In the Air
Membership news and updates
from AMA Headquarters
AMA member Brad Lang in Arsenal of Democracy event
The largest number of World War II aircraft ever to assemble since the war ended took to the air on Friday, May 8, 2015, in the Arsenal of Democracy Victory Capital Flyover. Nearly 70 airplanes including bombers, fighters, trainers, and reconnaissance aircraft from aircraft museums across the country flew over our nation’s capital to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day. The warbirds were organized in 15 historically sequenced formations representing the war’s major battles from Pearl Harbor to the final air assault on Japan. Piloting the P-51C Mustang Tuskegee Airmen was AMA member and Delta Airlines Captain Brad Lang.
The Arsenal of Democracy warbirds are based at the Culpeper Regional Airport and Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia. The warbirds began their flight near Leesburg, Virginia, following the Potomac River to Washington, D.C.
Flying in formation with Brad’s Tuskegee Airmen P-51C were two P-51D Mustangs—Red Nose and Gunfighter. The aircraft escorted the B-24 Liberator Diamond Lil to commemorate the Ploesti Raid, officially known as Operation Tidal. The Ploesti Raid targeted the Romanian oil refinery complexes near the town of Ploesti, which was a major center for the production of Axis petroleum products used in the war.
Brad has flown the Tuskegee Airmen P-51C Mustang in air shows and events since 2009, accumulating more than 160 hours in the Mustang. He demonstrates the Mustang’s flight capabilities at approximately 10 air shows a year. The P-51C belongs to the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Red Tail Squadron. It’s painted in the distinctive colors representing the four Tuskegee fighter squadrons, including the bright red tail of the Mustangs flown by the first all-African-American fighter pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
The name was adopted from the city of Tuskegee, Alabama, where the training base was located. The name Tuskegee Airmen includes every man and woman, military or civilian, who served at any of the bases where the airmen trained or flew between 1941 and 1949. “The Tuskegee Airmen Mustang is a flying educational tool to create interest in the history and legacy of the first black military pilots who flew this type of airplane during World War II,” said Brad.
Brad’s connection to the Tuskegee Airmen runs much deeper than flying the namesake Mustang. Brad’s father, Donald W. Lang Sr., was a Tuskegee Airman who trained at the Tuskegee Army Airbase after enlisting in September of 1942. He remained at Tuskegee for his entire military career, leaving the Army in February 1946 with the rank of Sergeant Major.
Brad said, “I’m honored to be part of the Arsenal of Democracy flyover to pay tribute to the men and women of World War II.”
—Jeff Nance
AMA Director of Marketing & Digital Strategy
Pilot receives medal
A longtime Control Line (CL) Speed competitor and AMA member has been named as the first American recipient of a prestigious medal awarded by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
Carl Dodge, Richmond Heights, Ohio, has been selected as the 2015 recipient of the Andrei Tupolev Aeromodelling Medal. Carl is also the first AMA member recognized with this award.
The Andrei Tupolev Aeromodelling Medal may be awarded on recommendation by the FAI Aeromodelling Commission to any aeromodeler who in the same year has won the world and national aeromodeling championships in the same class of models. In July 2014, Carl won the F2A CL Speed Nats, held in Muncie, Indiana, then went on to win the 2014 FAI World Championship for Control Line Model Aircraft, held in Wloclawek, Poland, in August.
“I feel privileged and humbled to be listed among the great past recipients,” Carl stated shortly after learning of the honor. He was named as the recipient of the medal during the FAI Commission Internationale d’Aéromodelisme (CIAM) Plenary Meeting, held April 24, 2015, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Carl attended his first Nats in 1956, and has competed several times in the FAI World Championships for Control Line Model Aircraft. He said in May that he has yet to receive the medal, but he expects to during the opening ceremony of the annual FAI General Conference, if he attends. The conference is scheduled to take place in September 2015, in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The FAI is the international body for all air sport international championships, competitions, and record-keeping. The Andrei Tupolev Aeromodelling Medal, established in 1989, is donated annually by the National Airsport Control (NAC) of Russia.
—MA staff
The Flying Eight-Ball Club
In the April 2015 issue of Model Aviation, the National Model Aviation Museum staff described the Walt Billet Loving Cup/Flying Eight-Ball Trophy. Let’s talk more about that wacky club.
After only 10 years in existence, the fledgling AMA needed to raise money to maintain itself. It was 1946, and Al Lewis and Russ Nichols decided to go to the aeromodeling industry for help. They wanted to create a fundraising program that would draw attention, interest, and even some laughs. That’s when they came up with the Flying Eight-Ball Club.
Russ Nichols sent a letter to Walt Billet, dated on March 10, 1953, stating:
“As to how the ‘Flying Eight-Balls’ started … it was originally a fundraising gimmick for the AMA. Al Lewis and I started it at the MIA [Model Industry Association] convention in Chicago just after Al was discharged from the Army. The idea was that anyone who made a contribution to the Academy received one of the ‘Flying Eight-Ball’ pins and was cautioned not to tell anyone what it represented. In this way, considerable interest and curiosity was aroused and we succeeded in raising quite a little money for the Academy. The original pins were made up by Al and me by gluing regular eight-ball pins on a few obsolete FAI pins which we found in NAA’s supply room.
“As to the names of former members, I am sure that I couldn’t even begin to list them since no records were kept, but you can just about include all of the major members of the MIA as being former members of the ‘Eight-Ball Club.’”
The back of a membership card spells out one reason why the program was such a hit—the humor.
“The holder of this membership card, having presented convincing evidence to the Admissions Committee that he has suffered great anguish in conjunction with his activities in aviation and/or model aviation, has been accepted as a Flying Eight-Ball Club member in the category indicated:
- Disappointed Designer
- Melancholy Manufacturer
- Disenchanted Distributor
- Disinflated Dealer
- Flattened Flyer
- Poor PR Boy
- Cudgeled CD
- Thermaless Sailplaner
- Fatoutious Fotographer
- Sad Ad Man
- Puzzled Pilot
- Last Place Contestant
“Therefore, be it understood that all men of similar interest are required to give earnest attention for a period not to exceed 10 minutes while the honorable Flying Eight-Ball Club member relates his tale of woe. And, furthermore, whenever any member is encountered in any eating house or establishment devoted to the serving of any beverage whatsoever and said member is found to be without his proper membership credentials, then it shall be deemed necessary for said member to provide sustenance or liquid refreshment for all Eight-Ballers on the premises.”
The Flying Eight-Ball Club was in existence through the mid-1980s, and possibly after that as well. The museum continues to research and collect material about this fun club and hopes to find out what ended its days as an organization. There was a suggestion that the club might have been pulled into the Museum Patron Program, but we could not find a definitive answer.
Do you know? Give us a call! And if you have an original Flying Eight-Ball pin you might like to donate, please drop us a line.
—National Model Aviation Museum Staff
