AMA MODEL AVIATION
HALL OF FAME
INDUCTEES NAMED
THE AMA MODEL AVIATION HALL OF FAME, established in 1969, honors men and women who have made significant contributions to the sport of aeromodeling. Contributions can be made through volunteer or administrative work, product development, competition performance, or a variety or combination of these activities. In January 2009, the AMA Executive Council voted to change the award’s name from Model Aviation Hall of Fame to the AMA Model Aviation Hall of Fame.
The selection committee is composed of past and present AMA presidents and one individual selected from each of the 11 districts by their respective vice presidents.
The 2020 hall of fame inductees have been announced. They include Max Blose, James “Jim” Bourke, Paul Crowley, Mark Frankel (deceased), Steve Helms (deceased), Keith “Dave” Herbert, Sidney Kauffman (deceased), Emma “Lilian” Todd (deceased), and Richard “Rich” Uravitch.
Max Blose of Waco, Texas, has written articles for RC Modeler magazine, has served as a contest director (CD) for RC Aerobatics (Pattern) events, was a District VIII Associate Vice President for 18 years, and helped found the Texas Model Aeronautics Foundation club in 2005. Professionally, he worked for Marathon Battery Company and founded B&P Associates in 1985, which repaired and built battery packs for model aircraft.
The founder of what is known today as RCGroups, Jim Bourke, of Corvallis, Oregon, was also inducted. In the early 1990s, he started a website called the E Zone, which later became RCGroups. Jim also joined the team at Knife Edge Software, the maker of RealFlight simulators, as a contract programmer. He later became the general manager and the owner of the company.
Free Flight (FF) modeler Paul Crowley, of Warren, Michigan, attended his first Nats in 1952. He has been on the US team for the FAI FF World Championships, won the America’s Cup for F1B five times, spent 40 years on the FAI team selection committee, is an AMA Leader Member, and has been a CD for more than 50 years. Each year, he helps run an indoor flying competition in Michigan.
During his lifetime, Mark Frankel saw many of his RC Scale aircraft designs and construction articles published in hobby magazines that included Model Aviation, RC Modeler, Model Airplane News, Model Builder, and more. Mark wrote four books about full-scale military aircraft and aviation. Before he died in July 2020, he won many trophies for model aircraft flying and static competitions, including some from the Nats.
Steve Helms’ first taste of model aviation was in 1958 when he began flying models with his father. By 1964, he attended his first Nats. He discovered his love of RC Aerobatics and began competing in it. Later in life he became an RC helicopter competitor. As in life, his career was focused on the hobby. He worked for Kraft Systems in California, where he helped develop the Kraft Signature Series RC radio. He later started his own company, Radio South, then worked for Futaba Corporation of America. He died in 2016.
Marine Corps veteran Dave Herbert shares his knowledge of flying, building, and repairing model aircraft through his YouTube channel, NightFlyer. The Sidney, Iowa, resident also teaches a science class about flight at a high school in his community. He established an RC air show to benefit Toys for Tots and created a model helicopter called the Hyperfly that does not have a tail rotor.
Armed with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, Sidney Kauffman founded SLK Electronics in 1970. The company made a name for itself by selling a tachometer called the Protack. Later, Sidney developed the Omega seven-channel transmitter, which was sold through Royal Electronics. Before his death in May 2016, Sidney also invented ElectiCalc software, which could help predict a model’s flight performance.
Lilian Todd (1865-1937) was a self-taught inventor and engineer. While growing up in Washington, D.C., she tested and exhibited numerous model airplanes. She later founded the Junior Aero Club of America in 1908 and was the first woman to design her own manned, two-person cockpit airplane. At one time, she was the only female member of the Aeronautic Society of New York.
Florida resident Rich Uravitch is one of the pioneers of the Stand-Off Scale model aircraft sport class. He began promoting the class in the 1960s and it is still popular in Scale competitions today. He has participated in numerous Top Gun Invitationals and some of his model airplane designs have been kitted by Hobby Hangar, House of Balsa, and Lanier R/C. He has had construction articles published in hobby magazines. Professionally, Rich worked for Fairchild Republic, which produced the A-10 Thunderbolt II and the T-46 Next Generation Trainer for the US military.
If you would like to nominate someone for the 2021 AMA Model Aviation Hall of Fame award, the deadline is March 31, 2021. Nomination forms can be found at www.modelaircraft.org/museum/history-recognition/ama-model-aviation-hall-fame or can be mailed to your home upon request by emailing nominations@modelaircraft.org.
THE 2020 COVID-19 pandemic kept many public venues closed for much of the year, and our National Model Aviation Museum was one of them. Although we were open in the summer, seven days a week for much of July and part of August, it wasn’t nearly as busy as usual. This was expected because fewer events than normal were held on-site, and the museum could only be open at half capacity.
Despite the building being closed to the public for much of the year, our work at the museum did not stop. Even when we were working from home in late spring, we were still answering research emails and calls, fielding donation questions, handling reprint requests, and adding to our virtual offerings.
You might have noticed information about the museum’s virtual tour and online collections in issues of the AMA Today e-newsletter. If you have been a Museum Patron or have been following our Facebook page or blogs, you have heard a lot about the development of some of these for the past few years. We wanted to share more this month because January can be dreary. If you haven’t had a chance to see all of this on our website, here we delve into our virtual experience page.
Virtual tour: You can take an electronic stroll through the National Model Aviation Museum from the comfort of your home with our virtual museum tour. We know seeing our collections in person can really connect you with the artifacts, but this is a convenient and safe option during a pandemic.
Digital collections: In mid-2019, we made a web portal that is accessible to all. It is a collection of records in the museum’s database, PastPerfect. The number of artifacts we have made available online has been growing. Click the orange button on the virtual experience page to go to the digital collections. Model aircraft, engines, books from our library, photos, scrapbooks, patches, pins, catalogs, trophies, and much more can be seen here.
The virtual tour and digital collections work in unison to show you not only the artifacts that are on display in the galleries but also the additional items we have in storage. In the virtual tour, hover over individual artifacts (such as an airplane) while you are “walking” through the exhibits, and if that artifact has been linked to a record in our digital collections, a black box will pop up with the name of the aircraft. Clicking on this box will bring you to the record page so that you can read more about the object.
Exhibit pages: We have a map at the bottom of the virtual experience page that shows the museum’s public spaces. Click on any gallery area on the map and it will take you to a corresponding exhibit page. Click on the store or plans areas and that will take you to shopping pages. Shopping with us helps support AMA and the National Model Aviation Museum.
You can find our Museum Virtual Experience page at www.modelaircraft.org/museum/visit/virtual-museum-tour. If you have not yet checked it out, now is the time to see what we have available. We are adding more to the online component weekly, so keep checking back to see what’s new ... or old.
