2023 NATS DATES ANNOUNCED
THE DATES
for the 2023 Indoor and Outdoor Nats have been selected. The 100th anniversary of the Nats will kick off July 9 with the Control Line (CL) Scale and RC Scale Nats. These outdoor contests will take place at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.
The 2023 Indoor Free Flight (FF) Nats will be held June 19-23 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho.
Following are the scheduled dates for the 2023 Nats:
- CL Scale: July 6-9
- RC Scale: July 6-9
- CL Combat: July 9-14
- CL Racing: July 9-14
- CL Navy Carrier: July 9-14
- CL Speed: July 9-14
- RC Pylon Racing: July 9-14
- RC Combat: July 11-13
- RC Soaring: July 15-23
- Outdoor FF: July 17-21
- RC Aerobatics: July 23-27
- RC Scale Aerobatics: July 23-27
- CL Precision Aerobatics: July 28-31
- RC Helicopter: July 28-31
1923–2026: CELEBRATING THE NATIONAL AEROMODELING CHAMPIONSHIPS
IN 1923, the Illinois Model Aero Club got the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) to support a national model airplane contest. NAA Vice President Bernard Mulvihill agreed to pay for a perpetual trophy for the event.
The Illinois Model Aero Club then got the St. Louis Air Race Contest Committee to add a model airplane event to the 1923 full-scale air races. Event No. 6 was for Free Flight Duration, with a rubber band-powered model airplane. First place received $100 and temporary custody of the new Mulvihill trophy, which is now located in the AMA National Model Aviation Museum in Muncie, Indiana. Ed Lange, age 16, and president of the Illinois Model Aero Club, won with a 4-minute, 22-3/5-second flight.
A national model airplane contest, or “Nats,” was held every summer afterward, until the outbreak of World War II. During this time, more events were added, including the first Indoor Nats in 1927 and the first RC event in 1936. No Nats were held during the war from 1942 through 1945. In 1946, the Victory Nats welcomed modelers back to competition, and for the first time it included Control Line events!
Today, we continue the Nats tradition by hosting the Outdoor events at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana, each summer. Although 2023 will mark the 100th anniversary of the first Mulvihill event, because of the break during World War II, the 100th Nats will be celebrated in 2026.
2023 ELECTION RESULTS
AMA elections for the positions of AMA president and vice presidents in Districts I, V, and IX took place last fall. Following are the results of the vote. AMA would like to congratulate our elected president and district vice presidents and thank the candidates and members who participated in this year’s election.
PRESIDENT
- Rich Hanson 4,767
- Randy Cameron 2,977
- Other 55
DISTRICT I
- Andy Argenio 448
- Other 4
DISTRICT V
- Andrew Griffith 1,119
- Other 21
DISTRICT IX
- Brandon Koch 375
- Other 8
This O-52 Looks Sharp and Flies Well
AMA PLANS SERVICE houses all plans formerly sold through Model Builder magazine, Bill Northrop’s Plan Service, and the Scratch Builder’s Almanac. There are more than 18,000 plans in the collection.
The Curtiss O-52 was designed by Ronnie Albert. The 30-inch Free Flight rubber-powered Scale aircraft would be easy for experienced modelers to build but difficult for beginners. It is powered by eight to 12 strands of 1/8-inch rubber and covered in blue and yellow silkspan.
You can order plans for the Curtiss O-52, plans number 1085 OT, at https://plans.modelaircraft.org for $5.
AMA Thanks Its Lifetime Supporters!
The Academy of Model Aeronautics recently welcomed Life Members Jon E. Phillips, Simi Valley CA; Cathy Mattingly, Louisville KY; Timothy M. Koch, Mesa AZ; Robert T. Vaught Jr., Prescott AZ; Tennyson A. Charles, Houston TX; Peter L. Giorgsetti, Phoenix AZ; Gerald Lynn Scott, Fruitland ID; Scott G. Keating, Ormond Beach FL; John R. Fisher, Anthem AZ;
Philip L. Mitchell, Crowley TX; Joseph R. Miller, Dallas OR; Bobbie R. Klement, Buckeye AZ; Larry Hawke, Hobe Sound FL; Jon V. Heselwood, Kalispell MT; Ryan M Caglia, Fresno CA; Scott F. Annis, Milford MA; William J. Braun, Fort Wayne IN; John E. Padukiewicz, Scotland MD; Goetz Voegelsang, Chapel Hill NC; Brian Martinez, Michigan City IN; Parrish D. Patterson,
Beaumont TX; Lloyd N. Oliver, Chino Valley AZ; Robert Valentage, White Lake MI; Ted S. Abe, Makawao HI; Michael R. Mueller, Cypress TX; Robert Skiba, Pasco WA; and David J. Warr Jr., Mint Hill NC.
For information about becoming a Life Member, contact AMA Headquarters at (765) 287-1256, ext. 129.
—AMA Membership Department
Part 1: 1910s-1940s
Our columns tend to focus on one event or topic. We thought we would try something a little different: random items from our collections going back more than 100 years, representing bits of aeromodeling history—the exciting, amazing, odd, seemingly mundane, or just “plane” funny.
We’ll put the spotlight on one item from the museum’s collections per decade that we might not otherwise write about in this column. Although we do have some items dated before the 1910s, we’ll begin with that decade for Part 1 because we have more from which to choose by starting there.
1910s: In April 1911, a group of kids on Staten Island, New York, were outside enjoying the wonder of model flying. We’re not sure of the circumstances around this get-together, but during the occasion, Francis A. Collins took this photo of a boy winding a rubber motor for a model airplane.
Prints of this photograph were collected by Percy Pierce. He pasted one print into his scrapbook, where he wrote, “Winding up model with single geared winder—note my tail-first glider one of the boys is holding.” In the 1990s, these photographs were among items in the Percy Pierce collection that was purchased by the museum from funds donated specifically for this purpose. Now the image appears here in this article.
What could have been a rather insignificant day for those lads back then is significant today—a rare look into the early days of the hobby/sport. Fascinating!
(You can read about Percy Pierce, his model design and manufacturing work, and his biography on the AMA History Project website, and see more of the Percy Pierce collection in our online Digital Collections.)
1920s: On November 27, 1928, the Illinois Model Aero Club held its 17th annual banquet at the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago. The program we have from this banquet shows that there was much entertainment, including a presidential address, speeches and skits, a piano solo (by model designer Carl V. Carlson), a saxophone solo, and Irving Johnson presented something titled “Ten Minutes of Mystery.” (What he spoke about is a mystery to us!)
The “pun-tastic” menu included banana oil, a model in a nosedive, an unknown scale model wing, laminated pine and balsa, and assorted washers. We haven’t come across a picture of the food from that banquet, so your guess is as good as ours about exactly what they ate.
1930s: On Friday, July 7, during the 1939 Nats in Detroit, contestants could pick up free tickets at the Fort Shelby hotel for an evening of adventure at the local Edgewater Amusement Park. The ticket in our collection about this evening exclaims, “Fun for [every one] of the contestants and guests attending the 12th National Championship Model Aeroplane Meet conducted by the Detroit Metropolitan Council of Exchange Clubs ...”
We can imagine the fun everyone had on the rides listed on the ticket, such as the Laff House, Acroplane, Tumble Bug, Dodgem, Loop-O-Plane, Lindy Loop, and Moto Scoots. What a great way to relieve some competition-related stress!
1940s: A new statewide contest for Tennessee aeromodelers (as well as those from surrounding states) was held May 25-26, 1946, in Nashville. The program that we have in the museum archives states that the First Annual Tennessee Statewide Model Airplane Contest was sponsored by the Nashville Banner (a local newspaper), the Civil Air Patrol, the Tennessee Bureau of Aeronautics, and the Nashville Aero Club.
“More than 200 expert model airplane flyers” were expected to attend. The program describes a great many prizes to be won:
- The person who won first place in RC nabbed an X-Acto knife set, $10, and a half-hour of flight instruction.
- The highest cash prize amount was $35 for achieving first place in the Free Flight Gas Class C event.
- The grand prize went to the person with the most points, and that person received both the “Governor’s Trophy” and a “Chicago Meet Trip.” (Although, at first, we wondered if they meant a trip to the Nats, but we realized the 1946 Nats were held in Wichita, Kansas, that summer.)
- A “Crack-Up Consolation” appears last on the awards list. The award wasn’t described, but our guess is that it was a consolation prize for someone whose airplane didn’t quite make it through the competition.
The flying time listed on the program was “9 A.M. to Dark,” and if we know our dedicated modelers, many contestants used all the time they could get in the air.
We’ll take a breather for now, but will see you back next time for Part 2, where we’ll cover more randoms by decade.
Is there a topic you’d like to see us cover in “History Preserved” in the future? Reach out to us; we might use your idea in an upcoming issue!
