DAVE PLATT
Aircraft designer, AMA Model Aviation
Hall of Fame Inductee
By Jay Smith | jays@modelaircraft.org
JAY SMITH: How did you become involved with model aviation?
DAVE PLATT: I saw a kid in the local park flying a glider with a hi-start. This was in 1944. I asked him where he got it. He told me he’d made it, and where I could get a kit for it.
I went to the hobby shop and was enthralled with all I saw there.
JS: How has model aviation impacted your life and/or career?
DP: Although I served an apprenticeship as a compositor, I already knew that my destiny lay in model designing, and when my time was up, I got a job with Keil Kraft.
JS: What disciplines of modeling do you currently participate in?
DP: I have built and flown just about all kinds of models, but my health at age 88 currently limits me to Free Flight (FF).
JS: What other hobbies do you have?
DP: None.
JS: Who or what has influenced you the most?
DP: From the age of 10 in 1944, I gobbled up every copy of Aeromodeller as soon as it came out. I would say, from its pages I learned everything about geometry, mathematics, geography, physics, chemistry, etc.
There would be three new designs with plans and an article by the designer explaining the reasoning behind the model, a three-view of some current full-scale airplane, and a review of a new engine hitting the market, including horsepower and torque curves. Truly, a boy could learn more from a single copy of Aeromodeller than from a year’s worth of schooling.
I also occasionally got to see a copy of Air Trails. What a treat to see the American side of the hobby.
JS: Of all the models you have designed, do you have a favorite and why?
DP: My personal favorite would be the Satin Doll, a FF rubber-powered biplane published in Aeromodeller in the 1980s.
JS: Can you share a little about your involvement in building models for the Battle of Britain movie?
DP: I was one of a team of four charged with designing and building three large (for the day—1966) RC Scale airplanes to see if flying models could be used in a movie. We were given six weeks for the job.
When the time was up, we had a Stuka, a Hurricane, and an Me 110 to show for our efforts. Eventually, deciding that RC flying models would work for the movie, many more copies were built (and sometimes crashed) on camera. All in all, it was a two-year project.
JS: One of the things you are known for is wearing Hawaiian shirts. Can you share the story behind that?
DP: The Hawaiian shirt thing was just a way to bring a little color to the flying field!
