March 2001 5
THE OTHER DAY, a friend asked
me what I thought model aviation
contributed to our society as a whole.
After thinking about it for a while, I
decided to try to put my thoughts on
paper.
As most would guess,
aeromodeling has been a major
influence in my life since I was a
youngster, and I have seen the effect
it has had on a lot of lives in the
ensuing years.
What attracts people to
aeromodeling is as different as the
people it attracts. Obviously, the thing
that interests most of us, regardless of
age, is that we perceive it as fun; it’s
something we think we will enjoy.
I expect that if you were to ask
most aeromodelers why they find the
sport so interesting, they would have a
hard time verbalizing an answer. But
if you were to ask them what they
have learned from their activity in the
sport, they could talk for hours.
If you were to ask them to assess
aeromodeling in just one word, I
suspect challenging would be a fairly
common answer.
I do not think a lot of them would
use the term educational as their
description, yet the vast majority
would agree that the lessons they have
learned from aeromodeling have
enriched their lives in many ways.
Youngsters and oldsters alike are
drawn to the challenges of
aeromodeling, and the lessons they
learn improve the lives of many
people around them.
How many youngsters have fixed
an appliance for someone using skills
acquired from aeromodeling?
How many senior citizens have
formed a bond with younger people
through aeromodeling?
How many youngsters, or even baby
boomers, have developed an appreciation
of our forebearers’ sacrifices in World
War II, Korea, and even Vietnam through
their association with aeromodelers who
served in these wars.
One of the unique aspects of
aeromodeling as a sport is that age is
neither a barrier nor a prerequisite for
participation at all levels. Within my
time as AMA president, I have seen the
United States send teams representing
the AMA to World Championships with
people ranging from teens to
septuagenarians, and I’ve seen both
extremes come home with medals.
Can you think of any other sport in
which this is common?
The major beneficiary of this
exchange of ideas, knowledge, and
enthusiasm is our society as a whole.
Many accomplishments in the field
of aerospace are the direct result of
aeromodeling, but the
accomplishments in other areas
probably have a greater effect.
It’s amazing to see how many
people in the area of prosthetics have
been involved in aeromodeling, and
many of the innovations are
adaptations of ideas that come from
an aeromodeling background.
Few people realize how
intertwined the early days of the
personal computer were with
aeromodeling. The grandaddy of
personal computers was made by a
company that manufactured
aeromodeling equipment, and the first
retail computer store was in the corner
of a well-known New York hobby
shop!
Hollywood and the military depend
on a talented group of people for
those special effects and simulations,
and a substantial number of the people
with the skills necessary to create
them come from ranks of
aeromodelers.
Even those who have acquired the
professional knowledge afforded by a
college education find that the skills
they learned through their
involvement in aeromodeling have
been beneficial in their professional
lives.
My daughter, an occupational
therapist, has had the opportunity to
use aeromodeling as a rehabilitation
tool for a couple of patients. Another
friend was dying from an unknown
ailment, until a doctor who was an
aeromodeler recognized the rare
material to which he was having an
allergic reaction.
Aeromodeling is a great, littleknown
resource that benefits all of
our society.
’Til next month. MA
Dave Brown
AMA president
[email protected]
Aeromodeling
is a great, littleknown
resource
that benefits
all of our society.
President’s Perspective
Dave Brown AMA president
Edition: Model Aviation - 2001/03
Page Numbers: 5
