Museum News & Views
Contact
Michael Smith National Model Aviation Museum Curator Tel.: (765) 287-1256 Ext. 500 [email protected]
Preserving the History of Aeromodeling
Are the aircraft that your Special Interest Group (SIG) flies represented in the National Model Aviation Museum’s collection? Museum staff are frequently asked, "Why don’t you have any ... on display in the museum?"
In some cases the questioner simply has not noticed the area of the museum that contains that particular aircraft. Unfortunately, there are disciplines of aeromodeling for which the museum has few or no artifacts. Often we simply have not received donations representing those categories.
One of the museum’s goals is to tell the history of aeromodeling. We want visitors to be able to see the developmental history of each facet of our hobby. For instance, an aircraft that was first flown in a particular category would be a significant addition to the collection.
What if we could locate and acquire the airplane that actually won the first contest for a particular event? Ted Kraver, an active participant in CL Navy Carrier, became enthusiastic about preserving the history of his event. He helped the museum staff gather information about the event as well as significant CL Navy Carrier airplanes flown. This included the aircraft that won the 1954 Nationals Navy Carrier event.
Through his research, Ted found the name of the man who had won this event, Dave Domizi, but apparently Dave was no longer an active flier. No one flying Navy Carrier today knew his whereabouts. An Internet search revealed a potential contact, so Ted sent an email asking for information about the Dave Domizi who had flown Navy Carrier and won the Nats in 1953 and 1954. He received a response from the son of the winner, who reported that his father had quit flying following the back-to-back victories, but he still had the airplane with which he won the event up in his attic.
Ted was put in contact with Dave and they discussed the airplane and the Navy Carrier events at the Nats nearly a half century earlier. Dave offered to donate the airplane to the museum and the aircraft was reviewed and accepted by the Museum Acquisition Committee.
Ted and the Navy Carrier Society (NCS), the SIG for Navy Carrier, invited Dave to the 2000 Nats. Dave was honored at the NCS Nats banquet, where he presented the airplane to the museum.
Because of Ted and the NCS’s help identifying and locating this significant aircraft, the museum can present the evolution of the airplanes involved in the event—literally show the history of Navy Carrier.
Why SIG Involvement Matters
As with Navy Carrier, we want visitors to be able to see and understand how each aeromodeling discipline has developed.
Questions to consider include:
- How has the design of competitive aircraft evolved?
- Did the size of the aircraft or the materials they were constructed from change?
- Were retractable landing gear an added component or, with rule changes, did they become illegal?
- Were there developmental offshoots such as the creation of categories for slower or cheaper aircraft?
All of these evolutions are important. We want to give present and future competitors the opportunity to visit the museum and see for themselves where and how their form of aeromodeling developed.
How SIGs Can Help
For the museum staff to be able to illustrate the evolution of each discipline, we need the assistance of the Special Interest Groups. SIGs—and other interested modelers—are best suited to determine the history of their particular event and identify significant aircraft.
We ask each SIG to:
- Develop a list of aircraft significant to the history and development of its discipline. The Museum Acquisition Committee can use this list to evaluate potential donations.
- Contact the museum to receive a list of models pertaining to the SIG’s interests that are currently in the collection.
- Research and try to locate other aircraft on the list for submission to the committee.
If we rely only on random donations, we may never acquire an accurate history. If we are not proactive, too many significant airplanes might be lost to the ravages of time.
SIG Histories and Web Resources
Along these lines, the museum is very interested in acquiring information regarding the history of each SIG. We want to preserve the history of each group so that future modelers will know the history of their sport. SIG histories will be posted to the museum's website at www.modelaircraft.org/museum/sighist.asp.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
