James Alaback Larry Conover Ben Shereshaw - 2009/08

August 2009 161
JAMES ALABACK, modeler, writer,
pioneer, and model club organizer, passed
away on April 1, 2009. He was 83 years old.
James’ first knowledge of model
airplanes came between 1931 and 1932. On
his way home from school, he stopped at a
classmate’s house and saw his friend’s older
brother building a solid wood scale model.
James was enthralled with what he saw and
quickly found out where to get his own
model kits.
In his AMA History Program
autobiography, James wrote, “That was the
beginning of a hobby that has been my
constant companion for all the intervening
years to the present day. It has provided me
with education, a life objective, continuing
challenge, many satisfactions, and even
provided solace in life’s occasionally
difficult times.”
Throughout the years, James dabbled in
many facets of model aviation. He went
from solid wood, static models to FF and
gas-powered aircraft. He tried RC, but
preferred gas and Sport rubber.
“In looking back,” James wrote in his
autobiography, “one of the things I
remember with the greatest fondness is the
role played by model magazines in
promoting and sustaining my interest in
modeling.”
In 1934, he discovered Model Airplane
News and Flying Aces. He wrote that he had
a special fondness for Flying Aces (now
Flying Models) because it offered more plans
and always seemed to include some simple,
but highly flyable, designs. James enjoyed
perusing books, too, including Edwin T.
Hamilton’s Complete Model Aircraft Manual
and Charles H. Grant’s Model Airplane
Design and the Theory of Flight.
In 1936, at only 11 years of age, James
formed the Hawthorne Model Airplane Club
at the junior high school in Elmhurst,
Illinois.
In the spring of 1937, the Hawthorne
Club held its first contest for solid scale
models and was judged by the school’s
science teacher. James won the contest. The
following year the club expanded its contests
to include flying events for rubber-powered
models. James again won these events flying
with a Curtiss Robin and Flying Aces Moth.
James entered the United States Navy in
1944. He served in Naval Air Intelligence
and was released from active duty in 1946.
He returned to Purdue, where he had
completed his junior year before entering the
service, and received his degree in
mechanical engineering in 1947.
In 1957, James started the Twin Cities
Whirlwinds in Benton Harbor-St. Joseph,
Michigan. The club is still active under the
name Southwestern Michigan Whirlwinds.
After retiring to San Diego, James had
been an active member of SAM 41, the San
Diego Aeroneers. He served as president,
secretary, or newsletter editor for the club
nearly continuously from 1986 until his
death.
James won many contests during his
aeromodeling career. They include second
place in the 1984 Jimmie Allen, first place
1988 and 1995 at the San Diego Orbiteers’
Jimmie Allen Air Races, and grand
champion of the 1991 San Diego Aeroneers
Annual Invitational.
Locally James won innumerable monthly
contest events as well as one or more annual
club high-points trophies yearly in the
Aeroneers, Orbiteers, and Scale Scaffel
clubs’ contest programs.
James published many plans and articles
in publications including Flying Aces,
Engine Collector’s Journal, Model Aviation,
Stick & Tissue Vol. 2, Flying Models, and
many more.
Since 1986, James had been a consultant
on the History of Model Aviation for the San
Diego Aerospace Museum. This involved
the planning and execution of the museum’s
collection representing the history of model
aviation from 200 BC to the present.
James wrote in his 1996 autobiography,
“Although time consuming, this has been a
most rewarding and educational experience.”
James Alaback accomplished an
impressive amount of things throughout his
life. Everyone can learn from him and he
will be greatly missed.
To learn more about James Alaback, visit
the AMA History Program at www.model
aircraft.org/museum/history.aspx.
LAWRENCE H. (Larry) Conover of
Waynesboro, Virginia, died early
Thursday, May 21, 2009, at Avante
Nursing Home in Waynesboro. He had
suffered a stroke the previous month.
Larry was born October 19, 1925, to
Emma Swann and Clarence Irving
Conover, in Iowa City, Iowa. After
graduating from high school there in 1944,
Larry went on to one year of college at the
University of Iowa in Iowa City, but the
responsibilities of marriage prevented him
from completing his degree.
Larry’s lifelong passion was designing,
building, and flying Free Flight model
airplanes. He began building at the age of
8. Later, he worked in aviation research
and design with Dr. Alexander Lippisch at
Collins Radio Company in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, in the 1950s. He also worked in
research and design for Nissan Trampoline
Corp. in Cedar Rapids in the 1960s.
Larry was creative and an entrepreneur.
Along with being a top ad salesman for the
National Roster of Realtors, he built a
successful grain bin business near Center
Point, Iowa, called Harvestall Eastern
Iowa, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Larry became a famous name in the
model aviation world when he was a firstplace
winner at the 1960 FAI World
Championships in Cranfield, England. His
original design, the Lucky Lindy, is still
being built and flown today. Larry
continued to fly and to write articles for
several model airplane magazines
including Air Trails and American Aircraft
Modeler.
Larry had the privilege of mentoring
other young model enthusiasts, such as
Don Gurnett, who went on to be a
professor in the University of Iowa
Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Larry designed and produced kits for
beginners and taught model flying in afterschool
enrichment classes in the public
schools in Longmont, Colorado, with his
wife, Dorothy, until failing health
necessitated his retirement.
Larry and Dorothy have lived the last
five years sharing life together with their
daughter, Susan Taylor, and her husband,
Aaron, in Waynesboro, Virginia. This kept
them close to their granddaughter, Tammie
Walker, and great-grandchildren Colin
Kovacs, 18, and Amanda Kovacs, 15.
Their grandson, Major Matthew
Lawrence Walker, USMC, lives in
Meridian, Mississippi. Matt built and flew
models with his grandfather, and was
inspired to become an F-18 pilot for the
Marines, flying several missions in the
Middle East.
Larry was a member of the Church on
the Hill, in Fishersville, Virginia. He was
also a member of the Academy of Model
Aeronautics, and was inducted in 1982 into
the National Free Flight Society Hall of
Fame.
James Alaback
1925-2009
Larry Conover
1925-2009
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BEN SHERESHAW was born on
March 23, 1913, in the Bronx area of
New York City. At the age of 13, a
sighting in Central Park got him
hooked on model airplanes.
Throughout high school, Ben read
about, studied, and built model
airplanes. After graduation, he
entered the Guggenheim School of
Aeronautical Engineering.
Ben started designing gas models
once completing his schooling. From
1937-1940, he was credited with more
than 20 different gas model designs. Some
plans were sold to Flying Aces and other
magazines. Four of his designs were kitted
by the Scientific Model Company.
His first model design, the Speedster,
was kitted by Loutrel and was the first
design to be produced in kit form in the
U.S. Another original design, the 1940
RC-1 (twin boom), became the first RC kit
to ever hit the market.
In 1937, Ben was designing models and
writing magazine articles almost full time
and soon became aware of the need for
smaller gas model airplanes. Of course,
this would require a small, powerful, yet
lightweight model airplane motor.
Ben emerged from the depths of his
basement workshop in early 1938 carrying
his all-new Bantam .16 engine prototype.
The engine was a winner and production
was started on the Bantam .16 in late 1938.
From there Ben went on to
develop the Bantam .19, the
Twin (3.25-cubic inch), the .60,
and in 1993, a 2.6 that never
went into production.
The 11th annual National
Championships took place in
1939. Ben easily won the newly
formed Class A event, flying
with his Bantam .19 engine. The
.19 continued from there to win
first, second, fourth, fifth,
seventh, and 10th in the 1940
Nats Senior Class A.
Ben was inducted into the AMA Model
Aviation Hall of Fame and the National
Free Flight Society in 1980. He was
honored in 1990 by induction into the
Society of Antique Modelers Hall of Fame
and again in 2000 to the Kit and Plans
Antiquitous Hall of Fame.
“He always remembered the wonderful
hospitality of the SAMs members at the
2001 SAMs Champs,” Ben’s son, Jon,
wrote. “It brought tears to his eyes to see
as many as 60 Scientific Mercurys on the
flightline in Nevada that year.”
Ben Shereshaw was a true pioneer of the
model airplane industry. This is only a small
part of the numerous things Benjamin
Shereshaw accomplished in his lifetime. To
learn more about him, visit his biography in
AMA’s History Program at www.model
aircraft.org/museum/history.asp
BEN SHERESHAW was born on
March 23, 1913, in the Bronx area of
New York City. At the age of 13, a
sighting in Central Park got him
hooked on model airplanes.
Throughout high school, Ben read
about, studied, and built model
airplanes. After graduation, he
entered the Guggenheim School of
Aeronautical Engineering.
Ben started designing gas models
once completing his schooling. From
1937-1940, he was credited with more
than 20 different gas model designs. Some
plans were sold to Flying Aces and other
magazines. Four of his designs were kitted
by the Scientific Model Company.
His first model design, the Speedster,
was kitted by Loutrel and was the first
design to be produced in kit form in the
U.S. Another original design, the 1940
RC-1 (twin boom), became the first RC kit
to ever hit the market.
In 1937, Ben was designing models and
writing magazine articles almost full time
and soon became aware of the need for
smaller gas model airplanes. Of course,
this would require a small, powerful, yet
lightweight model airplane motor.
Ben emerged from the depths of his
basement workshop in early 1938 carrying
his all-new Bantam .16 engine prototype.
The engine was a winner and production
was started on the Bantam .16 in late 1938.
From there Ben went on to
develop the Bantam .19, the
Twin (3.25-cubic inch), the .60,
and in 1993, a 2.6 that never
went into production.
The 11th annual National
Championships took place in
1939. Ben easily won the newly
formed Class A event, flying
with his Bantam .19 engine. The
.19 continued from there to win
first, second, fourth, fifth,
seventh, and 10th in the 1940
Nats Senior Class A.
Ben was inducted into the AMA Model
Aviation Hall of Fame and the National
Free Flight Society in 1980. He was
honored in 1990 by induction into the
Society of Antique Modelers Hall of Fame
and again in 2000 to the Kit and Plans
Antiquitous Hall of Fame.
“He always remembered the wonderful
hospitality of the SAMs members at the
2001 SAMs Champs,” Ben’s son, Jon,
wrote. “It brought tears to his eyes to see
as many as 60 Scientific Mercurys on the
flightline in Nevada that year.”
Ben Shereshaw was a true pioneer of the
model airplane industry. This is only a small
part of the numerous things Benjamin
Shereshaw accomplished in his lifetime. To
learn more about him, visit his biography in
AMA’s History Program at www.model
aircraft.org/museum/history.asp