I AM THE AMA
Jon Sharp — Aircraft designer and retired air racing pilot
Interview by Jay Smith
Jay Smith: How did you get involved with model aviation? Jon Sharp: I started when I was 8 or 9 years old. For Christmas I got a Cox PT-22 Control Line airplane. I called it "explode" because every time it would touch the ground, all the rubber-banded parts—the wing, etc.—would explode off the plane.
Then I bought an Echo single-channel transmitter and receiver and dove into RC. There was a lot to learn, but the learning was priceless. From there I went through reed control and finally got a three-channel proportional unit. That made everything a lot easier to fly.
I began to modify the RC planes. I designed and built my own planes, with mixed results. Everything I did looked like a racer, so along came RC racing.
Jay: How has model aviation impacted your life and/or career? Jon: From Control Line to RC flying, modeling led to designing and building racing planes and to my career with Lockheed.
Jay: What disciplines of modeling do you currently participate in? Jon: I fly electric and gas-powered RC from micro models up to 85-inch wingspan gassers. We are working on a large-scale F1 Nemesis that should be a lot of fun! It's just like designing and building a Reno race plane—a little smaller, but not much.
My wife, Patricia, also flies electric and gas-powered airplanes. I am beginning to wander back into RC Pylon Racing and I'm hoping for a birthday present or two to get into warbird racing.
Jay: What are your other hobbies? Jon: In addition to RC, Patricia and I live on a golf course in Oro Valley, Arizona, so we play a lot of golf and are avid target shooters.
Jay: Who (or what) has influenced you most? Jon: Foremost is my wife, Patricia. Without her, I would not be alive today. She gave me a kidney in 2007. We built and flew the Nemesis and NemesisNXT together.
Other key influences include:
- George Applebay — He designed the Zuni 15-meter racing sailplane and hired me at his sailplane shop to build fiberglass sailplanes because I was a modeler. That was my first exposure to composites and it has carried me a long way.
- Larry Longmire — My flight instructor and aviation mentor throughout my air racing endeavors.
- Steve Hill — My race team crew chief since day one. Steve and I met building sailplanes at George's shop. Although we no longer build full-scale planes, Steve, Patricia, and I still build stuff together.
- Jack Wells — Our engine guy on the F1 Nemesis. He worked thousands of hours making our little race motor the best ever built.
- My parents — They supported and encouraged me all along the way—even through the years of smelling Ambroid in my bedroom—and bought me that first PT-22.
- Kevin Luttge — A designer at Lockheed Skunk Works who was key in the entire NemesisNXT program.
Without these people, Nemesis, NemesisNXT, and my aviation adventures would never have happened.
Jay: Looking back at your air racing career, what are you most proud of? Jon: A few highlights I'm most proud of:
- Our team's wins at the Reno Air Races in 1982 and 1991.
- Nine consecutive years of Reno Gold Championships.
- The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum invited the little world-beater to become part of its collection — an honor that is hard to explain in magnitude.
- The NemesisNXT project: Its championship-winning streak began in 2006. It was the first kit-built sport plane to break the 400 mph barrier in qualifying and in races. Holding the record for the most Reno Gold Championship wins is the best!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
