquor company for advertising
purposes. He came out with a low-priced AT-
6 Texan kit, sponsored several local Pylon
races, and even sold the engines at cost so
everyone would have the same engine.
Ralph was a member of the Spoon River
Flyers in Maquon, Illinois, and the Galesburg
Flyers Association. He was an active
participant in the Stearman Fly-In every year.
Ralph and his Hall of Fame sponsor, Sid
Davis, were planning an RC event that would
run separate from the Stearman Fly-In when
Ralph died from heart failure in 1999.
Nearly every year since his passing, Sid
and others have honored Ralph with the
Ralph Andrea Memorial Fly Day to keep his
legacy alive.
Dave Brown
Former AMA president Dave Brown was
exposed to aviation at an early age. His father
ran a small airport and flying school when he
was young. “Infatuated with airplanes,” Dave
wrote, “I got my first gas model in about
1951, a Wen Mac Control Line model, which
didn’t last long (one flight) and was replaced
with the first of many Scientific models. I
also got, from the boyfriend of one of my
older sisters, a Brown Junior engine and,
most significantly, a large stack of model
magazines (about a one and a half foot pile).”
In later years Dave joined a newly formed
CL club in Brockton, Massachusetts, and
flew with that club until he entered the
service in 1966. He competed in many
contests and “although I was a very
enthusiastic
competitor, I
wasn’t a very
good one,”
Dave wrote.
“Trophies
were few and
far between. I
still remember
my first
trophy in, of
all classes, CL
Scale at
Topsfield,
followed the
next day with one in CL Stunt.”
In 1966, while still flying CL, Dave
married his wife, Sally, and moved into a
house on Pleasant Street in West
Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Diagonally
across the street lived the president of the
local RC club, and next door to him,
diagonally to the left, was the local basement
RC shop. In a matter of weeks Dave was into
RC with a little Schoolgirl biplane and a
single-channel Controlaire Mule.
Shortly afterward he was drafted and
ultimately enlisted in the Army. Dave was
eventually transferred to Germany and
continued to hone his RC skills, learning the
FAI schedule. When transferred back to the
US in late 1969, he flew in his first RC
contest in San Antonio, Texas, where he
entered Class D Novice (now the Expert
Class) because it used the maneuvers from
the FAI schedule and he didn’t know the
maneuvers for any of the lower classes.
Dave surprised everyone by placing
second at that contest and in his next one in
Marshall, Texas, a couple of weeks later.
Bolstered by his success, Dave went to that
year’s Nats and placed first in Class D
Novice. Booted up to the next level of
competition, Dave waited awhile for his next
win.
Discharged from service in 1970, Dave
began working at World Engines in Ohio as a
toolmaker. He found that competition was
much stiffer in the Midwest with fliers such
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as Don Lowe, Norm Page, Alan Dupler,
Dean Koger, Ivan Christensen, and later
Mark Radcliff and Tony Frackowiak
competing weekly. Don Lowe became
Dave’s mentor
Many competitors spent much time
designing and developing a “secret weapon”
airplane, but Dave was among the first to put
so much emphasis on properly trimming the
models, often taking as much as 100 flights to
get it into proper trim before he flew it in a
contest.
Competitively Dave did well throughout
his career. He was among the first to be
invited to the Tournament of Champions and
in 1975 he made his first US World
Championships team, placing third overall.
He flew in five subsequent World
Championships, collecting three individual
Silvers and one Bronze, and several Gold
team awards.
In 1979 Dave Brown Products began in
the basement of his house. As the company
grew, Dave eventually built its current
building and introduced the first RC flight
simulator. Premiering at the 1985 WRAM
Show, it was an instant hit, and eventually the
idea of using a simulator as training was
accepted as the best way to speed the training
of a new RC flier.
When good friend and mentor, Don
Lowe, was elected District III Vice President,
Don appointed Dave to the AMA Contest
Board. Don stayed on as vice president
through 1979 when Dave ran for and was
elected to the position of AMA District III
vice president.
Dave’s interest turned toward the financial
aspects of AMA’s management. He promoted
a finance committee, which he ended up
chairing. Working with the treasurer and the
controller, this committee started the process
of updating the management of AMA’s
finances and was instrumental in the ability
of AMA to purchase its first (owned)
headquarters building in Reston, Virginia.
Dave was later elected as executive vice
president, which made him AMA’s chief
financial officer.
In 1995, Dave was elected AMA president
and remained in that post throughout 2007.
He served on the AMA Executive Council for
25 years and credits much of his success to his
wife, Sally. “None of what I have
accomplished could have been done without
her as an equal partner in the effort. She,
above all, is my rock,” Dave wrote.
Scott Christensen
Born in Minnesota, Scott Christensen was
approximately 6 years old when he and his
modeler father, George, purchased and built a
54-inch Comet Taylorcraft kit to build. Scott
was 10 when he designed and built his first
airplane: an 18-inch, shoulder wing aircraft.
He flew it for the entire summer before losing
it in a never-before-encountered phenomena:
a thermal!
Following a stint in the Air Force, Scott
settled in the Bay Area near San Francisco,
joined the Pioneer R/C club, and began flying
RC. He wrote, “I was very lucky to be able to
fly with a lot of really good and well-known
modelers such as Ken Willard, George
Steiner, Joe Foster, and Whitey Pritchard,
etc.”
Scott was asked to do some preliminary
work with a new product: MonoKote. He
covered
several
models with
the not-yetreleased
product, and
reported his
findings to
Ken Willard
and Top Flite
Models.
“Little did I
know what a
gigantic
product this
would represent to modelers everywhere and
what this small amount of work would mean
to my future career.”
He fell in with modelers who were
involved in sailplanes and designed his first
sailplane: the Pylonious.
In the winter of 1968, Scott and a group of
these fliers got together and formulated a
sailplane program loosely based on the
Diamond Program in full-scale soaring. The
four originators of the program included
Scott, Duane Hyer, Keith Brewster, and Le
Gray. They felt that if this program could be
presented nationally, it would offer a set of
goals to individual fliers as well as expedite
sailplane technology. The League of Silent
Flight (LSF) was born.
The program offered five levels of
accomplishment, each more difficult as the
flier progressed. At the time the levels were
written, equipment, batteries, and airframes
weren’t even available to allow a pilot to
accomplish Level Four or Five. They
assumed correctly that individuals and
manufacturers would meet the challenge and
develop what equipment was needed.
LSF remains a large and viable Special
Interest Group recognized by AMA,
representing the soaring community.
Scott was also involved in another type of
aeromodeling: seaplanes. He developed a
flying boat design named the Curlew. The
highly successful inverted V-hulled model
was published as a design article in RCM.
Another float-equipped aircraft, the Warlock,
soon followed. A few years later, Scott was
offered a position as a design engineer for
Airtronics, a manufacturer that had been
purchased by Cox Hobbies.
“I worked directly for one of the finest
designers of all time, Mr. Lee Renaud,” Scott
wrote. “From a design standpoint, Lee gave
me a blank sheet of paper.”
In 1979 Scott received an offer to become
vice president for Top Flite Models in
Chicago. His responsibilities included newproduct
development including kits,
MonoKote, and ultimately the company’s
first ARF. In his 10 years at the company,
Scott was responsible for a number of
products including the Metrick, the Antares,
the Wristocrat, the Phasour, and more.
When Top Flite was sold to Hobbico,
Scott moved to Champaign, Illinois, as
director of product development. Two years
later he accepted an offer to work for
Hobbycraft Co., Inc., a company that offers
unique services to US hobby manufacturers.
The position allowed him to travel and
develop contacts worldwide; however, Scott
missed designing and creating models.
In 1999, Scott accepted an offer from Sig
Manufacturing, and was appointed director of
research and development. “My position at
Sig offers me the best of all worlds,” he
wrote. “For a lifelong modeler, such as
myself, working for Sig and being able to
positively contribute to their great product
line, represents everything I’ve ever wanted
and worked for in the hobby industry.”
Robert (Bob) Davis
Bob Davis is a lifetime modeler. His early
aircraft experience included the diesel-fueled
Drone Diesel engine marketed by Leon
Shulman. Bob’s nomination came from
longtime modeler and friend, Stu Richmond.
In 1975, Bob formed the Davis Diesel
Development
Corp., which
developed
Davis Diesel
Converters.
These
converters
were
precisionmanufactured
add-on units
for existing
glow-powered
models and
were first
demonstrated
at the 1975 Dayton Nationals. Bob’s
company also offers specially blended Davis
Diesel fuels.
A Davis Diesel Converter Head, placed
on a standard glow engine (in place of the
glow head that comes with the engine), offers
several advantages. The engine is quieter in
flight and will develop more usable power.
The power can be used to turn a larger, more
efficient propeller. The engine sucks in less
air and the venturi’s air sound is lessened.
The engine needs no glow plug.
Additionally, converting an engine to
diesel power generally extends the life of the
power plant. Model diesel fuel’s kerosene
adds natural lubricity to the engine.
Compared with an equal volume of standard
glow fuel, the kerosene will run longer and
yield more horsepower. The converters are
available for all popular glow engines.
Another division of Davis Diesel is
Carbonic Motors. This division has produced
the ultimate in quiet power, bringing CO2
technology to another level of usefulness.
This alternative to expensive, heavy electric
motors or winding rubber bands offers a
simple, reliable, quiet, and lightweight power
plant in larger, more usable sizes.
Davis Diesel’s CO2 motors and diesel-
MODEL AVIATION
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January 2009 181
conversion engines operate at sound levels
considerably lower than comparable gas
engines. Bob’s development of SoundMaster
mufflers, “soft” engine mounting, tuned
pipes, and a variety of other products are
significant contributions in the effort to
decrease the noise produced by model
aircraft.
Bob received AMA’s Technical
Achievement Award in 1990 for his many
contributions to model engine technology.
Robert “Bob” Fiorenze
Bob Fiorenze of Maitland, Florida, has
been involved in aeromodeling since 1958.
He is perhaps best known as the first to fly a
turbine-powered model aircraft (JPX
Turbine) in the United States. Bob was
appointed to AMA’s original Turbine Safety
Committee along with former AMA
president Don Lowe.
Bob has
held his FAA
A&P
Mechanics
Rating since
1969, and
earned his
pilot’s
license for
both
helicopters
and airplanes
in 1974. At
one time he
worked for a
major airline
and much
later Bob built his own helicopter, a 1997
Rotorway Exec 90 that won the Sun ’n Fun
Grand Champion prize. He described the
project on his Web site.
“On September 12, 1997, the first flights
were completed with the Rotorway Exec 90.
After many final adjustments and checks, the
Exec 90 was taken up to altitude and flown
around the airport area. This project has taken
a little over a year. There are many
enhancements not called for by the factory to
make this an exceptional bird. The Rotorway
puts a practical, low-cost helicopter within
the reach of someone who is willing to do the
assembly from kit form. It is a two-place
helicopter that runs on standard automotive
fuel and has about the same climb rate and
cruising speed of a Cessna 152. The
Rotorway of course will fly much slower and
land almost anywhere.”
Bob has been an active competitor in the
model aircraft field, winning the 1983 and
1985 Scale Nats with his A-4 Skyhawk
ducted-fan jet and his Black Bunny F-4
Phantom twin-ducted-fan jet respectively.
Flying an F-18 Hornet twin-ducted-fan jet,
Bob placed first in the 1988 US Scale
Masters, the 1989 Top Gun Invitational, and
the 1989 Scale Nats.
Nominated for the Model Aviation Hall of
Fame by Wallace Zober and Vinny
Caratozzolo, Bob is considered a model jet
legend, well-known for his high-speed, lowaltitude
passes. Considered a master builder
and flier, he is in great demand as a demo
pilot, performing during half-times and
breaks at air shows across the US.
His modeling interests are varied and in
addition to Scale and jets, he enjoys
helicopters, warbirds, and electrics. His
building and flying skills have received
recognition at contests, fly-ins, jet rallies, and
national events.
Bob currently owns Bob Fiorenze Model
Products, specializing in jets, electrics,
helicopters, and giant electric models.
Products sold include the T-38 Talon, his Air
Speed Indicator, and Proportional Hydraulic
Brakes. Bob also does test flying and
consulting work for Bob Violett Models.
As an accomplished author and
photographer, Bob has been a contributing
writer for a number of publications including
MA, RCM, Flying Models, and Scale R/C
Modeler.
David Gray
David Gray is credited with inventing and
flying the first RC helicopter in 1970. The
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum has David’s original model on
display.
David began modeling early, building his
first model aircraft—a 25¢ F6F Hellcat—
when he was only 7 years old. Because of the
scarcity of material during World War II,
David began designing and building his own
models, often with better results than what
was offered at the time.
His family moved to Michigan, and in the
garage of their new
house, David
discovered a box
full of built-up,
rubber-powered
airplanes and an old
Rodgers engine. He
rebuilt one of the
airplanes—a 36-
inch Stuka—and
flew it with great
success.
A comic strip
called Tim Tylers
Luck piqued
David’s interest in radio-controlled models.
To be able to fly an airplane without wires
and actually control it with radio signals was
far more science fiction than reality at the
time, but it became David’s goal.
This desire led to experiments with
electric-powered airplanes, cars, and boats.
Fueled with a hand-held lantern battery and
tethered with fine strands of copper wire, the
models were steered with actuators and
escarpments.
In 1958 David married and began
working for various electrical supply firms,
adding to his knowledge of electrical motors.
In 1963, he moved back to Michigan, took a
part-time job with Glass City models, and
was excited to actually get paid for
fabricating parts and assembling pulse radio
equipment!
Two years later David started his own
company, Airtrol, where he designed and
marketed an improved pulse-radio system.
Throughout he was experimenting with radiocontrolled
models from cars to autogyros, and
helicopters began to interest him more.
Dave began experimenting with foam and
plastic aircraft and building his own vacuumforming
machines. He left Airtrol to join Jim
Merrill and open a new business called
Gramer Plastics, which produced foam
aircraft and packaging products for the
automotive industry.
David’s helicopter prototypes began to
show results. In 1970 at the RC show in
Cincinnati, Ohio, he demonstrated his .40-
powered RC helicopter which made the cover
of Model Airplane News. This model is
housed at the Smithsonian.
Dewey Broberg, president of Du-Bro,
asked to buy manufacturing rights from
David. Within several months David and his
family moved to Mundelein, Illinois, and he
began working for Du-Bro to further develop
his helicopter design. After much work and
numerous setbacks, the Du-Bro Whirley Bird
505 was produced.
The Whirley Bird enjoyed great success
and David began working on a larger, betterflying
aircraft. The semiscale Hughes 300,
powered by a 1.34 cu. in. O & R engine, was
the result. Easier to fly and more realistic
looking, the Hughes 300 led to the design of
two more helicopters: the .40-powered Tri-
Star and the Shark .60.
David and his helicopters have been
featured in numerous publications including
Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, Popular
Mechanics, and Flying Models. He has
continued to work with Du-Bro, designing
equipment for the aeromodeling industry, and
is still an integral part of the company’s
design team.
Donald J. McGovern
The late Don McGovern began modeling
in 1939. By the time he was 10 years old,
Don was designing and building his own
aircraft. By age 12, he had begun submitting
articles to modeling magazines, and a few
years later they were being published.
Perhaps best known as the editor of
Flying Models magazine from 1953 to 1979,
Don was also a competitor and prolific
designer. He designed the Custom Privateer
Seaplane that was kitted by Berkeley Models.
Nicknamed “McGovern’s Monster,” the
nearly 10-foot-wingspan aircraft was
considered
the largest
seaplane ever
built and
flown at that
time and the
largest ever
kitted.
Don
designed a
series of
smaller
Privateer
models,
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including the Navigator that was kitted by
Jetco Hobbies and several other designs
kitted by Berkeley. Enterprise Models kitted
Don’s 30-inch CL twin-rudder Pirate.
“He would always say, ‘Build with
‘NAG,’” wrote Jim O’Brien, Don’s sponsor
for the Hall of Fame. “NAG meant ‘no air
gap.’ He drew plans for all of his designs the
same way.”
Don wrote hundreds of articles, covering
topics including the National Aeromodeling
Championships, product reviews, others’
designs, and his own models. He became
editor of Flying Models in 1953 and
published more than 70 of his own designs.
As Berkeley’s chief designer, Don was
known for his hand-inked plans that attracted
so many modelers to the company’s kits. His
plans, easily hundreds, were accurate and
extremely detailed, making them easy for
modelers to understand and construct.
Every model Don built contained
hundreds of sticks and stringers. He didn’t
use planking and plywood, and relied on a
single-edge razor for cutting. “Can you
imagine building McGovern’s Monster with
little more than a razor blade?” wrote Jim.
“It was Don’s whole focus to get more
people involved in the hobby. He was a
person who did not seek notoriety.”
Along with a number of others, Don was
responsible for introducing Jim to
aeromodeling. “He took me almost
everywhere he went if it was related to
modeling and taught me almost every one of
his building secrets,” Jim wrote. “He told me
that I needed to teach others and he even
made me shake hands on that.”
Jim was mentored by Don for several
years, learning about FF, CL, and the
fledgling radio-control flight. Although Don
eventually moved to a larger house to
accommodate his growing family, the two
never lost touch. He left Jim with a thorough
building legacy, but much more.
“Don was one of the most devoted and
meticulous modelers I have ever met,” wrote
Jim. “Everyone who met Don took an instant
liking to him. He contributed significantly to
the growth of all facets of modeling, and in
some small way, we’re better today because
of his efforts.”
James Messer
How do you make a grown man cry?
According to Jim Messer of Sebring, Florida,
it’s easy.
“You get him to fly his airplane at the
noon-time air show in front of 1,000
spectators, and while he is doing that—with
his back turned to the audience—you
assemble his family, and all the pilots around
the announcer’s stand. Of course, without
any eyes in the back of his head, he has no
idea of what is going on behind him. Then
when he lands, and turns around, you call
him to the announcer’s stand. Gary Fitch,
DVP [AMA vice president] of District II
then announces to the world that he has just
been inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame class of 2008.”
Nominated
by Gary Fitch,
on behalf of
the Southern
Tier Aero
Radio Society
(STARS), Jim
is a
competitor,
designer,
leader, and a
teacher. Jim
has been
involved in
model aviation nearly his entire life. He
began in 1937 with 10¢ rubber band models
including the Stinson 105, Fokker D.VII, and
his favorite, the 25¢ Phantom Fury.
He built his first gas model—a Comet
Zipper—in 1941, the same year he joined
AMA and the Olean Model Airplane club in
southwestern New York State, which became
the STARS club when RC became
prominent.
Jim competed in FF contests across the
Northeast placing well and winning many.
During the 1970 Nats, he placed second out
of 583 contestants who flew that day. He
placed first in subsequent Nats in Old-Timer
airplanes and competed in CL Speed and
Stunt.
Jim was one of the first to venture into RC
model airplanes. In 1955 he purchased a
Citizenship radio, started a model shop, and
began designing and kitting aircraft. His
major achievement in this area was designing
a ¼-scale Bristol Scout. There were no
premade components for an aircraft this size,
so Jim, with the help of five other STARS
members who were building like models,
developed all of the components to make the
Giant Scale Scouts functional and
trustworthy.
Educated as a mechanical engineer, Jim
designed a geared drive train that coupled
twin .60 engines to try to fly the large model.
Eventually they employed the Quadra .35
engine, carved their own propellers for the
models, and the new Bristol Scout Squadron
took to the air.
The squadron became famous after an
appearance at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
meet, and Jim and his fellow STARS
launched the Giant Scale movement as we
know it today. Because of the STARS
members’ involvement in Giant Scale, in
2005, the Academy of Model Aeronautics
recognized the STARS flying field as an
AMA Historic Landmark.
Jim saw the coming demand for Giant
Scale models and expanded his model shop
into a world-wide mail order business named
Jim Messer’s Quality Model Products. The
business flourished and Jim even designed
and marketed his own line of ¼-scale kits.
He sold the business in 1991 and retired
to Florida, but Jim never stopped designing
and building Giant Scale models. Joining the
Highlands Radio Control Club in Sebring,
he organized a builders’ club within the
club, dedicated to teaching others how to
scratch-build.
Throughout a lifetime of aeromodeling,
Jim has developed more than 40 designs,
many of which have been marketed in plans
or kit form. He promises to retire from
modeling only when the wheels start to fall
off!
Larry Scarinzi
Nominated by John Brodak and Wallace
Zober, Larry Scarinzi has spent a lifetime in
modeling, excelling as an engineer, aircraft
designer, and competitor. Elected to the
Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots
Association (PAMPA) Hall of Fame in 2004,
Larry has become a good-will ambassador for
CL activities.
Larry began modeling as an 8-year-old
with 10¢ kits. His first gas-powered
airplane—Miss Behave—was powered by a
Forster .29 ignition engine, and he still has it.
After World War II ended, Larry joined the
Tri County Sky Rovers in Summit, New
Jersey, and tried his hand at early CL Stunt
competition.
When he began competing in official
competitions, Larry met Harold “Red”
Reinhardt and teamed up with Red for both
Stunt and Combat events.
Larry and Red often placed first and
second at the meets they attended. They flew
a Stunt pattern that included maneuvers such
as the Bolo Wingover, which involves eight
loops during a Wingover, and double Vertical
Eights.
After graduating from college with a
degree in engineering and marrying his wife,
Ginger, Larry joined Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation in Burbank, California. There he
enjoyed flying FF at Sepulveda Basin and
lunchtime CL
at nearby
Griffith Park.
That same
year, Larry
entered the
Air Force and
was stationed
at Langley
Field in
Hampton,
Virginia. He
established
the Piston
Poppers Model Airplane Club and the
members used the area in front of the test
hangar as their CL circle.
Larry was asked to build model airplanes
that could be used to test the feasibility of an
Air Force model airplane event patterned
after a Tactical Air Command (T.A.C.)
bombing strategy. He accomplished this with
a Johnson .35-powered Veco Mustang rigged
to release a bomb when full up control was
applied during the inside loop portion of a
Horizontal Eight, thereby tossing the “bomb”
at the target.
Larry was also in charge of modeling
activity at the base, and captained the
Langley Team that flew in the Air Force
worldwide championships. During this time,
Larry began writing design articles for Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, and Air
182 MODEL AVIATION
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January 2009 183
Trails. He eventually published 26 design
articles as well as a number of how-to articles
and event reports.
Two of Larry’s models were produced by
Consolidated Models: Giant Killer in 1960
and #570, which was introduced in 1962.
After leaving the Air Force in late 1957,
Larry returned to North Jersey and went back
to work in the engineering field. He flew at
Rich’s Hobbytown, Parsippany, New Jersey,
and at the Union Model Airplane Club, his
home club and flying field before he was in
the service.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Larry became
associated with Duke Fox, both as a friend
and in developing new products. Larry was
instrumental in developing reliable aircraft to
test the Fox engines including the Blitz and
Super Satan.
In 1970, Larry started Whippany Cycle
and Hobby Shop, a bicycle and model retail
enterprise. The bicycle boom of the early
1970s ensured the store’s success and
eventually Larry dropped the modeling
portion to concentrate solely on bicycles.
“Even though model airplanes were always
my first love,” he wrote, “I owed it to myself
and my family to earn a living.”
Larry virtually dropped out of modeling
until 1992, although he did maintain his
AMA membership and contact with a few
friends, including Duke Fox and John Miske.
John convinced Larry to join him in attending
the Chicopee Nats. He dusted off a Fox .36X
BB-powered Voodoo, and Larry was back!
“Coming back to Old-Timer stunt is like
stepping back into modeling just as I left it 20
years ago,” he wrote. “Now my interests were
definitely back to model airplanes.”
Since then, Larry hasn’t stopped flying.
He eventually sold his business and has spent
time traveling and visiting modeling events
such as the Vintage Stunt Championships in
Tucson, Arizona. “This allows me more time
for important activities like model airplanes,”
he wrote. “Maybe I can become a modeler’s
goodwill ambassador and travel a lot, making
friends and having fun.”
Vincent (Jim) Van Loo
Jim Van Loo has devoted most of his life
to the advancement of the sport and hobby of
both full-scale and model aviation. His
interest in aviation began with a ride in a
Ford Tri-Motor when he was roughly 7 years
old.
A bout with the measles and subsequent
quarantine allowed him to experiment with
building a Comet kit. With his interest in
models piqued and his parents’ support, Jim
began doing odd jobs to earn money for his
modeling projects. He saved his money and
purchased his first engine: a Bantam .19
ignition engine, which he put into a Strato-
Kitten CL model.
At age 15, Jim began competing locally in
CL events and doing well. By 1962, he
advanced to the national level, including five
visits to the Nats throughout the decade. Jim
competed with airplanes of his own design,
and became one of the first to add a muffler
to his model.
Jim joined
the Air Force
and became
an air traffic
controller,
radar
controller,
and intercept
technician,
achieving the
rank of
Airman First
Class. He was awarded the Good Conduct
medal and attended advanced military
training to become a radar and facility
instructor.
Following military service, Jim became
a Federal Aviation Administration
controller in Sioux City, Iowa, earning
accreditations including Evaluations
Proficiency Specialist, Control Tower
Manager, and Chief Air Traffic Manager of
a Level II Radar Training Facility. In all, he
spent 28 years in federal civil service.
In 1985 Jim began competing in RC
events and by 1990, he had returned to the
Nats, again with aircraft of his own design.
Jim’s designs—the Chipmunk, the Mystere
II, and his Giant Scale Extra 230—were
published in Model Airplane News, Flying
Models, and MA respectively. The
Chipmunk was kitted by Sig, and the Extra
230 and another model, his 90-inchwingspan
Taylorcraft, was kitted by R/C
Extra’s.
Jim became a CD and judge in 1960,
working at a number of large events
throughout the central United States. He
was noted for his superb public-speaking
skills, and was often asked to handle the
public announcing duties at model and fullscale
events. These appearances have
included such events as Hazel Sig’s tandem
parachute jump, local and regional fly-ins,
and once an Air Force Thunderbirds Arrival
Show.
Jim and his wife, Ruth, opened their
first hobby shop in Sioux City, Iowa, in
1966. They later opened another hobby
shop named Jim and Ruth’s Toys and
Hobbies. In 1985, with his wife and close
friends, Jim formed R/C Extra’s for the
purpose of manufacturing Giant Scale RC
models. He developed, kitted, and marketed
five new model airplane subjects.
In 1990 the company was sold to Ace
Manufacturing. Jim worked in the researchand-
development department at Ace,
helping the company develop the
company’s Big Bingo and Whiz .40, as
well as play a major part in the
development of the new radio-control
systems.
Jim has participated in a number of civic
events world-wide, promoting
aeromodeling. In 1991, he was invited to
Sicily for an international conference to
demonstrate to hospitalized children that
despite their handicaps, they can do almost
anything, including fly model airplanes.
Accompanying Jim was a man named
Stan King, a quadriplegic. Jim had helped
Stan get a special transmitter so he could
demonstrate his skills at the conference.
Jim served as president of the
International Miniature Aircraft
Association (IMAA), traveling
internationally to attend events and promote
aeromodeling. During his presidency, the
membership of IMAA increased from 3,500
to more than 8,000.
Between 1967 and 2000, Jim published
construction articles and kit reviews in a
number of magazines including MA, Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, R/C Report,
Scale R/C Modelers, and R/C Excellence.
He was a regular columnist for R/C Report
and R/C Excellence, covering the RC Giants
arena, and regularly covered RC Giants
events.
Jim Van Loo has been an outstanding
national and international ambassador for
aeromodeling, the IMAA, and AMA.
Vice President that were accepted by the
EC at the April 18, 2008 meeting and
ratified by Leader Member vote sent June
6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIII: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to adopt
and implement as of January 1, 2009 the
Bylaw amendments (Motions V through
XI) dealing with the new Chief Financial
Officer/Treasurer position that were
accepted by the EC at the April 18, 2008
meeting and ratified by Leader Member
vote sent June 6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to
approve the Executive Vice President
Position Description Revision 2 of the
Bylaw Committee for implementation on
January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by T. Stillman (V) to
approve the Chief Financial Officer/
Treasurer Position Description Revision
2 of the Bylaw Committee for
implementation on January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVI: Moved by G. Fitch (II) and
seconded by T. Stillman (V) to adopt the
changes to the AMA Contest Board
Procedures document as submitted
October 25, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVII: Moved by G. Fitch (II)
and seconded by J. Rice (VIII) to accept
the report of the Air Show Team and
funding of $12,535 for 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
EC Motions continued from page 177
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:48 PM Page 183
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/01
Page Numbers: 179,180,181,182,183
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/01
Page Numbers: 179,180,181,182,183
January 2009 179
ESTABLISHED IN 1969, the Model Aviation Hall of Fame
honors those men and women who have made significant
contributions to the sport of aeromodeling.
The list of members is long and distinguished. These people
have made contributions to model aviation through volunteer or
administrative activities, product development, competition
performance, or a variety or combination of activities.
The Hall of Fame Selection Committee is composed of past
AMA presidents and one Hall of Fame member selected from
each of the 11 districts by the respective vice presidents.
Each year a new class is inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame and the winners are announced in MA. Anyone may
submit a Hall of Fame nomination form.
For a nomination form or further information, contact Jackie
Shalberg at (765) 287-1256, ext. 511, or find the current form
online at www.modelaircraft.org, document 152.
The committee has selected the following people for the 2008
Model Aviation Hall of Fame.
Modell Aviiattiion Hallll off Fame
Cllassss off 2008
Ralph N. Andrae
Ralph Andrae is possibly best
remembered for inventing and patenting a
retractable landing gear for RC models.
Ralph was born in Chicago in 1938.
Growing up near O’Hare Airport, he spent
many hours
sitting in a
field adjacent
to the airport
watching the
aircraft of the
day come and
go. At the age
of 8, Ralph
was already
designing
airplanes,
little knowing
that he would
someday
make a living
with his knowledge of the hobby and
innovative mind.
The American Art Institute of Design in
Chicago is where Ralph honed his drafting
and design talents. He became a design
engineer for Bastian Blessing Company, a
company specializing in the design and
building of commercial restaurants. He
worked with the team that developed kitchen
equipment for McDonalds.
With drafting facilities available at the
company, Ralph was able to create the
blueprints for the scale model aircraft plans
he sold to hobbyists of the time and later used
to launch his career in the hobby industry. He
advertised his T.B.F. Avenger plans in Model
Airplane News, then went on to draw and sell
plans for a number of scale World War II
models including the A-30 Baltimore
Bomber, the F4F Wildcat, and the Zero
fighter.
By 1967 Ralph had purchased a building
in Morton Grove, Illinois, and was able to
turn his endeavors into a full-time operation:
Wing Manufacturing. He developed and
patented the first operating retract system for
model aircraft and sold nearly 250,000 retract
sets before the patent expired.
Ralph began developing and selling foam
wings for the main line kits on the market. He
also began producing the “Short Kit,”
providing the hard-to-duplicate aircraft parts
such as the cowl, canopy, wingtips, landing
gear wire, etc., along with plans and
instructions. The short kits included a number
of warbirds and Ralph sold thousands.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force approached
Ralph to develop Remotely Piloted Vehicles
(RPVs) for use as target drones and
surveillance aircraft. He had to construct a
launch system for the airplanes since they had
no landing gear.
Other products developed by Ralph
included a wheel-well cover door hinge and a
“T” type control horn with three mounting
screws instead of two to allow the force of
the load to be centered over the mounting
screws, eliminating the twist that sometimes
occurred on other control-horn designs.
Ralph designed and built all of the
machinery needed to produce his products.
He developed a hobbyist line of hot-wire
foam cutting equipment that he also sold to
architectural firms, upholstery businesses,
and the general public.
Aircraft Ralph developed included an 80-
inch B-25, an HP 200 short kit, and displayonly
versions of the Beaver bush plane that
sold to a liquor company for advertising
purposes. He came out with a low-priced AT-
6 Texan kit, sponsored several local Pylon
races, and even sold the engines at cost so
everyone would have the same engine.
Ralph was a member of the Spoon River
Flyers in Maquon, Illinois, and the Galesburg
Flyers Association. He was an active
participant in the Stearman Fly-In every year.
Ralph and his Hall of Fame sponsor, Sid
Davis, were planning an RC event that would
run separate from the Stearman Fly-In when
Ralph died from heart failure in 1999.
Nearly every year since his passing, Sid
and others have honored Ralph with the
Ralph Andrea Memorial Fly Day to keep his
legacy alive.
Dave Brown
Former AMA president Dave Brown was
exposed to aviation at an early age. His father
ran a small airport and flying school when he
was young. “Infatuated with airplanes,” Dave
wrote, “I got my first gas model in about
1951, a Wen Mac Control Line model, which
didn’t last long (one flight) and was replaced
with the first of many Scientific models. I
also got, from the boyfriend of one of my
older sisters, a Brown Junior engine and,
most significantly, a large stack of model
magazines (about a one and a half foot pile).”
In later years Dave joined a newly formed
CL club in Brockton, Massachusetts, and
flew with that club until he entered the
service in 1966. He competed in many
contests and “although I was a very
enthusiastic
competitor, I
wasn’t a very
good one,”
Dave wrote.
“Trophies
were few and
far between. I
still remember
my first
trophy in, of
all classes, CL
Scale at
Topsfield,
followed the
next day with one in CL Stunt.”
In 1966, while still flying CL, Dave
married his wife, Sally, and moved into a
house on Pleasant Street in West
Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Diagonally
across the street lived the president of the
local RC club, and next door to him,
diagonally to the left, was the local basement
RC shop. In a matter of weeks Dave was into
RC with a little Schoolgirl biplane and a
single-channel Controlaire Mule.
Shortly afterward he was drafted and
ultimately enlisted in the Army. Dave was
eventually transferred to Germany and
continued to hone his RC skills, learning the
FAI schedule. When transferred back to the
US in late 1969, he flew in his first RC
contest in San Antonio, Texas, where he
entered Class D Novice (now the Expert
Class) because it used the maneuvers from
the FAI schedule and he didn’t know the
maneuvers for any of the lower classes.
Dave surprised everyone by placing
second at that contest and in his next one in
Marshall, Texas, a couple of weeks later.
Bolstered by his success, Dave went to that
year’s Nats and placed first in Class D
Novice. Booted up to the next level of
competition, Dave waited awhile for his next
win.
Discharged from service in 1970, Dave
began working at World Engines in Ohio as a
toolmaker. He found that competition was
much stiffer in the Midwest with fliers such
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as Don Lowe, Norm Page, Alan Dupler,
Dean Koger, Ivan Christensen, and later
Mark Radcliff and Tony Frackowiak
competing weekly. Don Lowe became
Dave’s mentor
Many competitors spent much time
designing and developing a “secret weapon”
airplane, but Dave was among the first to put
so much emphasis on properly trimming the
models, often taking as much as 100 flights to
get it into proper trim before he flew it in a
contest.
Competitively Dave did well throughout
his career. He was among the first to be
invited to the Tournament of Champions and
in 1975 he made his first US World
Championships team, placing third overall.
He flew in five subsequent World
Championships, collecting three individual
Silvers and one Bronze, and several Gold
team awards.
In 1979 Dave Brown Products began in
the basement of his house. As the company
grew, Dave eventually built its current
building and introduced the first RC flight
simulator. Premiering at the 1985 WRAM
Show, it was an instant hit, and eventually the
idea of using a simulator as training was
accepted as the best way to speed the training
of a new RC flier.
When good friend and mentor, Don
Lowe, was elected District III Vice President,
Don appointed Dave to the AMA Contest
Board. Don stayed on as vice president
through 1979 when Dave ran for and was
elected to the position of AMA District III
vice president.
Dave’s interest turned toward the financial
aspects of AMA’s management. He promoted
a finance committee, which he ended up
chairing. Working with the treasurer and the
controller, this committee started the process
of updating the management of AMA’s
finances and was instrumental in the ability
of AMA to purchase its first (owned)
headquarters building in Reston, Virginia.
Dave was later elected as executive vice
president, which made him AMA’s chief
financial officer.
In 1995, Dave was elected AMA president
and remained in that post throughout 2007.
He served on the AMA Executive Council for
25 years and credits much of his success to his
wife, Sally. “None of what I have
accomplished could have been done without
her as an equal partner in the effort. She,
above all, is my rock,” Dave wrote.
Scott Christensen
Born in Minnesota, Scott Christensen was
approximately 6 years old when he and his
modeler father, George, purchased and built a
54-inch Comet Taylorcraft kit to build. Scott
was 10 when he designed and built his first
airplane: an 18-inch, shoulder wing aircraft.
He flew it for the entire summer before losing
it in a never-before-encountered phenomena:
a thermal!
Following a stint in the Air Force, Scott
settled in the Bay Area near San Francisco,
joined the Pioneer R/C club, and began flying
RC. He wrote, “I was very lucky to be able to
fly with a lot of really good and well-known
modelers such as Ken Willard, George
Steiner, Joe Foster, and Whitey Pritchard,
etc.”
Scott was asked to do some preliminary
work with a new product: MonoKote. He
covered
several
models with
the not-yetreleased
product, and
reported his
findings to
Ken Willard
and Top Flite
Models.
“Little did I
know what a
gigantic
product this
would represent to modelers everywhere and
what this small amount of work would mean
to my future career.”
He fell in with modelers who were
involved in sailplanes and designed his first
sailplane: the Pylonious.
In the winter of 1968, Scott and a group of
these fliers got together and formulated a
sailplane program loosely based on the
Diamond Program in full-scale soaring. The
four originators of the program included
Scott, Duane Hyer, Keith Brewster, and Le
Gray. They felt that if this program could be
presented nationally, it would offer a set of
goals to individual fliers as well as expedite
sailplane technology. The League of Silent
Flight (LSF) was born.
The program offered five levels of
accomplishment, each more difficult as the
flier progressed. At the time the levels were
written, equipment, batteries, and airframes
weren’t even available to allow a pilot to
accomplish Level Four or Five. They
assumed correctly that individuals and
manufacturers would meet the challenge and
develop what equipment was needed.
LSF remains a large and viable Special
Interest Group recognized by AMA,
representing the soaring community.
Scott was also involved in another type of
aeromodeling: seaplanes. He developed a
flying boat design named the Curlew. The
highly successful inverted V-hulled model
was published as a design article in RCM.
Another float-equipped aircraft, the Warlock,
soon followed. A few years later, Scott was
offered a position as a design engineer for
Airtronics, a manufacturer that had been
purchased by Cox Hobbies.
“I worked directly for one of the finest
designers of all time, Mr. Lee Renaud,” Scott
wrote. “From a design standpoint, Lee gave
me a blank sheet of paper.”
In 1979 Scott received an offer to become
vice president for Top Flite Models in
Chicago. His responsibilities included newproduct
development including kits,
MonoKote, and ultimately the company’s
first ARF. In his 10 years at the company,
Scott was responsible for a number of
products including the Metrick, the Antares,
the Wristocrat, the Phasour, and more.
When Top Flite was sold to Hobbico,
Scott moved to Champaign, Illinois, as
director of product development. Two years
later he accepted an offer to work for
Hobbycraft Co., Inc., a company that offers
unique services to US hobby manufacturers.
The position allowed him to travel and
develop contacts worldwide; however, Scott
missed designing and creating models.
In 1999, Scott accepted an offer from Sig
Manufacturing, and was appointed director of
research and development. “My position at
Sig offers me the best of all worlds,” he
wrote. “For a lifelong modeler, such as
myself, working for Sig and being able to
positively contribute to their great product
line, represents everything I’ve ever wanted
and worked for in the hobby industry.”
Robert (Bob) Davis
Bob Davis is a lifetime modeler. His early
aircraft experience included the diesel-fueled
Drone Diesel engine marketed by Leon
Shulman. Bob’s nomination came from
longtime modeler and friend, Stu Richmond.
In 1975, Bob formed the Davis Diesel
Development
Corp., which
developed
Davis Diesel
Converters.
These
converters
were
precisionmanufactured
add-on units
for existing
glow-powered
models and
were first
demonstrated
at the 1975 Dayton Nationals. Bob’s
company also offers specially blended Davis
Diesel fuels.
A Davis Diesel Converter Head, placed
on a standard glow engine (in place of the
glow head that comes with the engine), offers
several advantages. The engine is quieter in
flight and will develop more usable power.
The power can be used to turn a larger, more
efficient propeller. The engine sucks in less
air and the venturi’s air sound is lessened.
The engine needs no glow plug.
Additionally, converting an engine to
diesel power generally extends the life of the
power plant. Model diesel fuel’s kerosene
adds natural lubricity to the engine.
Compared with an equal volume of standard
glow fuel, the kerosene will run longer and
yield more horsepower. The converters are
available for all popular glow engines.
Another division of Davis Diesel is
Carbonic Motors. This division has produced
the ultimate in quiet power, bringing CO2
technology to another level of usefulness.
This alternative to expensive, heavy electric
motors or winding rubber bands offers a
simple, reliable, quiet, and lightweight power
plant in larger, more usable sizes.
Davis Diesel’s CO2 motors and diesel-
MODEL AVIATION
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January 2009 181
conversion engines operate at sound levels
considerably lower than comparable gas
engines. Bob’s development of SoundMaster
mufflers, “soft” engine mounting, tuned
pipes, and a variety of other products are
significant contributions in the effort to
decrease the noise produced by model
aircraft.
Bob received AMA’s Technical
Achievement Award in 1990 for his many
contributions to model engine technology.
Robert “Bob” Fiorenze
Bob Fiorenze of Maitland, Florida, has
been involved in aeromodeling since 1958.
He is perhaps best known as the first to fly a
turbine-powered model aircraft (JPX
Turbine) in the United States. Bob was
appointed to AMA’s original Turbine Safety
Committee along with former AMA
president Don Lowe.
Bob has
held his FAA
A&P
Mechanics
Rating since
1969, and
earned his
pilot’s
license for
both
helicopters
and airplanes
in 1974. At
one time he
worked for a
major airline
and much
later Bob built his own helicopter, a 1997
Rotorway Exec 90 that won the Sun ’n Fun
Grand Champion prize. He described the
project on his Web site.
“On September 12, 1997, the first flights
were completed with the Rotorway Exec 90.
After many final adjustments and checks, the
Exec 90 was taken up to altitude and flown
around the airport area. This project has taken
a little over a year. There are many
enhancements not called for by the factory to
make this an exceptional bird. The Rotorway
puts a practical, low-cost helicopter within
the reach of someone who is willing to do the
assembly from kit form. It is a two-place
helicopter that runs on standard automotive
fuel and has about the same climb rate and
cruising speed of a Cessna 152. The
Rotorway of course will fly much slower and
land almost anywhere.”
Bob has been an active competitor in the
model aircraft field, winning the 1983 and
1985 Scale Nats with his A-4 Skyhawk
ducted-fan jet and his Black Bunny F-4
Phantom twin-ducted-fan jet respectively.
Flying an F-18 Hornet twin-ducted-fan jet,
Bob placed first in the 1988 US Scale
Masters, the 1989 Top Gun Invitational, and
the 1989 Scale Nats.
Nominated for the Model Aviation Hall of
Fame by Wallace Zober and Vinny
Caratozzolo, Bob is considered a model jet
legend, well-known for his high-speed, lowaltitude
passes. Considered a master builder
and flier, he is in great demand as a demo
pilot, performing during half-times and
breaks at air shows across the US.
His modeling interests are varied and in
addition to Scale and jets, he enjoys
helicopters, warbirds, and electrics. His
building and flying skills have received
recognition at contests, fly-ins, jet rallies, and
national events.
Bob currently owns Bob Fiorenze Model
Products, specializing in jets, electrics,
helicopters, and giant electric models.
Products sold include the T-38 Talon, his Air
Speed Indicator, and Proportional Hydraulic
Brakes. Bob also does test flying and
consulting work for Bob Violett Models.
As an accomplished author and
photographer, Bob has been a contributing
writer for a number of publications including
MA, RCM, Flying Models, and Scale R/C
Modeler.
David Gray
David Gray is credited with inventing and
flying the first RC helicopter in 1970. The
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum has David’s original model on
display.
David began modeling early, building his
first model aircraft—a 25¢ F6F Hellcat—
when he was only 7 years old. Because of the
scarcity of material during World War II,
David began designing and building his own
models, often with better results than what
was offered at the time.
His family moved to Michigan, and in the
garage of their new
house, David
discovered a box
full of built-up,
rubber-powered
airplanes and an old
Rodgers engine. He
rebuilt one of the
airplanes—a 36-
inch Stuka—and
flew it with great
success.
A comic strip
called Tim Tylers
Luck piqued
David’s interest in radio-controlled models.
To be able to fly an airplane without wires
and actually control it with radio signals was
far more science fiction than reality at the
time, but it became David’s goal.
This desire led to experiments with
electric-powered airplanes, cars, and boats.
Fueled with a hand-held lantern battery and
tethered with fine strands of copper wire, the
models were steered with actuators and
escarpments.
In 1958 David married and began
working for various electrical supply firms,
adding to his knowledge of electrical motors.
In 1963, he moved back to Michigan, took a
part-time job with Glass City models, and
was excited to actually get paid for
fabricating parts and assembling pulse radio
equipment!
Two years later David started his own
company, Airtrol, where he designed and
marketed an improved pulse-radio system.
Throughout he was experimenting with radiocontrolled
models from cars to autogyros, and
helicopters began to interest him more.
Dave began experimenting with foam and
plastic aircraft and building his own vacuumforming
machines. He left Airtrol to join Jim
Merrill and open a new business called
Gramer Plastics, which produced foam
aircraft and packaging products for the
automotive industry.
David’s helicopter prototypes began to
show results. In 1970 at the RC show in
Cincinnati, Ohio, he demonstrated his .40-
powered RC helicopter which made the cover
of Model Airplane News. This model is
housed at the Smithsonian.
Dewey Broberg, president of Du-Bro,
asked to buy manufacturing rights from
David. Within several months David and his
family moved to Mundelein, Illinois, and he
began working for Du-Bro to further develop
his helicopter design. After much work and
numerous setbacks, the Du-Bro Whirley Bird
505 was produced.
The Whirley Bird enjoyed great success
and David began working on a larger, betterflying
aircraft. The semiscale Hughes 300,
powered by a 1.34 cu. in. O & R engine, was
the result. Easier to fly and more realistic
looking, the Hughes 300 led to the design of
two more helicopters: the .40-powered Tri-
Star and the Shark .60.
David and his helicopters have been
featured in numerous publications including
Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, Popular
Mechanics, and Flying Models. He has
continued to work with Du-Bro, designing
equipment for the aeromodeling industry, and
is still an integral part of the company’s
design team.
Donald J. McGovern
The late Don McGovern began modeling
in 1939. By the time he was 10 years old,
Don was designing and building his own
aircraft. By age 12, he had begun submitting
articles to modeling magazines, and a few
years later they were being published.
Perhaps best known as the editor of
Flying Models magazine from 1953 to 1979,
Don was also a competitor and prolific
designer. He designed the Custom Privateer
Seaplane that was kitted by Berkeley Models.
Nicknamed “McGovern’s Monster,” the
nearly 10-foot-wingspan aircraft was
considered
the largest
seaplane ever
built and
flown at that
time and the
largest ever
kitted.
Don
designed a
series of
smaller
Privateer
models,
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:47 PM Page 181
including the Navigator that was kitted by
Jetco Hobbies and several other designs
kitted by Berkeley. Enterprise Models kitted
Don’s 30-inch CL twin-rudder Pirate.
“He would always say, ‘Build with
‘NAG,’” wrote Jim O’Brien, Don’s sponsor
for the Hall of Fame. “NAG meant ‘no air
gap.’ He drew plans for all of his designs the
same way.”
Don wrote hundreds of articles, covering
topics including the National Aeromodeling
Championships, product reviews, others’
designs, and his own models. He became
editor of Flying Models in 1953 and
published more than 70 of his own designs.
As Berkeley’s chief designer, Don was
known for his hand-inked plans that attracted
so many modelers to the company’s kits. His
plans, easily hundreds, were accurate and
extremely detailed, making them easy for
modelers to understand and construct.
Every model Don built contained
hundreds of sticks and stringers. He didn’t
use planking and plywood, and relied on a
single-edge razor for cutting. “Can you
imagine building McGovern’s Monster with
little more than a razor blade?” wrote Jim.
“It was Don’s whole focus to get more
people involved in the hobby. He was a
person who did not seek notoriety.”
Along with a number of others, Don was
responsible for introducing Jim to
aeromodeling. “He took me almost
everywhere he went if it was related to
modeling and taught me almost every one of
his building secrets,” Jim wrote. “He told me
that I needed to teach others and he even
made me shake hands on that.”
Jim was mentored by Don for several
years, learning about FF, CL, and the
fledgling radio-control flight. Although Don
eventually moved to a larger house to
accommodate his growing family, the two
never lost touch. He left Jim with a thorough
building legacy, but much more.
“Don was one of the most devoted and
meticulous modelers I have ever met,” wrote
Jim. “Everyone who met Don took an instant
liking to him. He contributed significantly to
the growth of all facets of modeling, and in
some small way, we’re better today because
of his efforts.”
James Messer
How do you make a grown man cry?
According to Jim Messer of Sebring, Florida,
it’s easy.
“You get him to fly his airplane at the
noon-time air show in front of 1,000
spectators, and while he is doing that—with
his back turned to the audience—you
assemble his family, and all the pilots around
the announcer’s stand. Of course, without
any eyes in the back of his head, he has no
idea of what is going on behind him. Then
when he lands, and turns around, you call
him to the announcer’s stand. Gary Fitch,
DVP [AMA vice president] of District II
then announces to the world that he has just
been inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame class of 2008.”
Nominated
by Gary Fitch,
on behalf of
the Southern
Tier Aero
Radio Society
(STARS), Jim
is a
competitor,
designer,
leader, and a
teacher. Jim
has been
involved in
model aviation nearly his entire life. He
began in 1937 with 10¢ rubber band models
including the Stinson 105, Fokker D.VII, and
his favorite, the 25¢ Phantom Fury.
He built his first gas model—a Comet
Zipper—in 1941, the same year he joined
AMA and the Olean Model Airplane club in
southwestern New York State, which became
the STARS club when RC became
prominent.
Jim competed in FF contests across the
Northeast placing well and winning many.
During the 1970 Nats, he placed second out
of 583 contestants who flew that day. He
placed first in subsequent Nats in Old-Timer
airplanes and competed in CL Speed and
Stunt.
Jim was one of the first to venture into RC
model airplanes. In 1955 he purchased a
Citizenship radio, started a model shop, and
began designing and kitting aircraft. His
major achievement in this area was designing
a ¼-scale Bristol Scout. There were no
premade components for an aircraft this size,
so Jim, with the help of five other STARS
members who were building like models,
developed all of the components to make the
Giant Scale Scouts functional and
trustworthy.
Educated as a mechanical engineer, Jim
designed a geared drive train that coupled
twin .60 engines to try to fly the large model.
Eventually they employed the Quadra .35
engine, carved their own propellers for the
models, and the new Bristol Scout Squadron
took to the air.
The squadron became famous after an
appearance at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
meet, and Jim and his fellow STARS
launched the Giant Scale movement as we
know it today. Because of the STARS
members’ involvement in Giant Scale, in
2005, the Academy of Model Aeronautics
recognized the STARS flying field as an
AMA Historic Landmark.
Jim saw the coming demand for Giant
Scale models and expanded his model shop
into a world-wide mail order business named
Jim Messer’s Quality Model Products. The
business flourished and Jim even designed
and marketed his own line of ¼-scale kits.
He sold the business in 1991 and retired
to Florida, but Jim never stopped designing
and building Giant Scale models. Joining the
Highlands Radio Control Club in Sebring,
he organized a builders’ club within the
club, dedicated to teaching others how to
scratch-build.
Throughout a lifetime of aeromodeling,
Jim has developed more than 40 designs,
many of which have been marketed in plans
or kit form. He promises to retire from
modeling only when the wheels start to fall
off!
Larry Scarinzi
Nominated by John Brodak and Wallace
Zober, Larry Scarinzi has spent a lifetime in
modeling, excelling as an engineer, aircraft
designer, and competitor. Elected to the
Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots
Association (PAMPA) Hall of Fame in 2004,
Larry has become a good-will ambassador for
CL activities.
Larry began modeling as an 8-year-old
with 10¢ kits. His first gas-powered
airplane—Miss Behave—was powered by a
Forster .29 ignition engine, and he still has it.
After World War II ended, Larry joined the
Tri County Sky Rovers in Summit, New
Jersey, and tried his hand at early CL Stunt
competition.
When he began competing in official
competitions, Larry met Harold “Red”
Reinhardt and teamed up with Red for both
Stunt and Combat events.
Larry and Red often placed first and
second at the meets they attended. They flew
a Stunt pattern that included maneuvers such
as the Bolo Wingover, which involves eight
loops during a Wingover, and double Vertical
Eights.
After graduating from college with a
degree in engineering and marrying his wife,
Ginger, Larry joined Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation in Burbank, California. There he
enjoyed flying FF at Sepulveda Basin and
lunchtime CL
at nearby
Griffith Park.
That same
year, Larry
entered the
Air Force and
was stationed
at Langley
Field in
Hampton,
Virginia. He
established
the Piston
Poppers Model Airplane Club and the
members used the area in front of the test
hangar as their CL circle.
Larry was asked to build model airplanes
that could be used to test the feasibility of an
Air Force model airplane event patterned
after a Tactical Air Command (T.A.C.)
bombing strategy. He accomplished this with
a Johnson .35-powered Veco Mustang rigged
to release a bomb when full up control was
applied during the inside loop portion of a
Horizontal Eight, thereby tossing the “bomb”
at the target.
Larry was also in charge of modeling
activity at the base, and captained the
Langley Team that flew in the Air Force
worldwide championships. During this time,
Larry began writing design articles for Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, and Air
182 MODEL AVIATION
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:48 PM Page 182
January 2009 183
Trails. He eventually published 26 design
articles as well as a number of how-to articles
and event reports.
Two of Larry’s models were produced by
Consolidated Models: Giant Killer in 1960
and #570, which was introduced in 1962.
After leaving the Air Force in late 1957,
Larry returned to North Jersey and went back
to work in the engineering field. He flew at
Rich’s Hobbytown, Parsippany, New Jersey,
and at the Union Model Airplane Club, his
home club and flying field before he was in
the service.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Larry became
associated with Duke Fox, both as a friend
and in developing new products. Larry was
instrumental in developing reliable aircraft to
test the Fox engines including the Blitz and
Super Satan.
In 1970, Larry started Whippany Cycle
and Hobby Shop, a bicycle and model retail
enterprise. The bicycle boom of the early
1970s ensured the store’s success and
eventually Larry dropped the modeling
portion to concentrate solely on bicycles.
“Even though model airplanes were always
my first love,” he wrote, “I owed it to myself
and my family to earn a living.”
Larry virtually dropped out of modeling
until 1992, although he did maintain his
AMA membership and contact with a few
friends, including Duke Fox and John Miske.
John convinced Larry to join him in attending
the Chicopee Nats. He dusted off a Fox .36X
BB-powered Voodoo, and Larry was back!
“Coming back to Old-Timer stunt is like
stepping back into modeling just as I left it 20
years ago,” he wrote. “Now my interests were
definitely back to model airplanes.”
Since then, Larry hasn’t stopped flying.
He eventually sold his business and has spent
time traveling and visiting modeling events
such as the Vintage Stunt Championships in
Tucson, Arizona. “This allows me more time
for important activities like model airplanes,”
he wrote. “Maybe I can become a modeler’s
goodwill ambassador and travel a lot, making
friends and having fun.”
Vincent (Jim) Van Loo
Jim Van Loo has devoted most of his life
to the advancement of the sport and hobby of
both full-scale and model aviation. His
interest in aviation began with a ride in a
Ford Tri-Motor when he was roughly 7 years
old.
A bout with the measles and subsequent
quarantine allowed him to experiment with
building a Comet kit. With his interest in
models piqued and his parents’ support, Jim
began doing odd jobs to earn money for his
modeling projects. He saved his money and
purchased his first engine: a Bantam .19
ignition engine, which he put into a Strato-
Kitten CL model.
At age 15, Jim began competing locally in
CL events and doing well. By 1962, he
advanced to the national level, including five
visits to the Nats throughout the decade. Jim
competed with airplanes of his own design,
and became one of the first to add a muffler
to his model.
Jim joined
the Air Force
and became
an air traffic
controller,
radar
controller,
and intercept
technician,
achieving the
rank of
Airman First
Class. He was awarded the Good Conduct
medal and attended advanced military
training to become a radar and facility
instructor.
Following military service, Jim became
a Federal Aviation Administration
controller in Sioux City, Iowa, earning
accreditations including Evaluations
Proficiency Specialist, Control Tower
Manager, and Chief Air Traffic Manager of
a Level II Radar Training Facility. In all, he
spent 28 years in federal civil service.
In 1985 Jim began competing in RC
events and by 1990, he had returned to the
Nats, again with aircraft of his own design.
Jim’s designs—the Chipmunk, the Mystere
II, and his Giant Scale Extra 230—were
published in Model Airplane News, Flying
Models, and MA respectively. The
Chipmunk was kitted by Sig, and the Extra
230 and another model, his 90-inchwingspan
Taylorcraft, was kitted by R/C
Extra’s.
Jim became a CD and judge in 1960,
working at a number of large events
throughout the central United States. He
was noted for his superb public-speaking
skills, and was often asked to handle the
public announcing duties at model and fullscale
events. These appearances have
included such events as Hazel Sig’s tandem
parachute jump, local and regional fly-ins,
and once an Air Force Thunderbirds Arrival
Show.
Jim and his wife, Ruth, opened their
first hobby shop in Sioux City, Iowa, in
1966. They later opened another hobby
shop named Jim and Ruth’s Toys and
Hobbies. In 1985, with his wife and close
friends, Jim formed R/C Extra’s for the
purpose of manufacturing Giant Scale RC
models. He developed, kitted, and marketed
five new model airplane subjects.
In 1990 the company was sold to Ace
Manufacturing. Jim worked in the researchand-
development department at Ace,
helping the company develop the
company’s Big Bingo and Whiz .40, as
well as play a major part in the
development of the new radio-control
systems.
Jim has participated in a number of civic
events world-wide, promoting
aeromodeling. In 1991, he was invited to
Sicily for an international conference to
demonstrate to hospitalized children that
despite their handicaps, they can do almost
anything, including fly model airplanes.
Accompanying Jim was a man named
Stan King, a quadriplegic. Jim had helped
Stan get a special transmitter so he could
demonstrate his skills at the conference.
Jim served as president of the
International Miniature Aircraft
Association (IMAA), traveling
internationally to attend events and promote
aeromodeling. During his presidency, the
membership of IMAA increased from 3,500
to more than 8,000.
Between 1967 and 2000, Jim published
construction articles and kit reviews in a
number of magazines including MA, Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, R/C Report,
Scale R/C Modelers, and R/C Excellence.
He was a regular columnist for R/C Report
and R/C Excellence, covering the RC Giants
arena, and regularly covered RC Giants
events.
Jim Van Loo has been an outstanding
national and international ambassador for
aeromodeling, the IMAA, and AMA.
Vice President that were accepted by the
EC at the April 18, 2008 meeting and
ratified by Leader Member vote sent June
6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIII: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to adopt
and implement as of January 1, 2009 the
Bylaw amendments (Motions V through
XI) dealing with the new Chief Financial
Officer/Treasurer position that were
accepted by the EC at the April 18, 2008
meeting and ratified by Leader Member
vote sent June 6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to
approve the Executive Vice President
Position Description Revision 2 of the
Bylaw Committee for implementation on
January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by T. Stillman (V) to
approve the Chief Financial Officer/
Treasurer Position Description Revision
2 of the Bylaw Committee for
implementation on January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVI: Moved by G. Fitch (II) and
seconded by T. Stillman (V) to adopt the
changes to the AMA Contest Board
Procedures document as submitted
October 25, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVII: Moved by G. Fitch (II)
and seconded by J. Rice (VIII) to accept
the report of the Air Show Team and
funding of $12,535 for 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
EC Motions continued from page 177
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:48 PM Page 183
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/01
Page Numbers: 179,180,181,182,183
January 2009 179
ESTABLISHED IN 1969, the Model Aviation Hall of Fame
honors those men and women who have made significant
contributions to the sport of aeromodeling.
The list of members is long and distinguished. These people
have made contributions to model aviation through volunteer or
administrative activities, product development, competition
performance, or a variety or combination of activities.
The Hall of Fame Selection Committee is composed of past
AMA presidents and one Hall of Fame member selected from
each of the 11 districts by the respective vice presidents.
Each year a new class is inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame and the winners are announced in MA. Anyone may
submit a Hall of Fame nomination form.
For a nomination form or further information, contact Jackie
Shalberg at (765) 287-1256, ext. 511, or find the current form
online at www.modelaircraft.org, document 152.
The committee has selected the following people for the 2008
Model Aviation Hall of Fame.
Modell Aviiattiion Hallll off Fame
Cllassss off 2008
Ralph N. Andrae
Ralph Andrae is possibly best
remembered for inventing and patenting a
retractable landing gear for RC models.
Ralph was born in Chicago in 1938.
Growing up near O’Hare Airport, he spent
many hours
sitting in a
field adjacent
to the airport
watching the
aircraft of the
day come and
go. At the age
of 8, Ralph
was already
designing
airplanes,
little knowing
that he would
someday
make a living
with his knowledge of the hobby and
innovative mind.
The American Art Institute of Design in
Chicago is where Ralph honed his drafting
and design talents. He became a design
engineer for Bastian Blessing Company, a
company specializing in the design and
building of commercial restaurants. He
worked with the team that developed kitchen
equipment for McDonalds.
With drafting facilities available at the
company, Ralph was able to create the
blueprints for the scale model aircraft plans
he sold to hobbyists of the time and later used
to launch his career in the hobby industry. He
advertised his T.B.F. Avenger plans in Model
Airplane News, then went on to draw and sell
plans for a number of scale World War II
models including the A-30 Baltimore
Bomber, the F4F Wildcat, and the Zero
fighter.
By 1967 Ralph had purchased a building
in Morton Grove, Illinois, and was able to
turn his endeavors into a full-time operation:
Wing Manufacturing. He developed and
patented the first operating retract system for
model aircraft and sold nearly 250,000 retract
sets before the patent expired.
Ralph began developing and selling foam
wings for the main line kits on the market. He
also began producing the “Short Kit,”
providing the hard-to-duplicate aircraft parts
such as the cowl, canopy, wingtips, landing
gear wire, etc., along with plans and
instructions. The short kits included a number
of warbirds and Ralph sold thousands.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force approached
Ralph to develop Remotely Piloted Vehicles
(RPVs) for use as target drones and
surveillance aircraft. He had to construct a
launch system for the airplanes since they had
no landing gear.
Other products developed by Ralph
included a wheel-well cover door hinge and a
“T” type control horn with three mounting
screws instead of two to allow the force of
the load to be centered over the mounting
screws, eliminating the twist that sometimes
occurred on other control-horn designs.
Ralph designed and built all of the
machinery needed to produce his products.
He developed a hobbyist line of hot-wire
foam cutting equipment that he also sold to
architectural firms, upholstery businesses,
and the general public.
Aircraft Ralph developed included an 80-
inch B-25, an HP 200 short kit, and displayonly
versions of the Beaver bush plane that
sold to a liquor company for advertising
purposes. He came out with a low-priced AT-
6 Texan kit, sponsored several local Pylon
races, and even sold the engines at cost so
everyone would have the same engine.
Ralph was a member of the Spoon River
Flyers in Maquon, Illinois, and the Galesburg
Flyers Association. He was an active
participant in the Stearman Fly-In every year.
Ralph and his Hall of Fame sponsor, Sid
Davis, were planning an RC event that would
run separate from the Stearman Fly-In when
Ralph died from heart failure in 1999.
Nearly every year since his passing, Sid
and others have honored Ralph with the
Ralph Andrea Memorial Fly Day to keep his
legacy alive.
Dave Brown
Former AMA president Dave Brown was
exposed to aviation at an early age. His father
ran a small airport and flying school when he
was young. “Infatuated with airplanes,” Dave
wrote, “I got my first gas model in about
1951, a Wen Mac Control Line model, which
didn’t last long (one flight) and was replaced
with the first of many Scientific models. I
also got, from the boyfriend of one of my
older sisters, a Brown Junior engine and,
most significantly, a large stack of model
magazines (about a one and a half foot pile).”
In later years Dave joined a newly formed
CL club in Brockton, Massachusetts, and
flew with that club until he entered the
service in 1966. He competed in many
contests and “although I was a very
enthusiastic
competitor, I
wasn’t a very
good one,”
Dave wrote.
“Trophies
were few and
far between. I
still remember
my first
trophy in, of
all classes, CL
Scale at
Topsfield,
followed the
next day with one in CL Stunt.”
In 1966, while still flying CL, Dave
married his wife, Sally, and moved into a
house on Pleasant Street in West
Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Diagonally
across the street lived the president of the
local RC club, and next door to him,
diagonally to the left, was the local basement
RC shop. In a matter of weeks Dave was into
RC with a little Schoolgirl biplane and a
single-channel Controlaire Mule.
Shortly afterward he was drafted and
ultimately enlisted in the Army. Dave was
eventually transferred to Germany and
continued to hone his RC skills, learning the
FAI schedule. When transferred back to the
US in late 1969, he flew in his first RC
contest in San Antonio, Texas, where he
entered Class D Novice (now the Expert
Class) because it used the maneuvers from
the FAI schedule and he didn’t know the
maneuvers for any of the lower classes.
Dave surprised everyone by placing
second at that contest and in his next one in
Marshall, Texas, a couple of weeks later.
Bolstered by his success, Dave went to that
year’s Nats and placed first in Class D
Novice. Booted up to the next level of
competition, Dave waited awhile for his next
win.
Discharged from service in 1970, Dave
began working at World Engines in Ohio as a
toolmaker. He found that competition was
much stiffer in the Midwest with fliers such
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as Don Lowe, Norm Page, Alan Dupler,
Dean Koger, Ivan Christensen, and later
Mark Radcliff and Tony Frackowiak
competing weekly. Don Lowe became
Dave’s mentor
Many competitors spent much time
designing and developing a “secret weapon”
airplane, but Dave was among the first to put
so much emphasis on properly trimming the
models, often taking as much as 100 flights to
get it into proper trim before he flew it in a
contest.
Competitively Dave did well throughout
his career. He was among the first to be
invited to the Tournament of Champions and
in 1975 he made his first US World
Championships team, placing third overall.
He flew in five subsequent World
Championships, collecting three individual
Silvers and one Bronze, and several Gold
team awards.
In 1979 Dave Brown Products began in
the basement of his house. As the company
grew, Dave eventually built its current
building and introduced the first RC flight
simulator. Premiering at the 1985 WRAM
Show, it was an instant hit, and eventually the
idea of using a simulator as training was
accepted as the best way to speed the training
of a new RC flier.
When good friend and mentor, Don
Lowe, was elected District III Vice President,
Don appointed Dave to the AMA Contest
Board. Don stayed on as vice president
through 1979 when Dave ran for and was
elected to the position of AMA District III
vice president.
Dave’s interest turned toward the financial
aspects of AMA’s management. He promoted
a finance committee, which he ended up
chairing. Working with the treasurer and the
controller, this committee started the process
of updating the management of AMA’s
finances and was instrumental in the ability
of AMA to purchase its first (owned)
headquarters building in Reston, Virginia.
Dave was later elected as executive vice
president, which made him AMA’s chief
financial officer.
In 1995, Dave was elected AMA president
and remained in that post throughout 2007.
He served on the AMA Executive Council for
25 years and credits much of his success to his
wife, Sally. “None of what I have
accomplished could have been done without
her as an equal partner in the effort. She,
above all, is my rock,” Dave wrote.
Scott Christensen
Born in Minnesota, Scott Christensen was
approximately 6 years old when he and his
modeler father, George, purchased and built a
54-inch Comet Taylorcraft kit to build. Scott
was 10 when he designed and built his first
airplane: an 18-inch, shoulder wing aircraft.
He flew it for the entire summer before losing
it in a never-before-encountered phenomena:
a thermal!
Following a stint in the Air Force, Scott
settled in the Bay Area near San Francisco,
joined the Pioneer R/C club, and began flying
RC. He wrote, “I was very lucky to be able to
fly with a lot of really good and well-known
modelers such as Ken Willard, George
Steiner, Joe Foster, and Whitey Pritchard,
etc.”
Scott was asked to do some preliminary
work with a new product: MonoKote. He
covered
several
models with
the not-yetreleased
product, and
reported his
findings to
Ken Willard
and Top Flite
Models.
“Little did I
know what a
gigantic
product this
would represent to modelers everywhere and
what this small amount of work would mean
to my future career.”
He fell in with modelers who were
involved in sailplanes and designed his first
sailplane: the Pylonious.
In the winter of 1968, Scott and a group of
these fliers got together and formulated a
sailplane program loosely based on the
Diamond Program in full-scale soaring. The
four originators of the program included
Scott, Duane Hyer, Keith Brewster, and Le
Gray. They felt that if this program could be
presented nationally, it would offer a set of
goals to individual fliers as well as expedite
sailplane technology. The League of Silent
Flight (LSF) was born.
The program offered five levels of
accomplishment, each more difficult as the
flier progressed. At the time the levels were
written, equipment, batteries, and airframes
weren’t even available to allow a pilot to
accomplish Level Four or Five. They
assumed correctly that individuals and
manufacturers would meet the challenge and
develop what equipment was needed.
LSF remains a large and viable Special
Interest Group recognized by AMA,
representing the soaring community.
Scott was also involved in another type of
aeromodeling: seaplanes. He developed a
flying boat design named the Curlew. The
highly successful inverted V-hulled model
was published as a design article in RCM.
Another float-equipped aircraft, the Warlock,
soon followed. A few years later, Scott was
offered a position as a design engineer for
Airtronics, a manufacturer that had been
purchased by Cox Hobbies.
“I worked directly for one of the finest
designers of all time, Mr. Lee Renaud,” Scott
wrote. “From a design standpoint, Lee gave
me a blank sheet of paper.”
In 1979 Scott received an offer to become
vice president for Top Flite Models in
Chicago. His responsibilities included newproduct
development including kits,
MonoKote, and ultimately the company’s
first ARF. In his 10 years at the company,
Scott was responsible for a number of
products including the Metrick, the Antares,
the Wristocrat, the Phasour, and more.
When Top Flite was sold to Hobbico,
Scott moved to Champaign, Illinois, as
director of product development. Two years
later he accepted an offer to work for
Hobbycraft Co., Inc., a company that offers
unique services to US hobby manufacturers.
The position allowed him to travel and
develop contacts worldwide; however, Scott
missed designing and creating models.
In 1999, Scott accepted an offer from Sig
Manufacturing, and was appointed director of
research and development. “My position at
Sig offers me the best of all worlds,” he
wrote. “For a lifelong modeler, such as
myself, working for Sig and being able to
positively contribute to their great product
line, represents everything I’ve ever wanted
and worked for in the hobby industry.”
Robert (Bob) Davis
Bob Davis is a lifetime modeler. His early
aircraft experience included the diesel-fueled
Drone Diesel engine marketed by Leon
Shulman. Bob’s nomination came from
longtime modeler and friend, Stu Richmond.
In 1975, Bob formed the Davis Diesel
Development
Corp., which
developed
Davis Diesel
Converters.
These
converters
were
precisionmanufactured
add-on units
for existing
glow-powered
models and
were first
demonstrated
at the 1975 Dayton Nationals. Bob’s
company also offers specially blended Davis
Diesel fuels.
A Davis Diesel Converter Head, placed
on a standard glow engine (in place of the
glow head that comes with the engine), offers
several advantages. The engine is quieter in
flight and will develop more usable power.
The power can be used to turn a larger, more
efficient propeller. The engine sucks in less
air and the venturi’s air sound is lessened.
The engine needs no glow plug.
Additionally, converting an engine to
diesel power generally extends the life of the
power plant. Model diesel fuel’s kerosene
adds natural lubricity to the engine.
Compared with an equal volume of standard
glow fuel, the kerosene will run longer and
yield more horsepower. The converters are
available for all popular glow engines.
Another division of Davis Diesel is
Carbonic Motors. This division has produced
the ultimate in quiet power, bringing CO2
technology to another level of usefulness.
This alternative to expensive, heavy electric
motors or winding rubber bands offers a
simple, reliable, quiet, and lightweight power
plant in larger, more usable sizes.
Davis Diesel’s CO2 motors and diesel-
MODEL AVIATION
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January 2009 181
conversion engines operate at sound levels
considerably lower than comparable gas
engines. Bob’s development of SoundMaster
mufflers, “soft” engine mounting, tuned
pipes, and a variety of other products are
significant contributions in the effort to
decrease the noise produced by model
aircraft.
Bob received AMA’s Technical
Achievement Award in 1990 for his many
contributions to model engine technology.
Robert “Bob” Fiorenze
Bob Fiorenze of Maitland, Florida, has
been involved in aeromodeling since 1958.
He is perhaps best known as the first to fly a
turbine-powered model aircraft (JPX
Turbine) in the United States. Bob was
appointed to AMA’s original Turbine Safety
Committee along with former AMA
president Don Lowe.
Bob has
held his FAA
A&P
Mechanics
Rating since
1969, and
earned his
pilot’s
license for
both
helicopters
and airplanes
in 1974. At
one time he
worked for a
major airline
and much
later Bob built his own helicopter, a 1997
Rotorway Exec 90 that won the Sun ’n Fun
Grand Champion prize. He described the
project on his Web site.
“On September 12, 1997, the first flights
were completed with the Rotorway Exec 90.
After many final adjustments and checks, the
Exec 90 was taken up to altitude and flown
around the airport area. This project has taken
a little over a year. There are many
enhancements not called for by the factory to
make this an exceptional bird. The Rotorway
puts a practical, low-cost helicopter within
the reach of someone who is willing to do the
assembly from kit form. It is a two-place
helicopter that runs on standard automotive
fuel and has about the same climb rate and
cruising speed of a Cessna 152. The
Rotorway of course will fly much slower and
land almost anywhere.”
Bob has been an active competitor in the
model aircraft field, winning the 1983 and
1985 Scale Nats with his A-4 Skyhawk
ducted-fan jet and his Black Bunny F-4
Phantom twin-ducted-fan jet respectively.
Flying an F-18 Hornet twin-ducted-fan jet,
Bob placed first in the 1988 US Scale
Masters, the 1989 Top Gun Invitational, and
the 1989 Scale Nats.
Nominated for the Model Aviation Hall of
Fame by Wallace Zober and Vinny
Caratozzolo, Bob is considered a model jet
legend, well-known for his high-speed, lowaltitude
passes. Considered a master builder
and flier, he is in great demand as a demo
pilot, performing during half-times and
breaks at air shows across the US.
His modeling interests are varied and in
addition to Scale and jets, he enjoys
helicopters, warbirds, and electrics. His
building and flying skills have received
recognition at contests, fly-ins, jet rallies, and
national events.
Bob currently owns Bob Fiorenze Model
Products, specializing in jets, electrics,
helicopters, and giant electric models.
Products sold include the T-38 Talon, his Air
Speed Indicator, and Proportional Hydraulic
Brakes. Bob also does test flying and
consulting work for Bob Violett Models.
As an accomplished author and
photographer, Bob has been a contributing
writer for a number of publications including
MA, RCM, Flying Models, and Scale R/C
Modeler.
David Gray
David Gray is credited with inventing and
flying the first RC helicopter in 1970. The
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum has David’s original model on
display.
David began modeling early, building his
first model aircraft—a 25¢ F6F Hellcat—
when he was only 7 years old. Because of the
scarcity of material during World War II,
David began designing and building his own
models, often with better results than what
was offered at the time.
His family moved to Michigan, and in the
garage of their new
house, David
discovered a box
full of built-up,
rubber-powered
airplanes and an old
Rodgers engine. He
rebuilt one of the
airplanes—a 36-
inch Stuka—and
flew it with great
success.
A comic strip
called Tim Tylers
Luck piqued
David’s interest in radio-controlled models.
To be able to fly an airplane without wires
and actually control it with radio signals was
far more science fiction than reality at the
time, but it became David’s goal.
This desire led to experiments with
electric-powered airplanes, cars, and boats.
Fueled with a hand-held lantern battery and
tethered with fine strands of copper wire, the
models were steered with actuators and
escarpments.
In 1958 David married and began
working for various electrical supply firms,
adding to his knowledge of electrical motors.
In 1963, he moved back to Michigan, took a
part-time job with Glass City models, and
was excited to actually get paid for
fabricating parts and assembling pulse radio
equipment!
Two years later David started his own
company, Airtrol, where he designed and
marketed an improved pulse-radio system.
Throughout he was experimenting with radiocontrolled
models from cars to autogyros, and
helicopters began to interest him more.
Dave began experimenting with foam and
plastic aircraft and building his own vacuumforming
machines. He left Airtrol to join Jim
Merrill and open a new business called
Gramer Plastics, which produced foam
aircraft and packaging products for the
automotive industry.
David’s helicopter prototypes began to
show results. In 1970 at the RC show in
Cincinnati, Ohio, he demonstrated his .40-
powered RC helicopter which made the cover
of Model Airplane News. This model is
housed at the Smithsonian.
Dewey Broberg, president of Du-Bro,
asked to buy manufacturing rights from
David. Within several months David and his
family moved to Mundelein, Illinois, and he
began working for Du-Bro to further develop
his helicopter design. After much work and
numerous setbacks, the Du-Bro Whirley Bird
505 was produced.
The Whirley Bird enjoyed great success
and David began working on a larger, betterflying
aircraft. The semiscale Hughes 300,
powered by a 1.34 cu. in. O & R engine, was
the result. Easier to fly and more realistic
looking, the Hughes 300 led to the design of
two more helicopters: the .40-powered Tri-
Star and the Shark .60.
David and his helicopters have been
featured in numerous publications including
Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, Popular
Mechanics, and Flying Models. He has
continued to work with Du-Bro, designing
equipment for the aeromodeling industry, and
is still an integral part of the company’s
design team.
Donald J. McGovern
The late Don McGovern began modeling
in 1939. By the time he was 10 years old,
Don was designing and building his own
aircraft. By age 12, he had begun submitting
articles to modeling magazines, and a few
years later they were being published.
Perhaps best known as the editor of
Flying Models magazine from 1953 to 1979,
Don was also a competitor and prolific
designer. He designed the Custom Privateer
Seaplane that was kitted by Berkeley Models.
Nicknamed “McGovern’s Monster,” the
nearly 10-foot-wingspan aircraft was
considered
the largest
seaplane ever
built and
flown at that
time and the
largest ever
kitted.
Don
designed a
series of
smaller
Privateer
models,
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:47 PM Page 181
including the Navigator that was kitted by
Jetco Hobbies and several other designs
kitted by Berkeley. Enterprise Models kitted
Don’s 30-inch CL twin-rudder Pirate.
“He would always say, ‘Build with
‘NAG,’” wrote Jim O’Brien, Don’s sponsor
for the Hall of Fame. “NAG meant ‘no air
gap.’ He drew plans for all of his designs the
same way.”
Don wrote hundreds of articles, covering
topics including the National Aeromodeling
Championships, product reviews, others’
designs, and his own models. He became
editor of Flying Models in 1953 and
published more than 70 of his own designs.
As Berkeley’s chief designer, Don was
known for his hand-inked plans that attracted
so many modelers to the company’s kits. His
plans, easily hundreds, were accurate and
extremely detailed, making them easy for
modelers to understand and construct.
Every model Don built contained
hundreds of sticks and stringers. He didn’t
use planking and plywood, and relied on a
single-edge razor for cutting. “Can you
imagine building McGovern’s Monster with
little more than a razor blade?” wrote Jim.
“It was Don’s whole focus to get more
people involved in the hobby. He was a
person who did not seek notoriety.”
Along with a number of others, Don was
responsible for introducing Jim to
aeromodeling. “He took me almost
everywhere he went if it was related to
modeling and taught me almost every one of
his building secrets,” Jim wrote. “He told me
that I needed to teach others and he even
made me shake hands on that.”
Jim was mentored by Don for several
years, learning about FF, CL, and the
fledgling radio-control flight. Although Don
eventually moved to a larger house to
accommodate his growing family, the two
never lost touch. He left Jim with a thorough
building legacy, but much more.
“Don was one of the most devoted and
meticulous modelers I have ever met,” wrote
Jim. “Everyone who met Don took an instant
liking to him. He contributed significantly to
the growth of all facets of modeling, and in
some small way, we’re better today because
of his efforts.”
James Messer
How do you make a grown man cry?
According to Jim Messer of Sebring, Florida,
it’s easy.
“You get him to fly his airplane at the
noon-time air show in front of 1,000
spectators, and while he is doing that—with
his back turned to the audience—you
assemble his family, and all the pilots around
the announcer’s stand. Of course, without
any eyes in the back of his head, he has no
idea of what is going on behind him. Then
when he lands, and turns around, you call
him to the announcer’s stand. Gary Fitch,
DVP [AMA vice president] of District II
then announces to the world that he has just
been inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame class of 2008.”
Nominated
by Gary Fitch,
on behalf of
the Southern
Tier Aero
Radio Society
(STARS), Jim
is a
competitor,
designer,
leader, and a
teacher. Jim
has been
involved in
model aviation nearly his entire life. He
began in 1937 with 10¢ rubber band models
including the Stinson 105, Fokker D.VII, and
his favorite, the 25¢ Phantom Fury.
He built his first gas model—a Comet
Zipper—in 1941, the same year he joined
AMA and the Olean Model Airplane club in
southwestern New York State, which became
the STARS club when RC became
prominent.
Jim competed in FF contests across the
Northeast placing well and winning many.
During the 1970 Nats, he placed second out
of 583 contestants who flew that day. He
placed first in subsequent Nats in Old-Timer
airplanes and competed in CL Speed and
Stunt.
Jim was one of the first to venture into RC
model airplanes. In 1955 he purchased a
Citizenship radio, started a model shop, and
began designing and kitting aircraft. His
major achievement in this area was designing
a ¼-scale Bristol Scout. There were no
premade components for an aircraft this size,
so Jim, with the help of five other STARS
members who were building like models,
developed all of the components to make the
Giant Scale Scouts functional and
trustworthy.
Educated as a mechanical engineer, Jim
designed a geared drive train that coupled
twin .60 engines to try to fly the large model.
Eventually they employed the Quadra .35
engine, carved their own propellers for the
models, and the new Bristol Scout Squadron
took to the air.
The squadron became famous after an
appearance at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
meet, and Jim and his fellow STARS
launched the Giant Scale movement as we
know it today. Because of the STARS
members’ involvement in Giant Scale, in
2005, the Academy of Model Aeronautics
recognized the STARS flying field as an
AMA Historic Landmark.
Jim saw the coming demand for Giant
Scale models and expanded his model shop
into a world-wide mail order business named
Jim Messer’s Quality Model Products. The
business flourished and Jim even designed
and marketed his own line of ¼-scale kits.
He sold the business in 1991 and retired
to Florida, but Jim never stopped designing
and building Giant Scale models. Joining the
Highlands Radio Control Club in Sebring,
he organized a builders’ club within the
club, dedicated to teaching others how to
scratch-build.
Throughout a lifetime of aeromodeling,
Jim has developed more than 40 designs,
many of which have been marketed in plans
or kit form. He promises to retire from
modeling only when the wheels start to fall
off!
Larry Scarinzi
Nominated by John Brodak and Wallace
Zober, Larry Scarinzi has spent a lifetime in
modeling, excelling as an engineer, aircraft
designer, and competitor. Elected to the
Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots
Association (PAMPA) Hall of Fame in 2004,
Larry has become a good-will ambassador for
CL activities.
Larry began modeling as an 8-year-old
with 10¢ kits. His first gas-powered
airplane—Miss Behave—was powered by a
Forster .29 ignition engine, and he still has it.
After World War II ended, Larry joined the
Tri County Sky Rovers in Summit, New
Jersey, and tried his hand at early CL Stunt
competition.
When he began competing in official
competitions, Larry met Harold “Red”
Reinhardt and teamed up with Red for both
Stunt and Combat events.
Larry and Red often placed first and
second at the meets they attended. They flew
a Stunt pattern that included maneuvers such
as the Bolo Wingover, which involves eight
loops during a Wingover, and double Vertical
Eights.
After graduating from college with a
degree in engineering and marrying his wife,
Ginger, Larry joined Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation in Burbank, California. There he
enjoyed flying FF at Sepulveda Basin and
lunchtime CL
at nearby
Griffith Park.
That same
year, Larry
entered the
Air Force and
was stationed
at Langley
Field in
Hampton,
Virginia. He
established
the Piston
Poppers Model Airplane Club and the
members used the area in front of the test
hangar as their CL circle.
Larry was asked to build model airplanes
that could be used to test the feasibility of an
Air Force model airplane event patterned
after a Tactical Air Command (T.A.C.)
bombing strategy. He accomplished this with
a Johnson .35-powered Veco Mustang rigged
to release a bomb when full up control was
applied during the inside loop portion of a
Horizontal Eight, thereby tossing the “bomb”
at the target.
Larry was also in charge of modeling
activity at the base, and captained the
Langley Team that flew in the Air Force
worldwide championships. During this time,
Larry began writing design articles for Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, and Air
182 MODEL AVIATION
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January 2009 183
Trails. He eventually published 26 design
articles as well as a number of how-to articles
and event reports.
Two of Larry’s models were produced by
Consolidated Models: Giant Killer in 1960
and #570, which was introduced in 1962.
After leaving the Air Force in late 1957,
Larry returned to North Jersey and went back
to work in the engineering field. He flew at
Rich’s Hobbytown, Parsippany, New Jersey,
and at the Union Model Airplane Club, his
home club and flying field before he was in
the service.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Larry became
associated with Duke Fox, both as a friend
and in developing new products. Larry was
instrumental in developing reliable aircraft to
test the Fox engines including the Blitz and
Super Satan.
In 1970, Larry started Whippany Cycle
and Hobby Shop, a bicycle and model retail
enterprise. The bicycle boom of the early
1970s ensured the store’s success and
eventually Larry dropped the modeling
portion to concentrate solely on bicycles.
“Even though model airplanes were always
my first love,” he wrote, “I owed it to myself
and my family to earn a living.”
Larry virtually dropped out of modeling
until 1992, although he did maintain his
AMA membership and contact with a few
friends, including Duke Fox and John Miske.
John convinced Larry to join him in attending
the Chicopee Nats. He dusted off a Fox .36X
BB-powered Voodoo, and Larry was back!
“Coming back to Old-Timer stunt is like
stepping back into modeling just as I left it 20
years ago,” he wrote. “Now my interests were
definitely back to model airplanes.”
Since then, Larry hasn’t stopped flying.
He eventually sold his business and has spent
time traveling and visiting modeling events
such as the Vintage Stunt Championships in
Tucson, Arizona. “This allows me more time
for important activities like model airplanes,”
he wrote. “Maybe I can become a modeler’s
goodwill ambassador and travel a lot, making
friends and having fun.”
Vincent (Jim) Van Loo
Jim Van Loo has devoted most of his life
to the advancement of the sport and hobby of
both full-scale and model aviation. His
interest in aviation began with a ride in a
Ford Tri-Motor when he was roughly 7 years
old.
A bout with the measles and subsequent
quarantine allowed him to experiment with
building a Comet kit. With his interest in
models piqued and his parents’ support, Jim
began doing odd jobs to earn money for his
modeling projects. He saved his money and
purchased his first engine: a Bantam .19
ignition engine, which he put into a Strato-
Kitten CL model.
At age 15, Jim began competing locally in
CL events and doing well. By 1962, he
advanced to the national level, including five
visits to the Nats throughout the decade. Jim
competed with airplanes of his own design,
and became one of the first to add a muffler
to his model.
Jim joined
the Air Force
and became
an air traffic
controller,
radar
controller,
and intercept
technician,
achieving the
rank of
Airman First
Class. He was awarded the Good Conduct
medal and attended advanced military
training to become a radar and facility
instructor.
Following military service, Jim became
a Federal Aviation Administration
controller in Sioux City, Iowa, earning
accreditations including Evaluations
Proficiency Specialist, Control Tower
Manager, and Chief Air Traffic Manager of
a Level II Radar Training Facility. In all, he
spent 28 years in federal civil service.
In 1985 Jim began competing in RC
events and by 1990, he had returned to the
Nats, again with aircraft of his own design.
Jim’s designs—the Chipmunk, the Mystere
II, and his Giant Scale Extra 230—were
published in Model Airplane News, Flying
Models, and MA respectively. The
Chipmunk was kitted by Sig, and the Extra
230 and another model, his 90-inchwingspan
Taylorcraft, was kitted by R/C
Extra’s.
Jim became a CD and judge in 1960,
working at a number of large events
throughout the central United States. He
was noted for his superb public-speaking
skills, and was often asked to handle the
public announcing duties at model and fullscale
events. These appearances have
included such events as Hazel Sig’s tandem
parachute jump, local and regional fly-ins,
and once an Air Force Thunderbirds Arrival
Show.
Jim and his wife, Ruth, opened their
first hobby shop in Sioux City, Iowa, in
1966. They later opened another hobby
shop named Jim and Ruth’s Toys and
Hobbies. In 1985, with his wife and close
friends, Jim formed R/C Extra’s for the
purpose of manufacturing Giant Scale RC
models. He developed, kitted, and marketed
five new model airplane subjects.
In 1990 the company was sold to Ace
Manufacturing. Jim worked in the researchand-
development department at Ace,
helping the company develop the
company’s Big Bingo and Whiz .40, as
well as play a major part in the
development of the new radio-control
systems.
Jim has participated in a number of civic
events world-wide, promoting
aeromodeling. In 1991, he was invited to
Sicily for an international conference to
demonstrate to hospitalized children that
despite their handicaps, they can do almost
anything, including fly model airplanes.
Accompanying Jim was a man named
Stan King, a quadriplegic. Jim had helped
Stan get a special transmitter so he could
demonstrate his skills at the conference.
Jim served as president of the
International Miniature Aircraft
Association (IMAA), traveling
internationally to attend events and promote
aeromodeling. During his presidency, the
membership of IMAA increased from 3,500
to more than 8,000.
Between 1967 and 2000, Jim published
construction articles and kit reviews in a
number of magazines including MA, Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, R/C Report,
Scale R/C Modelers, and R/C Excellence.
He was a regular columnist for R/C Report
and R/C Excellence, covering the RC Giants
arena, and regularly covered RC Giants
events.
Jim Van Loo has been an outstanding
national and international ambassador for
aeromodeling, the IMAA, and AMA.
Vice President that were accepted by the
EC at the April 18, 2008 meeting and
ratified by Leader Member vote sent June
6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIII: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to adopt
and implement as of January 1, 2009 the
Bylaw amendments (Motions V through
XI) dealing with the new Chief Financial
Officer/Treasurer position that were
accepted by the EC at the April 18, 2008
meeting and ratified by Leader Member
vote sent June 6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to
approve the Executive Vice President
Position Description Revision 2 of the
Bylaw Committee for implementation on
January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by T. Stillman (V) to
approve the Chief Financial Officer/
Treasurer Position Description Revision
2 of the Bylaw Committee for
implementation on January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVI: Moved by G. Fitch (II) and
seconded by T. Stillman (V) to adopt the
changes to the AMA Contest Board
Procedures document as submitted
October 25, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVII: Moved by G. Fitch (II)
and seconded by J. Rice (VIII) to accept
the report of the Air Show Team and
funding of $12,535 for 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
EC Motions continued from page 177
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:48 PM Page 183
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/01
Page Numbers: 179,180,181,182,183
January 2009 179
ESTABLISHED IN 1969, the Model Aviation Hall of Fame
honors those men and women who have made significant
contributions to the sport of aeromodeling.
The list of members is long and distinguished. These people
have made contributions to model aviation through volunteer or
administrative activities, product development, competition
performance, or a variety or combination of activities.
The Hall of Fame Selection Committee is composed of past
AMA presidents and one Hall of Fame member selected from
each of the 11 districts by the respective vice presidents.
Each year a new class is inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame and the winners are announced in MA. Anyone may
submit a Hall of Fame nomination form.
For a nomination form or further information, contact Jackie
Shalberg at (765) 287-1256, ext. 511, or find the current form
online at www.modelaircraft.org, document 152.
The committee has selected the following people for the 2008
Model Aviation Hall of Fame.
Modell Aviiattiion Hallll off Fame
Cllassss off 2008
Ralph N. Andrae
Ralph Andrae is possibly best
remembered for inventing and patenting a
retractable landing gear for RC models.
Ralph was born in Chicago in 1938.
Growing up near O’Hare Airport, he spent
many hours
sitting in a
field adjacent
to the airport
watching the
aircraft of the
day come and
go. At the age
of 8, Ralph
was already
designing
airplanes,
little knowing
that he would
someday
make a living
with his knowledge of the hobby and
innovative mind.
The American Art Institute of Design in
Chicago is where Ralph honed his drafting
and design talents. He became a design
engineer for Bastian Blessing Company, a
company specializing in the design and
building of commercial restaurants. He
worked with the team that developed kitchen
equipment for McDonalds.
With drafting facilities available at the
company, Ralph was able to create the
blueprints for the scale model aircraft plans
he sold to hobbyists of the time and later used
to launch his career in the hobby industry. He
advertised his T.B.F. Avenger plans in Model
Airplane News, then went on to draw and sell
plans for a number of scale World War II
models including the A-30 Baltimore
Bomber, the F4F Wildcat, and the Zero
fighter.
By 1967 Ralph had purchased a building
in Morton Grove, Illinois, and was able to
turn his endeavors into a full-time operation:
Wing Manufacturing. He developed and
patented the first operating retract system for
model aircraft and sold nearly 250,000 retract
sets before the patent expired.
Ralph began developing and selling foam
wings for the main line kits on the market. He
also began producing the “Short Kit,”
providing the hard-to-duplicate aircraft parts
such as the cowl, canopy, wingtips, landing
gear wire, etc., along with plans and
instructions. The short kits included a number
of warbirds and Ralph sold thousands.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force approached
Ralph to develop Remotely Piloted Vehicles
(RPVs) for use as target drones and
surveillance aircraft. He had to construct a
launch system for the airplanes since they had
no landing gear.
Other products developed by Ralph
included a wheel-well cover door hinge and a
“T” type control horn with three mounting
screws instead of two to allow the force of
the load to be centered over the mounting
screws, eliminating the twist that sometimes
occurred on other control-horn designs.
Ralph designed and built all of the
machinery needed to produce his products.
He developed a hobbyist line of hot-wire
foam cutting equipment that he also sold to
architectural firms, upholstery businesses,
and the general public.
Aircraft Ralph developed included an 80-
inch B-25, an HP 200 short kit, and displayonly
versions of the Beaver bush plane that
sold to a liquor company for advertising
purposes. He came out with a low-priced AT-
6 Texan kit, sponsored several local Pylon
races, and even sold the engines at cost so
everyone would have the same engine.
Ralph was a member of the Spoon River
Flyers in Maquon, Illinois, and the Galesburg
Flyers Association. He was an active
participant in the Stearman Fly-In every year.
Ralph and his Hall of Fame sponsor, Sid
Davis, were planning an RC event that would
run separate from the Stearman Fly-In when
Ralph died from heart failure in 1999.
Nearly every year since his passing, Sid
and others have honored Ralph with the
Ralph Andrea Memorial Fly Day to keep his
legacy alive.
Dave Brown
Former AMA president Dave Brown was
exposed to aviation at an early age. His father
ran a small airport and flying school when he
was young. “Infatuated with airplanes,” Dave
wrote, “I got my first gas model in about
1951, a Wen Mac Control Line model, which
didn’t last long (one flight) and was replaced
with the first of many Scientific models. I
also got, from the boyfriend of one of my
older sisters, a Brown Junior engine and,
most significantly, a large stack of model
magazines (about a one and a half foot pile).”
In later years Dave joined a newly formed
CL club in Brockton, Massachusetts, and
flew with that club until he entered the
service in 1966. He competed in many
contests and “although I was a very
enthusiastic
competitor, I
wasn’t a very
good one,”
Dave wrote.
“Trophies
were few and
far between. I
still remember
my first
trophy in, of
all classes, CL
Scale at
Topsfield,
followed the
next day with one in CL Stunt.”
In 1966, while still flying CL, Dave
married his wife, Sally, and moved into a
house on Pleasant Street in West
Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Diagonally
across the street lived the president of the
local RC club, and next door to him,
diagonally to the left, was the local basement
RC shop. In a matter of weeks Dave was into
RC with a little Schoolgirl biplane and a
single-channel Controlaire Mule.
Shortly afterward he was drafted and
ultimately enlisted in the Army. Dave was
eventually transferred to Germany and
continued to hone his RC skills, learning the
FAI schedule. When transferred back to the
US in late 1969, he flew in his first RC
contest in San Antonio, Texas, where he
entered Class D Novice (now the Expert
Class) because it used the maneuvers from
the FAI schedule and he didn’t know the
maneuvers for any of the lower classes.
Dave surprised everyone by placing
second at that contest and in his next one in
Marshall, Texas, a couple of weeks later.
Bolstered by his success, Dave went to that
year’s Nats and placed first in Class D
Novice. Booted up to the next level of
competition, Dave waited awhile for his next
win.
Discharged from service in 1970, Dave
began working at World Engines in Ohio as a
toolmaker. He found that competition was
much stiffer in the Midwest with fliers such
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as Don Lowe, Norm Page, Alan Dupler,
Dean Koger, Ivan Christensen, and later
Mark Radcliff and Tony Frackowiak
competing weekly. Don Lowe became
Dave’s mentor
Many competitors spent much time
designing and developing a “secret weapon”
airplane, but Dave was among the first to put
so much emphasis on properly trimming the
models, often taking as much as 100 flights to
get it into proper trim before he flew it in a
contest.
Competitively Dave did well throughout
his career. He was among the first to be
invited to the Tournament of Champions and
in 1975 he made his first US World
Championships team, placing third overall.
He flew in five subsequent World
Championships, collecting three individual
Silvers and one Bronze, and several Gold
team awards.
In 1979 Dave Brown Products began in
the basement of his house. As the company
grew, Dave eventually built its current
building and introduced the first RC flight
simulator. Premiering at the 1985 WRAM
Show, it was an instant hit, and eventually the
idea of using a simulator as training was
accepted as the best way to speed the training
of a new RC flier.
When good friend and mentor, Don
Lowe, was elected District III Vice President,
Don appointed Dave to the AMA Contest
Board. Don stayed on as vice president
through 1979 when Dave ran for and was
elected to the position of AMA District III
vice president.
Dave’s interest turned toward the financial
aspects of AMA’s management. He promoted
a finance committee, which he ended up
chairing. Working with the treasurer and the
controller, this committee started the process
of updating the management of AMA’s
finances and was instrumental in the ability
of AMA to purchase its first (owned)
headquarters building in Reston, Virginia.
Dave was later elected as executive vice
president, which made him AMA’s chief
financial officer.
In 1995, Dave was elected AMA president
and remained in that post throughout 2007.
He served on the AMA Executive Council for
25 years and credits much of his success to his
wife, Sally. “None of what I have
accomplished could have been done without
her as an equal partner in the effort. She,
above all, is my rock,” Dave wrote.
Scott Christensen
Born in Minnesota, Scott Christensen was
approximately 6 years old when he and his
modeler father, George, purchased and built a
54-inch Comet Taylorcraft kit to build. Scott
was 10 when he designed and built his first
airplane: an 18-inch, shoulder wing aircraft.
He flew it for the entire summer before losing
it in a never-before-encountered phenomena:
a thermal!
Following a stint in the Air Force, Scott
settled in the Bay Area near San Francisco,
joined the Pioneer R/C club, and began flying
RC. He wrote, “I was very lucky to be able to
fly with a lot of really good and well-known
modelers such as Ken Willard, George
Steiner, Joe Foster, and Whitey Pritchard,
etc.”
Scott was asked to do some preliminary
work with a new product: MonoKote. He
covered
several
models with
the not-yetreleased
product, and
reported his
findings to
Ken Willard
and Top Flite
Models.
“Little did I
know what a
gigantic
product this
would represent to modelers everywhere and
what this small amount of work would mean
to my future career.”
He fell in with modelers who were
involved in sailplanes and designed his first
sailplane: the Pylonious.
In the winter of 1968, Scott and a group of
these fliers got together and formulated a
sailplane program loosely based on the
Diamond Program in full-scale soaring. The
four originators of the program included
Scott, Duane Hyer, Keith Brewster, and Le
Gray. They felt that if this program could be
presented nationally, it would offer a set of
goals to individual fliers as well as expedite
sailplane technology. The League of Silent
Flight (LSF) was born.
The program offered five levels of
accomplishment, each more difficult as the
flier progressed. At the time the levels were
written, equipment, batteries, and airframes
weren’t even available to allow a pilot to
accomplish Level Four or Five. They
assumed correctly that individuals and
manufacturers would meet the challenge and
develop what equipment was needed.
LSF remains a large and viable Special
Interest Group recognized by AMA,
representing the soaring community.
Scott was also involved in another type of
aeromodeling: seaplanes. He developed a
flying boat design named the Curlew. The
highly successful inverted V-hulled model
was published as a design article in RCM.
Another float-equipped aircraft, the Warlock,
soon followed. A few years later, Scott was
offered a position as a design engineer for
Airtronics, a manufacturer that had been
purchased by Cox Hobbies.
“I worked directly for one of the finest
designers of all time, Mr. Lee Renaud,” Scott
wrote. “From a design standpoint, Lee gave
me a blank sheet of paper.”
In 1979 Scott received an offer to become
vice president for Top Flite Models in
Chicago. His responsibilities included newproduct
development including kits,
MonoKote, and ultimately the company’s
first ARF. In his 10 years at the company,
Scott was responsible for a number of
products including the Metrick, the Antares,
the Wristocrat, the Phasour, and more.
When Top Flite was sold to Hobbico,
Scott moved to Champaign, Illinois, as
director of product development. Two years
later he accepted an offer to work for
Hobbycraft Co., Inc., a company that offers
unique services to US hobby manufacturers.
The position allowed him to travel and
develop contacts worldwide; however, Scott
missed designing and creating models.
In 1999, Scott accepted an offer from Sig
Manufacturing, and was appointed director of
research and development. “My position at
Sig offers me the best of all worlds,” he
wrote. “For a lifelong modeler, such as
myself, working for Sig and being able to
positively contribute to their great product
line, represents everything I’ve ever wanted
and worked for in the hobby industry.”
Robert (Bob) Davis
Bob Davis is a lifetime modeler. His early
aircraft experience included the diesel-fueled
Drone Diesel engine marketed by Leon
Shulman. Bob’s nomination came from
longtime modeler and friend, Stu Richmond.
In 1975, Bob formed the Davis Diesel
Development
Corp., which
developed
Davis Diesel
Converters.
These
converters
were
precisionmanufactured
add-on units
for existing
glow-powered
models and
were first
demonstrated
at the 1975 Dayton Nationals. Bob’s
company also offers specially blended Davis
Diesel fuels.
A Davis Diesel Converter Head, placed
on a standard glow engine (in place of the
glow head that comes with the engine), offers
several advantages. The engine is quieter in
flight and will develop more usable power.
The power can be used to turn a larger, more
efficient propeller. The engine sucks in less
air and the venturi’s air sound is lessened.
The engine needs no glow plug.
Additionally, converting an engine to
diesel power generally extends the life of the
power plant. Model diesel fuel’s kerosene
adds natural lubricity to the engine.
Compared with an equal volume of standard
glow fuel, the kerosene will run longer and
yield more horsepower. The converters are
available for all popular glow engines.
Another division of Davis Diesel is
Carbonic Motors. This division has produced
the ultimate in quiet power, bringing CO2
technology to another level of usefulness.
This alternative to expensive, heavy electric
motors or winding rubber bands offers a
simple, reliable, quiet, and lightweight power
plant in larger, more usable sizes.
Davis Diesel’s CO2 motors and diesel-
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January 2009 181
conversion engines operate at sound levels
considerably lower than comparable gas
engines. Bob’s development of SoundMaster
mufflers, “soft” engine mounting, tuned
pipes, and a variety of other products are
significant contributions in the effort to
decrease the noise produced by model
aircraft.
Bob received AMA’s Technical
Achievement Award in 1990 for his many
contributions to model engine technology.
Robert “Bob” Fiorenze
Bob Fiorenze of Maitland, Florida, has
been involved in aeromodeling since 1958.
He is perhaps best known as the first to fly a
turbine-powered model aircraft (JPX
Turbine) in the United States. Bob was
appointed to AMA’s original Turbine Safety
Committee along with former AMA
president Don Lowe.
Bob has
held his FAA
A&P
Mechanics
Rating since
1969, and
earned his
pilot’s
license for
both
helicopters
and airplanes
in 1974. At
one time he
worked for a
major airline
and much
later Bob built his own helicopter, a 1997
Rotorway Exec 90 that won the Sun ’n Fun
Grand Champion prize. He described the
project on his Web site.
“On September 12, 1997, the first flights
were completed with the Rotorway Exec 90.
After many final adjustments and checks, the
Exec 90 was taken up to altitude and flown
around the airport area. This project has taken
a little over a year. There are many
enhancements not called for by the factory to
make this an exceptional bird. The Rotorway
puts a practical, low-cost helicopter within
the reach of someone who is willing to do the
assembly from kit form. It is a two-place
helicopter that runs on standard automotive
fuel and has about the same climb rate and
cruising speed of a Cessna 152. The
Rotorway of course will fly much slower and
land almost anywhere.”
Bob has been an active competitor in the
model aircraft field, winning the 1983 and
1985 Scale Nats with his A-4 Skyhawk
ducted-fan jet and his Black Bunny F-4
Phantom twin-ducted-fan jet respectively.
Flying an F-18 Hornet twin-ducted-fan jet,
Bob placed first in the 1988 US Scale
Masters, the 1989 Top Gun Invitational, and
the 1989 Scale Nats.
Nominated for the Model Aviation Hall of
Fame by Wallace Zober and Vinny
Caratozzolo, Bob is considered a model jet
legend, well-known for his high-speed, lowaltitude
passes. Considered a master builder
and flier, he is in great demand as a demo
pilot, performing during half-times and
breaks at air shows across the US.
His modeling interests are varied and in
addition to Scale and jets, he enjoys
helicopters, warbirds, and electrics. His
building and flying skills have received
recognition at contests, fly-ins, jet rallies, and
national events.
Bob currently owns Bob Fiorenze Model
Products, specializing in jets, electrics,
helicopters, and giant electric models.
Products sold include the T-38 Talon, his Air
Speed Indicator, and Proportional Hydraulic
Brakes. Bob also does test flying and
consulting work for Bob Violett Models.
As an accomplished author and
photographer, Bob has been a contributing
writer for a number of publications including
MA, RCM, Flying Models, and Scale R/C
Modeler.
David Gray
David Gray is credited with inventing and
flying the first RC helicopter in 1970. The
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum has David’s original model on
display.
David began modeling early, building his
first model aircraft—a 25¢ F6F Hellcat—
when he was only 7 years old. Because of the
scarcity of material during World War II,
David began designing and building his own
models, often with better results than what
was offered at the time.
His family moved to Michigan, and in the
garage of their new
house, David
discovered a box
full of built-up,
rubber-powered
airplanes and an old
Rodgers engine. He
rebuilt one of the
airplanes—a 36-
inch Stuka—and
flew it with great
success.
A comic strip
called Tim Tylers
Luck piqued
David’s interest in radio-controlled models.
To be able to fly an airplane without wires
and actually control it with radio signals was
far more science fiction than reality at the
time, but it became David’s goal.
This desire led to experiments with
electric-powered airplanes, cars, and boats.
Fueled with a hand-held lantern battery and
tethered with fine strands of copper wire, the
models were steered with actuators and
escarpments.
In 1958 David married and began
working for various electrical supply firms,
adding to his knowledge of electrical motors.
In 1963, he moved back to Michigan, took a
part-time job with Glass City models, and
was excited to actually get paid for
fabricating parts and assembling pulse radio
equipment!
Two years later David started his own
company, Airtrol, where he designed and
marketed an improved pulse-radio system.
Throughout he was experimenting with radiocontrolled
models from cars to autogyros, and
helicopters began to interest him more.
Dave began experimenting with foam and
plastic aircraft and building his own vacuumforming
machines. He left Airtrol to join Jim
Merrill and open a new business called
Gramer Plastics, which produced foam
aircraft and packaging products for the
automotive industry.
David’s helicopter prototypes began to
show results. In 1970 at the RC show in
Cincinnati, Ohio, he demonstrated his .40-
powered RC helicopter which made the cover
of Model Airplane News. This model is
housed at the Smithsonian.
Dewey Broberg, president of Du-Bro,
asked to buy manufacturing rights from
David. Within several months David and his
family moved to Mundelein, Illinois, and he
began working for Du-Bro to further develop
his helicopter design. After much work and
numerous setbacks, the Du-Bro Whirley Bird
505 was produced.
The Whirley Bird enjoyed great success
and David began working on a larger, betterflying
aircraft. The semiscale Hughes 300,
powered by a 1.34 cu. in. O & R engine, was
the result. Easier to fly and more realistic
looking, the Hughes 300 led to the design of
two more helicopters: the .40-powered Tri-
Star and the Shark .60.
David and his helicopters have been
featured in numerous publications including
Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, Popular
Mechanics, and Flying Models. He has
continued to work with Du-Bro, designing
equipment for the aeromodeling industry, and
is still an integral part of the company’s
design team.
Donald J. McGovern
The late Don McGovern began modeling
in 1939. By the time he was 10 years old,
Don was designing and building his own
aircraft. By age 12, he had begun submitting
articles to modeling magazines, and a few
years later they were being published.
Perhaps best known as the editor of
Flying Models magazine from 1953 to 1979,
Don was also a competitor and prolific
designer. He designed the Custom Privateer
Seaplane that was kitted by Berkeley Models.
Nicknamed “McGovern’s Monster,” the
nearly 10-foot-wingspan aircraft was
considered
the largest
seaplane ever
built and
flown at that
time and the
largest ever
kitted.
Don
designed a
series of
smaller
Privateer
models,
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including the Navigator that was kitted by
Jetco Hobbies and several other designs
kitted by Berkeley. Enterprise Models kitted
Don’s 30-inch CL twin-rudder Pirate.
“He would always say, ‘Build with
‘NAG,’” wrote Jim O’Brien, Don’s sponsor
for the Hall of Fame. “NAG meant ‘no air
gap.’ He drew plans for all of his designs the
same way.”
Don wrote hundreds of articles, covering
topics including the National Aeromodeling
Championships, product reviews, others’
designs, and his own models. He became
editor of Flying Models in 1953 and
published more than 70 of his own designs.
As Berkeley’s chief designer, Don was
known for his hand-inked plans that attracted
so many modelers to the company’s kits. His
plans, easily hundreds, were accurate and
extremely detailed, making them easy for
modelers to understand and construct.
Every model Don built contained
hundreds of sticks and stringers. He didn’t
use planking and plywood, and relied on a
single-edge razor for cutting. “Can you
imagine building McGovern’s Monster with
little more than a razor blade?” wrote Jim.
“It was Don’s whole focus to get more
people involved in the hobby. He was a
person who did not seek notoriety.”
Along with a number of others, Don was
responsible for introducing Jim to
aeromodeling. “He took me almost
everywhere he went if it was related to
modeling and taught me almost every one of
his building secrets,” Jim wrote. “He told me
that I needed to teach others and he even
made me shake hands on that.”
Jim was mentored by Don for several
years, learning about FF, CL, and the
fledgling radio-control flight. Although Don
eventually moved to a larger house to
accommodate his growing family, the two
never lost touch. He left Jim with a thorough
building legacy, but much more.
“Don was one of the most devoted and
meticulous modelers I have ever met,” wrote
Jim. “Everyone who met Don took an instant
liking to him. He contributed significantly to
the growth of all facets of modeling, and in
some small way, we’re better today because
of his efforts.”
James Messer
How do you make a grown man cry?
According to Jim Messer of Sebring, Florida,
it’s easy.
“You get him to fly his airplane at the
noon-time air show in front of 1,000
spectators, and while he is doing that—with
his back turned to the audience—you
assemble his family, and all the pilots around
the announcer’s stand. Of course, without
any eyes in the back of his head, he has no
idea of what is going on behind him. Then
when he lands, and turns around, you call
him to the announcer’s stand. Gary Fitch,
DVP [AMA vice president] of District II
then announces to the world that he has just
been inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame class of 2008.”
Nominated
by Gary Fitch,
on behalf of
the Southern
Tier Aero
Radio Society
(STARS), Jim
is a
competitor,
designer,
leader, and a
teacher. Jim
has been
involved in
model aviation nearly his entire life. He
began in 1937 with 10¢ rubber band models
including the Stinson 105, Fokker D.VII, and
his favorite, the 25¢ Phantom Fury.
He built his first gas model—a Comet
Zipper—in 1941, the same year he joined
AMA and the Olean Model Airplane club in
southwestern New York State, which became
the STARS club when RC became
prominent.
Jim competed in FF contests across the
Northeast placing well and winning many.
During the 1970 Nats, he placed second out
of 583 contestants who flew that day. He
placed first in subsequent Nats in Old-Timer
airplanes and competed in CL Speed and
Stunt.
Jim was one of the first to venture into RC
model airplanes. In 1955 he purchased a
Citizenship radio, started a model shop, and
began designing and kitting aircraft. His
major achievement in this area was designing
a ¼-scale Bristol Scout. There were no
premade components for an aircraft this size,
so Jim, with the help of five other STARS
members who were building like models,
developed all of the components to make the
Giant Scale Scouts functional and
trustworthy.
Educated as a mechanical engineer, Jim
designed a geared drive train that coupled
twin .60 engines to try to fly the large model.
Eventually they employed the Quadra .35
engine, carved their own propellers for the
models, and the new Bristol Scout Squadron
took to the air.
The squadron became famous after an
appearance at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
meet, and Jim and his fellow STARS
launched the Giant Scale movement as we
know it today. Because of the STARS
members’ involvement in Giant Scale, in
2005, the Academy of Model Aeronautics
recognized the STARS flying field as an
AMA Historic Landmark.
Jim saw the coming demand for Giant
Scale models and expanded his model shop
into a world-wide mail order business named
Jim Messer’s Quality Model Products. The
business flourished and Jim even designed
and marketed his own line of ¼-scale kits.
He sold the business in 1991 and retired
to Florida, but Jim never stopped designing
and building Giant Scale models. Joining the
Highlands Radio Control Club in Sebring,
he organized a builders’ club within the
club, dedicated to teaching others how to
scratch-build.
Throughout a lifetime of aeromodeling,
Jim has developed more than 40 designs,
many of which have been marketed in plans
or kit form. He promises to retire from
modeling only when the wheels start to fall
off!
Larry Scarinzi
Nominated by John Brodak and Wallace
Zober, Larry Scarinzi has spent a lifetime in
modeling, excelling as an engineer, aircraft
designer, and competitor. Elected to the
Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots
Association (PAMPA) Hall of Fame in 2004,
Larry has become a good-will ambassador for
CL activities.
Larry began modeling as an 8-year-old
with 10¢ kits. His first gas-powered
airplane—Miss Behave—was powered by a
Forster .29 ignition engine, and he still has it.
After World War II ended, Larry joined the
Tri County Sky Rovers in Summit, New
Jersey, and tried his hand at early CL Stunt
competition.
When he began competing in official
competitions, Larry met Harold “Red”
Reinhardt and teamed up with Red for both
Stunt and Combat events.
Larry and Red often placed first and
second at the meets they attended. They flew
a Stunt pattern that included maneuvers such
as the Bolo Wingover, which involves eight
loops during a Wingover, and double Vertical
Eights.
After graduating from college with a
degree in engineering and marrying his wife,
Ginger, Larry joined Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation in Burbank, California. There he
enjoyed flying FF at Sepulveda Basin and
lunchtime CL
at nearby
Griffith Park.
That same
year, Larry
entered the
Air Force and
was stationed
at Langley
Field in
Hampton,
Virginia. He
established
the Piston
Poppers Model Airplane Club and the
members used the area in front of the test
hangar as their CL circle.
Larry was asked to build model airplanes
that could be used to test the feasibility of an
Air Force model airplane event patterned
after a Tactical Air Command (T.A.C.)
bombing strategy. He accomplished this with
a Johnson .35-powered Veco Mustang rigged
to release a bomb when full up control was
applied during the inside loop portion of a
Horizontal Eight, thereby tossing the “bomb”
at the target.
Larry was also in charge of modeling
activity at the base, and captained the
Langley Team that flew in the Air Force
worldwide championships. During this time,
Larry began writing design articles for Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, and Air
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Trails. He eventually published 26 design
articles as well as a number of how-to articles
and event reports.
Two of Larry’s models were produced by
Consolidated Models: Giant Killer in 1960
and #570, which was introduced in 1962.
After leaving the Air Force in late 1957,
Larry returned to North Jersey and went back
to work in the engineering field. He flew at
Rich’s Hobbytown, Parsippany, New Jersey,
and at the Union Model Airplane Club, his
home club and flying field before he was in
the service.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Larry became
associated with Duke Fox, both as a friend
and in developing new products. Larry was
instrumental in developing reliable aircraft to
test the Fox engines including the Blitz and
Super Satan.
In 1970, Larry started Whippany Cycle
and Hobby Shop, a bicycle and model retail
enterprise. The bicycle boom of the early
1970s ensured the store’s success and
eventually Larry dropped the modeling
portion to concentrate solely on bicycles.
“Even though model airplanes were always
my first love,” he wrote, “I owed it to myself
and my family to earn a living.”
Larry virtually dropped out of modeling
until 1992, although he did maintain his
AMA membership and contact with a few
friends, including Duke Fox and John Miske.
John convinced Larry to join him in attending
the Chicopee Nats. He dusted off a Fox .36X
BB-powered Voodoo, and Larry was back!
“Coming back to Old-Timer stunt is like
stepping back into modeling just as I left it 20
years ago,” he wrote. “Now my interests were
definitely back to model airplanes.”
Since then, Larry hasn’t stopped flying.
He eventually sold his business and has spent
time traveling and visiting modeling events
such as the Vintage Stunt Championships in
Tucson, Arizona. “This allows me more time
for important activities like model airplanes,”
he wrote. “Maybe I can become a modeler’s
goodwill ambassador and travel a lot, making
friends and having fun.”
Vincent (Jim) Van Loo
Jim Van Loo has devoted most of his life
to the advancement of the sport and hobby of
both full-scale and model aviation. His
interest in aviation began with a ride in a
Ford Tri-Motor when he was roughly 7 years
old.
A bout with the measles and subsequent
quarantine allowed him to experiment with
building a Comet kit. With his interest in
models piqued and his parents’ support, Jim
began doing odd jobs to earn money for his
modeling projects. He saved his money and
purchased his first engine: a Bantam .19
ignition engine, which he put into a Strato-
Kitten CL model.
At age 15, Jim began competing locally in
CL events and doing well. By 1962, he
advanced to the national level, including five
visits to the Nats throughout the decade. Jim
competed with airplanes of his own design,
and became one of the first to add a muffler
to his model.
Jim joined
the Air Force
and became
an air traffic
controller,
radar
controller,
and intercept
technician,
achieving the
rank of
Airman First
Class. He was awarded the Good Conduct
medal and attended advanced military
training to become a radar and facility
instructor.
Following military service, Jim became
a Federal Aviation Administration
controller in Sioux City, Iowa, earning
accreditations including Evaluations
Proficiency Specialist, Control Tower
Manager, and Chief Air Traffic Manager of
a Level II Radar Training Facility. In all, he
spent 28 years in federal civil service.
In 1985 Jim began competing in RC
events and by 1990, he had returned to the
Nats, again with aircraft of his own design.
Jim’s designs—the Chipmunk, the Mystere
II, and his Giant Scale Extra 230—were
published in Model Airplane News, Flying
Models, and MA respectively. The
Chipmunk was kitted by Sig, and the Extra
230 and another model, his 90-inchwingspan
Taylorcraft, was kitted by R/C
Extra’s.
Jim became a CD and judge in 1960,
working at a number of large events
throughout the central United States. He
was noted for his superb public-speaking
skills, and was often asked to handle the
public announcing duties at model and fullscale
events. These appearances have
included such events as Hazel Sig’s tandem
parachute jump, local and regional fly-ins,
and once an Air Force Thunderbirds Arrival
Show.
Jim and his wife, Ruth, opened their
first hobby shop in Sioux City, Iowa, in
1966. They later opened another hobby
shop named Jim and Ruth’s Toys and
Hobbies. In 1985, with his wife and close
friends, Jim formed R/C Extra’s for the
purpose of manufacturing Giant Scale RC
models. He developed, kitted, and marketed
five new model airplane subjects.
In 1990 the company was sold to Ace
Manufacturing. Jim worked in the researchand-
development department at Ace,
helping the company develop the
company’s Big Bingo and Whiz .40, as
well as play a major part in the
development of the new radio-control
systems.
Jim has participated in a number of civic
events world-wide, promoting
aeromodeling. In 1991, he was invited to
Sicily for an international conference to
demonstrate to hospitalized children that
despite their handicaps, they can do almost
anything, including fly model airplanes.
Accompanying Jim was a man named
Stan King, a quadriplegic. Jim had helped
Stan get a special transmitter so he could
demonstrate his skills at the conference.
Jim served as president of the
International Miniature Aircraft
Association (IMAA), traveling
internationally to attend events and promote
aeromodeling. During his presidency, the
membership of IMAA increased from 3,500
to more than 8,000.
Between 1967 and 2000, Jim published
construction articles and kit reviews in a
number of magazines including MA, Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, R/C Report,
Scale R/C Modelers, and R/C Excellence.
He was a regular columnist for R/C Report
and R/C Excellence, covering the RC Giants
arena, and regularly covered RC Giants
events.
Jim Van Loo has been an outstanding
national and international ambassador for
aeromodeling, the IMAA, and AMA.
Vice President that were accepted by the
EC at the April 18, 2008 meeting and
ratified by Leader Member vote sent June
6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIII: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to adopt
and implement as of January 1, 2009 the
Bylaw amendments (Motions V through
XI) dealing with the new Chief Financial
Officer/Treasurer position that were
accepted by the EC at the April 18, 2008
meeting and ratified by Leader Member
vote sent June 6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to
approve the Executive Vice President
Position Description Revision 2 of the
Bylaw Committee for implementation on
January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by T. Stillman (V) to
approve the Chief Financial Officer/
Treasurer Position Description Revision
2 of the Bylaw Committee for
implementation on January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVI: Moved by G. Fitch (II) and
seconded by T. Stillman (V) to adopt the
changes to the AMA Contest Board
Procedures document as submitted
October 25, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVII: Moved by G. Fitch (II)
and seconded by J. Rice (VIII) to accept
the report of the Air Show Team and
funding of $12,535 for 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
EC Motions continued from page 177
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:48 PM Page 183
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/01
Page Numbers: 179,180,181,182,183
January 2009 179
ESTABLISHED IN 1969, the Model Aviation Hall of Fame
honors those men and women who have made significant
contributions to the sport of aeromodeling.
The list of members is long and distinguished. These people
have made contributions to model aviation through volunteer or
administrative activities, product development, competition
performance, or a variety or combination of activities.
The Hall of Fame Selection Committee is composed of past
AMA presidents and one Hall of Fame member selected from
each of the 11 districts by the respective vice presidents.
Each year a new class is inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame and the winners are announced in MA. Anyone may
submit a Hall of Fame nomination form.
For a nomination form or further information, contact Jackie
Shalberg at (765) 287-1256, ext. 511, or find the current form
online at www.modelaircraft.org, document 152.
The committee has selected the following people for the 2008
Model Aviation Hall of Fame.
Modell Aviiattiion Hallll off Fame
Cllassss off 2008
Ralph N. Andrae
Ralph Andrae is possibly best
remembered for inventing and patenting a
retractable landing gear for RC models.
Ralph was born in Chicago in 1938.
Growing up near O’Hare Airport, he spent
many hours
sitting in a
field adjacent
to the airport
watching the
aircraft of the
day come and
go. At the age
of 8, Ralph
was already
designing
airplanes,
little knowing
that he would
someday
make a living
with his knowledge of the hobby and
innovative mind.
The American Art Institute of Design in
Chicago is where Ralph honed his drafting
and design talents. He became a design
engineer for Bastian Blessing Company, a
company specializing in the design and
building of commercial restaurants. He
worked with the team that developed kitchen
equipment for McDonalds.
With drafting facilities available at the
company, Ralph was able to create the
blueprints for the scale model aircraft plans
he sold to hobbyists of the time and later used
to launch his career in the hobby industry. He
advertised his T.B.F. Avenger plans in Model
Airplane News, then went on to draw and sell
plans for a number of scale World War II
models including the A-30 Baltimore
Bomber, the F4F Wildcat, and the Zero
fighter.
By 1967 Ralph had purchased a building
in Morton Grove, Illinois, and was able to
turn his endeavors into a full-time operation:
Wing Manufacturing. He developed and
patented the first operating retract system for
model aircraft and sold nearly 250,000 retract
sets before the patent expired.
Ralph began developing and selling foam
wings for the main line kits on the market. He
also began producing the “Short Kit,”
providing the hard-to-duplicate aircraft parts
such as the cowl, canopy, wingtips, landing
gear wire, etc., along with plans and
instructions. The short kits included a number
of warbirds and Ralph sold thousands.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force approached
Ralph to develop Remotely Piloted Vehicles
(RPVs) for use as target drones and
surveillance aircraft. He had to construct a
launch system for the airplanes since they had
no landing gear.
Other products developed by Ralph
included a wheel-well cover door hinge and a
“T” type control horn with three mounting
screws instead of two to allow the force of
the load to be centered over the mounting
screws, eliminating the twist that sometimes
occurred on other control-horn designs.
Ralph designed and built all of the
machinery needed to produce his products.
He developed a hobbyist line of hot-wire
foam cutting equipment that he also sold to
architectural firms, upholstery businesses,
and the general public.
Aircraft Ralph developed included an 80-
inch B-25, an HP 200 short kit, and displayonly
versions of the Beaver bush plane that
sold to a liquor company for advertising
purposes. He came out with a low-priced AT-
6 Texan kit, sponsored several local Pylon
races, and even sold the engines at cost so
everyone would have the same engine.
Ralph was a member of the Spoon River
Flyers in Maquon, Illinois, and the Galesburg
Flyers Association. He was an active
participant in the Stearman Fly-In every year.
Ralph and his Hall of Fame sponsor, Sid
Davis, were planning an RC event that would
run separate from the Stearman Fly-In when
Ralph died from heart failure in 1999.
Nearly every year since his passing, Sid
and others have honored Ralph with the
Ralph Andrea Memorial Fly Day to keep his
legacy alive.
Dave Brown
Former AMA president Dave Brown was
exposed to aviation at an early age. His father
ran a small airport and flying school when he
was young. “Infatuated with airplanes,” Dave
wrote, “I got my first gas model in about
1951, a Wen Mac Control Line model, which
didn’t last long (one flight) and was replaced
with the first of many Scientific models. I
also got, from the boyfriend of one of my
older sisters, a Brown Junior engine and,
most significantly, a large stack of model
magazines (about a one and a half foot pile).”
In later years Dave joined a newly formed
CL club in Brockton, Massachusetts, and
flew with that club until he entered the
service in 1966. He competed in many
contests and “although I was a very
enthusiastic
competitor, I
wasn’t a very
good one,”
Dave wrote.
“Trophies
were few and
far between. I
still remember
my first
trophy in, of
all classes, CL
Scale at
Topsfield,
followed the
next day with one in CL Stunt.”
In 1966, while still flying CL, Dave
married his wife, Sally, and moved into a
house on Pleasant Street in West
Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Diagonally
across the street lived the president of the
local RC club, and next door to him,
diagonally to the left, was the local basement
RC shop. In a matter of weeks Dave was into
RC with a little Schoolgirl biplane and a
single-channel Controlaire Mule.
Shortly afterward he was drafted and
ultimately enlisted in the Army. Dave was
eventually transferred to Germany and
continued to hone his RC skills, learning the
FAI schedule. When transferred back to the
US in late 1969, he flew in his first RC
contest in San Antonio, Texas, where he
entered Class D Novice (now the Expert
Class) because it used the maneuvers from
the FAI schedule and he didn’t know the
maneuvers for any of the lower classes.
Dave surprised everyone by placing
second at that contest and in his next one in
Marshall, Texas, a couple of weeks later.
Bolstered by his success, Dave went to that
year’s Nats and placed first in Class D
Novice. Booted up to the next level of
competition, Dave waited awhile for his next
win.
Discharged from service in 1970, Dave
began working at World Engines in Ohio as a
toolmaker. He found that competition was
much stiffer in the Midwest with fliers such
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as Don Lowe, Norm Page, Alan Dupler,
Dean Koger, Ivan Christensen, and later
Mark Radcliff and Tony Frackowiak
competing weekly. Don Lowe became
Dave’s mentor
Many competitors spent much time
designing and developing a “secret weapon”
airplane, but Dave was among the first to put
so much emphasis on properly trimming the
models, often taking as much as 100 flights to
get it into proper trim before he flew it in a
contest.
Competitively Dave did well throughout
his career. He was among the first to be
invited to the Tournament of Champions and
in 1975 he made his first US World
Championships team, placing third overall.
He flew in five subsequent World
Championships, collecting three individual
Silvers and one Bronze, and several Gold
team awards.
In 1979 Dave Brown Products began in
the basement of his house. As the company
grew, Dave eventually built its current
building and introduced the first RC flight
simulator. Premiering at the 1985 WRAM
Show, it was an instant hit, and eventually the
idea of using a simulator as training was
accepted as the best way to speed the training
of a new RC flier.
When good friend and mentor, Don
Lowe, was elected District III Vice President,
Don appointed Dave to the AMA Contest
Board. Don stayed on as vice president
through 1979 when Dave ran for and was
elected to the position of AMA District III
vice president.
Dave’s interest turned toward the financial
aspects of AMA’s management. He promoted
a finance committee, which he ended up
chairing. Working with the treasurer and the
controller, this committee started the process
of updating the management of AMA’s
finances and was instrumental in the ability
of AMA to purchase its first (owned)
headquarters building in Reston, Virginia.
Dave was later elected as executive vice
president, which made him AMA’s chief
financial officer.
In 1995, Dave was elected AMA president
and remained in that post throughout 2007.
He served on the AMA Executive Council for
25 years and credits much of his success to his
wife, Sally. “None of what I have
accomplished could have been done without
her as an equal partner in the effort. She,
above all, is my rock,” Dave wrote.
Scott Christensen
Born in Minnesota, Scott Christensen was
approximately 6 years old when he and his
modeler father, George, purchased and built a
54-inch Comet Taylorcraft kit to build. Scott
was 10 when he designed and built his first
airplane: an 18-inch, shoulder wing aircraft.
He flew it for the entire summer before losing
it in a never-before-encountered phenomena:
a thermal!
Following a stint in the Air Force, Scott
settled in the Bay Area near San Francisco,
joined the Pioneer R/C club, and began flying
RC. He wrote, “I was very lucky to be able to
fly with a lot of really good and well-known
modelers such as Ken Willard, George
Steiner, Joe Foster, and Whitey Pritchard,
etc.”
Scott was asked to do some preliminary
work with a new product: MonoKote. He
covered
several
models with
the not-yetreleased
product, and
reported his
findings to
Ken Willard
and Top Flite
Models.
“Little did I
know what a
gigantic
product this
would represent to modelers everywhere and
what this small amount of work would mean
to my future career.”
He fell in with modelers who were
involved in sailplanes and designed his first
sailplane: the Pylonious.
In the winter of 1968, Scott and a group of
these fliers got together and formulated a
sailplane program loosely based on the
Diamond Program in full-scale soaring. The
four originators of the program included
Scott, Duane Hyer, Keith Brewster, and Le
Gray. They felt that if this program could be
presented nationally, it would offer a set of
goals to individual fliers as well as expedite
sailplane technology. The League of Silent
Flight (LSF) was born.
The program offered five levels of
accomplishment, each more difficult as the
flier progressed. At the time the levels were
written, equipment, batteries, and airframes
weren’t even available to allow a pilot to
accomplish Level Four or Five. They
assumed correctly that individuals and
manufacturers would meet the challenge and
develop what equipment was needed.
LSF remains a large and viable Special
Interest Group recognized by AMA,
representing the soaring community.
Scott was also involved in another type of
aeromodeling: seaplanes. He developed a
flying boat design named the Curlew. The
highly successful inverted V-hulled model
was published as a design article in RCM.
Another float-equipped aircraft, the Warlock,
soon followed. A few years later, Scott was
offered a position as a design engineer for
Airtronics, a manufacturer that had been
purchased by Cox Hobbies.
“I worked directly for one of the finest
designers of all time, Mr. Lee Renaud,” Scott
wrote. “From a design standpoint, Lee gave
me a blank sheet of paper.”
In 1979 Scott received an offer to become
vice president for Top Flite Models in
Chicago. His responsibilities included newproduct
development including kits,
MonoKote, and ultimately the company’s
first ARF. In his 10 years at the company,
Scott was responsible for a number of
products including the Metrick, the Antares,
the Wristocrat, the Phasour, and more.
When Top Flite was sold to Hobbico,
Scott moved to Champaign, Illinois, as
director of product development. Two years
later he accepted an offer to work for
Hobbycraft Co., Inc., a company that offers
unique services to US hobby manufacturers.
The position allowed him to travel and
develop contacts worldwide; however, Scott
missed designing and creating models.
In 1999, Scott accepted an offer from Sig
Manufacturing, and was appointed director of
research and development. “My position at
Sig offers me the best of all worlds,” he
wrote. “For a lifelong modeler, such as
myself, working for Sig and being able to
positively contribute to their great product
line, represents everything I’ve ever wanted
and worked for in the hobby industry.”
Robert (Bob) Davis
Bob Davis is a lifetime modeler. His early
aircraft experience included the diesel-fueled
Drone Diesel engine marketed by Leon
Shulman. Bob’s nomination came from
longtime modeler and friend, Stu Richmond.
In 1975, Bob formed the Davis Diesel
Development
Corp., which
developed
Davis Diesel
Converters.
These
converters
were
precisionmanufactured
add-on units
for existing
glow-powered
models and
were first
demonstrated
at the 1975 Dayton Nationals. Bob’s
company also offers specially blended Davis
Diesel fuels.
A Davis Diesel Converter Head, placed
on a standard glow engine (in place of the
glow head that comes with the engine), offers
several advantages. The engine is quieter in
flight and will develop more usable power.
The power can be used to turn a larger, more
efficient propeller. The engine sucks in less
air and the venturi’s air sound is lessened.
The engine needs no glow plug.
Additionally, converting an engine to
diesel power generally extends the life of the
power plant. Model diesel fuel’s kerosene
adds natural lubricity to the engine.
Compared with an equal volume of standard
glow fuel, the kerosene will run longer and
yield more horsepower. The converters are
available for all popular glow engines.
Another division of Davis Diesel is
Carbonic Motors. This division has produced
the ultimate in quiet power, bringing CO2
technology to another level of usefulness.
This alternative to expensive, heavy electric
motors or winding rubber bands offers a
simple, reliable, quiet, and lightweight power
plant in larger, more usable sizes.
Davis Diesel’s CO2 motors and diesel-
MODEL AVIATION
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January 2009 181
conversion engines operate at sound levels
considerably lower than comparable gas
engines. Bob’s development of SoundMaster
mufflers, “soft” engine mounting, tuned
pipes, and a variety of other products are
significant contributions in the effort to
decrease the noise produced by model
aircraft.
Bob received AMA’s Technical
Achievement Award in 1990 for his many
contributions to model engine technology.
Robert “Bob” Fiorenze
Bob Fiorenze of Maitland, Florida, has
been involved in aeromodeling since 1958.
He is perhaps best known as the first to fly a
turbine-powered model aircraft (JPX
Turbine) in the United States. Bob was
appointed to AMA’s original Turbine Safety
Committee along with former AMA
president Don Lowe.
Bob has
held his FAA
A&P
Mechanics
Rating since
1969, and
earned his
pilot’s
license for
both
helicopters
and airplanes
in 1974. At
one time he
worked for a
major airline
and much
later Bob built his own helicopter, a 1997
Rotorway Exec 90 that won the Sun ’n Fun
Grand Champion prize. He described the
project on his Web site.
“On September 12, 1997, the first flights
were completed with the Rotorway Exec 90.
After many final adjustments and checks, the
Exec 90 was taken up to altitude and flown
around the airport area. This project has taken
a little over a year. There are many
enhancements not called for by the factory to
make this an exceptional bird. The Rotorway
puts a practical, low-cost helicopter within
the reach of someone who is willing to do the
assembly from kit form. It is a two-place
helicopter that runs on standard automotive
fuel and has about the same climb rate and
cruising speed of a Cessna 152. The
Rotorway of course will fly much slower and
land almost anywhere.”
Bob has been an active competitor in the
model aircraft field, winning the 1983 and
1985 Scale Nats with his A-4 Skyhawk
ducted-fan jet and his Black Bunny F-4
Phantom twin-ducted-fan jet respectively.
Flying an F-18 Hornet twin-ducted-fan jet,
Bob placed first in the 1988 US Scale
Masters, the 1989 Top Gun Invitational, and
the 1989 Scale Nats.
Nominated for the Model Aviation Hall of
Fame by Wallace Zober and Vinny
Caratozzolo, Bob is considered a model jet
legend, well-known for his high-speed, lowaltitude
passes. Considered a master builder
and flier, he is in great demand as a demo
pilot, performing during half-times and
breaks at air shows across the US.
His modeling interests are varied and in
addition to Scale and jets, he enjoys
helicopters, warbirds, and electrics. His
building and flying skills have received
recognition at contests, fly-ins, jet rallies, and
national events.
Bob currently owns Bob Fiorenze Model
Products, specializing in jets, electrics,
helicopters, and giant electric models.
Products sold include the T-38 Talon, his Air
Speed Indicator, and Proportional Hydraulic
Brakes. Bob also does test flying and
consulting work for Bob Violett Models.
As an accomplished author and
photographer, Bob has been a contributing
writer for a number of publications including
MA, RCM, Flying Models, and Scale R/C
Modeler.
David Gray
David Gray is credited with inventing and
flying the first RC helicopter in 1970. The
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum has David’s original model on
display.
David began modeling early, building his
first model aircraft—a 25¢ F6F Hellcat—
when he was only 7 years old. Because of the
scarcity of material during World War II,
David began designing and building his own
models, often with better results than what
was offered at the time.
His family moved to Michigan, and in the
garage of their new
house, David
discovered a box
full of built-up,
rubber-powered
airplanes and an old
Rodgers engine. He
rebuilt one of the
airplanes—a 36-
inch Stuka—and
flew it with great
success.
A comic strip
called Tim Tylers
Luck piqued
David’s interest in radio-controlled models.
To be able to fly an airplane without wires
and actually control it with radio signals was
far more science fiction than reality at the
time, but it became David’s goal.
This desire led to experiments with
electric-powered airplanes, cars, and boats.
Fueled with a hand-held lantern battery and
tethered with fine strands of copper wire, the
models were steered with actuators and
escarpments.
In 1958 David married and began
working for various electrical supply firms,
adding to his knowledge of electrical motors.
In 1963, he moved back to Michigan, took a
part-time job with Glass City models, and
was excited to actually get paid for
fabricating parts and assembling pulse radio
equipment!
Two years later David started his own
company, Airtrol, where he designed and
marketed an improved pulse-radio system.
Throughout he was experimenting with radiocontrolled
models from cars to autogyros, and
helicopters began to interest him more.
Dave began experimenting with foam and
plastic aircraft and building his own vacuumforming
machines. He left Airtrol to join Jim
Merrill and open a new business called
Gramer Plastics, which produced foam
aircraft and packaging products for the
automotive industry.
David’s helicopter prototypes began to
show results. In 1970 at the RC show in
Cincinnati, Ohio, he demonstrated his .40-
powered RC helicopter which made the cover
of Model Airplane News. This model is
housed at the Smithsonian.
Dewey Broberg, president of Du-Bro,
asked to buy manufacturing rights from
David. Within several months David and his
family moved to Mundelein, Illinois, and he
began working for Du-Bro to further develop
his helicopter design. After much work and
numerous setbacks, the Du-Bro Whirley Bird
505 was produced.
The Whirley Bird enjoyed great success
and David began working on a larger, betterflying
aircraft. The semiscale Hughes 300,
powered by a 1.34 cu. in. O & R engine, was
the result. Easier to fly and more realistic
looking, the Hughes 300 led to the design of
two more helicopters: the .40-powered Tri-
Star and the Shark .60.
David and his helicopters have been
featured in numerous publications including
Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, Popular
Mechanics, and Flying Models. He has
continued to work with Du-Bro, designing
equipment for the aeromodeling industry, and
is still an integral part of the company’s
design team.
Donald J. McGovern
The late Don McGovern began modeling
in 1939. By the time he was 10 years old,
Don was designing and building his own
aircraft. By age 12, he had begun submitting
articles to modeling magazines, and a few
years later they were being published.
Perhaps best known as the editor of
Flying Models magazine from 1953 to 1979,
Don was also a competitor and prolific
designer. He designed the Custom Privateer
Seaplane that was kitted by Berkeley Models.
Nicknamed “McGovern’s Monster,” the
nearly 10-foot-wingspan aircraft was
considered
the largest
seaplane ever
built and
flown at that
time and the
largest ever
kitted.
Don
designed a
series of
smaller
Privateer
models,
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 12:47 PM Page 181
including the Navigator that was kitted by
Jetco Hobbies and several other designs
kitted by Berkeley. Enterprise Models kitted
Don’s 30-inch CL twin-rudder Pirate.
“He would always say, ‘Build with
‘NAG,’” wrote Jim O’Brien, Don’s sponsor
for the Hall of Fame. “NAG meant ‘no air
gap.’ He drew plans for all of his designs the
same way.”
Don wrote hundreds of articles, covering
topics including the National Aeromodeling
Championships, product reviews, others’
designs, and his own models. He became
editor of Flying Models in 1953 and
published more than 70 of his own designs.
As Berkeley’s chief designer, Don was
known for his hand-inked plans that attracted
so many modelers to the company’s kits. His
plans, easily hundreds, were accurate and
extremely detailed, making them easy for
modelers to understand and construct.
Every model Don built contained
hundreds of sticks and stringers. He didn’t
use planking and plywood, and relied on a
single-edge razor for cutting. “Can you
imagine building McGovern’s Monster with
little more than a razor blade?” wrote Jim.
“It was Don’s whole focus to get more
people involved in the hobby. He was a
person who did not seek notoriety.”
Along with a number of others, Don was
responsible for introducing Jim to
aeromodeling. “He took me almost
everywhere he went if it was related to
modeling and taught me almost every one of
his building secrets,” Jim wrote. “He told me
that I needed to teach others and he even
made me shake hands on that.”
Jim was mentored by Don for several
years, learning about FF, CL, and the
fledgling radio-control flight. Although Don
eventually moved to a larger house to
accommodate his growing family, the two
never lost touch. He left Jim with a thorough
building legacy, but much more.
“Don was one of the most devoted and
meticulous modelers I have ever met,” wrote
Jim. “Everyone who met Don took an instant
liking to him. He contributed significantly to
the growth of all facets of modeling, and in
some small way, we’re better today because
of his efforts.”
James Messer
How do you make a grown man cry?
According to Jim Messer of Sebring, Florida,
it’s easy.
“You get him to fly his airplane at the
noon-time air show in front of 1,000
spectators, and while he is doing that—with
his back turned to the audience—you
assemble his family, and all the pilots around
the announcer’s stand. Of course, without
any eyes in the back of his head, he has no
idea of what is going on behind him. Then
when he lands, and turns around, you call
him to the announcer’s stand. Gary Fitch,
DVP [AMA vice president] of District II
then announces to the world that he has just
been inducted into the Model Aviation Hall
of Fame class of 2008.”
Nominated
by Gary Fitch,
on behalf of
the Southern
Tier Aero
Radio Society
(STARS), Jim
is a
competitor,
designer,
leader, and a
teacher. Jim
has been
involved in
model aviation nearly his entire life. He
began in 1937 with 10¢ rubber band models
including the Stinson 105, Fokker D.VII, and
his favorite, the 25¢ Phantom Fury.
He built his first gas model—a Comet
Zipper—in 1941, the same year he joined
AMA and the Olean Model Airplane club in
southwestern New York State, which became
the STARS club when RC became
prominent.
Jim competed in FF contests across the
Northeast placing well and winning many.
During the 1970 Nats, he placed second out
of 583 contestants who flew that day. He
placed first in subsequent Nats in Old-Timer
airplanes and competed in CL Speed and
Stunt.
Jim was one of the first to venture into RC
model airplanes. In 1955 he purchased a
Citizenship radio, started a model shop, and
began designing and kitting aircraft. His
major achievement in this area was designing
a ¼-scale Bristol Scout. There were no
premade components for an aircraft this size,
so Jim, with the help of five other STARS
members who were building like models,
developed all of the components to make the
Giant Scale Scouts functional and
trustworthy.
Educated as a mechanical engineer, Jim
designed a geared drive train that coupled
twin .60 engines to try to fly the large model.
Eventually they employed the Quadra .35
engine, carved their own propellers for the
models, and the new Bristol Scout Squadron
took to the air.
The squadron became famous after an
appearance at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
meet, and Jim and his fellow STARS
launched the Giant Scale movement as we
know it today. Because of the STARS
members’ involvement in Giant Scale, in
2005, the Academy of Model Aeronautics
recognized the STARS flying field as an
AMA Historic Landmark.
Jim saw the coming demand for Giant
Scale models and expanded his model shop
into a world-wide mail order business named
Jim Messer’s Quality Model Products. The
business flourished and Jim even designed
and marketed his own line of ¼-scale kits.
He sold the business in 1991 and retired
to Florida, but Jim never stopped designing
and building Giant Scale models. Joining the
Highlands Radio Control Club in Sebring,
he organized a builders’ club within the
club, dedicated to teaching others how to
scratch-build.
Throughout a lifetime of aeromodeling,
Jim has developed more than 40 designs,
many of which have been marketed in plans
or kit form. He promises to retire from
modeling only when the wheels start to fall
off!
Larry Scarinzi
Nominated by John Brodak and Wallace
Zober, Larry Scarinzi has spent a lifetime in
modeling, excelling as an engineer, aircraft
designer, and competitor. Elected to the
Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots
Association (PAMPA) Hall of Fame in 2004,
Larry has become a good-will ambassador for
CL activities.
Larry began modeling as an 8-year-old
with 10¢ kits. His first gas-powered
airplane—Miss Behave—was powered by a
Forster .29 ignition engine, and he still has it.
After World War II ended, Larry joined the
Tri County Sky Rovers in Summit, New
Jersey, and tried his hand at early CL Stunt
competition.
When he began competing in official
competitions, Larry met Harold “Red”
Reinhardt and teamed up with Red for both
Stunt and Combat events.
Larry and Red often placed first and
second at the meets they attended. They flew
a Stunt pattern that included maneuvers such
as the Bolo Wingover, which involves eight
loops during a Wingover, and double Vertical
Eights.
After graduating from college with a
degree in engineering and marrying his wife,
Ginger, Larry joined Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation in Burbank, California. There he
enjoyed flying FF at Sepulveda Basin and
lunchtime CL
at nearby
Griffith Park.
That same
year, Larry
entered the
Air Force and
was stationed
at Langley
Field in
Hampton,
Virginia. He
established
the Piston
Poppers Model Airplane Club and the
members used the area in front of the test
hangar as their CL circle.
Larry was asked to build model airplanes
that could be used to test the feasibility of an
Air Force model airplane event patterned
after a Tactical Air Command (T.A.C.)
bombing strategy. He accomplished this with
a Johnson .35-powered Veco Mustang rigged
to release a bomb when full up control was
applied during the inside loop portion of a
Horizontal Eight, thereby tossing the “bomb”
at the target.
Larry was also in charge of modeling
activity at the base, and captained the
Langley Team that flew in the Air Force
worldwide championships. During this time,
Larry began writing design articles for Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, and Air
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Trails. He eventually published 26 design
articles as well as a number of how-to articles
and event reports.
Two of Larry’s models were produced by
Consolidated Models: Giant Killer in 1960
and #570, which was introduced in 1962.
After leaving the Air Force in late 1957,
Larry returned to North Jersey and went back
to work in the engineering field. He flew at
Rich’s Hobbytown, Parsippany, New Jersey,
and at the Union Model Airplane Club, his
home club and flying field before he was in
the service.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Larry became
associated with Duke Fox, both as a friend
and in developing new products. Larry was
instrumental in developing reliable aircraft to
test the Fox engines including the Blitz and
Super Satan.
In 1970, Larry started Whippany Cycle
and Hobby Shop, a bicycle and model retail
enterprise. The bicycle boom of the early
1970s ensured the store’s success and
eventually Larry dropped the modeling
portion to concentrate solely on bicycles.
“Even though model airplanes were always
my first love,” he wrote, “I owed it to myself
and my family to earn a living.”
Larry virtually dropped out of modeling
until 1992, although he did maintain his
AMA membership and contact with a few
friends, including Duke Fox and John Miske.
John convinced Larry to join him in attending
the Chicopee Nats. He dusted off a Fox .36X
BB-powered Voodoo, and Larry was back!
“Coming back to Old-Timer stunt is like
stepping back into modeling just as I left it 20
years ago,” he wrote. “Now my interests were
definitely back to model airplanes.”
Since then, Larry hasn’t stopped flying.
He eventually sold his business and has spent
time traveling and visiting modeling events
such as the Vintage Stunt Championships in
Tucson, Arizona. “This allows me more time
for important activities like model airplanes,”
he wrote. “Maybe I can become a modeler’s
goodwill ambassador and travel a lot, making
friends and having fun.”
Vincent (Jim) Van Loo
Jim Van Loo has devoted most of his life
to the advancement of the sport and hobby of
both full-scale and model aviation. His
interest in aviation began with a ride in a
Ford Tri-Motor when he was roughly 7 years
old.
A bout with the measles and subsequent
quarantine allowed him to experiment with
building a Comet kit. With his interest in
models piqued and his parents’ support, Jim
began doing odd jobs to earn money for his
modeling projects. He saved his money and
purchased his first engine: a Bantam .19
ignition engine, which he put into a Strato-
Kitten CL model.
At age 15, Jim began competing locally in
CL events and doing well. By 1962, he
advanced to the national level, including five
visits to the Nats throughout the decade. Jim
competed with airplanes of his own design,
and became one of the first to add a muffler
to his model.
Jim joined
the Air Force
and became
an air traffic
controller,
radar
controller,
and intercept
technician,
achieving the
rank of
Airman First
Class. He was awarded the Good Conduct
medal and attended advanced military
training to become a radar and facility
instructor.
Following military service, Jim became
a Federal Aviation Administration
controller in Sioux City, Iowa, earning
accreditations including Evaluations
Proficiency Specialist, Control Tower
Manager, and Chief Air Traffic Manager of
a Level II Radar Training Facility. In all, he
spent 28 years in federal civil service.
In 1985 Jim began competing in RC
events and by 1990, he had returned to the
Nats, again with aircraft of his own design.
Jim’s designs—the Chipmunk, the Mystere
II, and his Giant Scale Extra 230—were
published in Model Airplane News, Flying
Models, and MA respectively. The
Chipmunk was kitted by Sig, and the Extra
230 and another model, his 90-inchwingspan
Taylorcraft, was kitted by R/C
Extra’s.
Jim became a CD and judge in 1960,
working at a number of large events
throughout the central United States. He
was noted for his superb public-speaking
skills, and was often asked to handle the
public announcing duties at model and fullscale
events. These appearances have
included such events as Hazel Sig’s tandem
parachute jump, local and regional fly-ins,
and once an Air Force Thunderbirds Arrival
Show.
Jim and his wife, Ruth, opened their
first hobby shop in Sioux City, Iowa, in
1966. They later opened another hobby
shop named Jim and Ruth’s Toys and
Hobbies. In 1985, with his wife and close
friends, Jim formed R/C Extra’s for the
purpose of manufacturing Giant Scale RC
models. He developed, kitted, and marketed
five new model airplane subjects.
In 1990 the company was sold to Ace
Manufacturing. Jim worked in the researchand-
development department at Ace,
helping the company develop the
company’s Big Bingo and Whiz .40, as
well as play a major part in the
development of the new radio-control
systems.
Jim has participated in a number of civic
events world-wide, promoting
aeromodeling. In 1991, he was invited to
Sicily for an international conference to
demonstrate to hospitalized children that
despite their handicaps, they can do almost
anything, including fly model airplanes.
Accompanying Jim was a man named
Stan King, a quadriplegic. Jim had helped
Stan get a special transmitter so he could
demonstrate his skills at the conference.
Jim served as president of the
International Miniature Aircraft
Association (IMAA), traveling
internationally to attend events and promote
aeromodeling. During his presidency, the
membership of IMAA increased from 3,500
to more than 8,000.
Between 1967 and 2000, Jim published
construction articles and kit reviews in a
number of magazines including MA, Model
Airplane News, Flying Models, R/C Report,
Scale R/C Modelers, and R/C Excellence.
He was a regular columnist for R/C Report
and R/C Excellence, covering the RC Giants
arena, and regularly covered RC Giants
events.
Jim Van Loo has been an outstanding
national and international ambassador for
aeromodeling, the IMAA, and AMA.
Vice President that were accepted by the
EC at the April 18, 2008 meeting and
ratified by Leader Member vote sent June
6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIII: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to adopt
and implement as of January 1, 2009 the
Bylaw amendments (Motions V through
XI) dealing with the new Chief Financial
Officer/Treasurer position that were
accepted by the EC at the April 18, 2008
meeting and ratified by Leader Member
vote sent June 6, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XIV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by C. Bauer (VI) to
approve the Executive Vice President
Position Description Revision 2 of the
Bylaw Committee for implementation on
January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XV: Moved by A. Argenio (I)
and seconded by T. Stillman (V) to
approve the Chief Financial Officer/
Treasurer Position Description Revision
2 of the Bylaw Committee for
implementation on January 1, 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVI: Moved by G. Fitch (II) and
seconded by T. Stillman (V) to adopt the
changes to the AMA Contest Board
Procedures document as submitted
October 25, 2008.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion XVII: Moved by G. Fitch (II)
and seconded by J. Rice (VIII) to accept
the report of the Air Show Team and
funding of $12,535 for 2009.
Motion passed unanimously.
EC Motions continued from page 177
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