IN THE AIR
2025 NATS
THE 2025 NATS registration is now open at https://nats.modelaircraft.org/nats/register. If you want to reserve a golf cart, please send an email to nats@modelaircraft.org or call Yolanda Jones at (765) 287-1256, ext. 261.
The 2025 Nats event schedule is now available:
Indoor Free Flight (FF): May 24-26 (East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee; all other events take place at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.)
RC Pylon Racing: July 5-7
Control Line (CL) Speed: July 6-11
CL Precision Aerobatics (Stunt): July 6-11
CL Racing: July 6-11
RC Helicopter: July 6-9
CL Navy Carrier: July 6-11
CL Combat: July 6-11
CL Scale: July 10-15
RC Scale: July 10-15
RC Soaring: July 19-27
Outdoor FF: July 21-25
RC Scale Aerobatics: July 29-August 1
RC Aerobatics (Pattern): August 19-23
NATIONAL MODEL AVIATION MUSEUM SUMMER SCHEDULE
THE NATIONAL Model Aviation Museum will be open to the public this year between Monday, May 5 and Friday, September 26. The schedule is as follows:
May 5-30, 2025
Open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Closed May 26 for Memorial Day.)
June 2-August 30, 2025
Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Closed July 4-5 for Independence Day.)
September 2-26, 2025
Open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (Closed September 1 for Labor Day.)
The museum will close for the season after September 26. The schedule and hours are also listed on the AMA website at www.modelaircraft.org/museum/museum-info. If you have questions about visiting but you don’t have access to the internet, call (765) 287-1256, ext. 500 or 511.
AMA Thanks Its Lifetime Supporters!
The Academy of Model Aeronautics recently welcomed Life Members Joseph D. Schmidt, Aztec NM; Andres Chaballa, Sunnyvale CA; and Alexandro Burgos Jr.; New Lenox IL.
For information about becoming a Life Member, contact AMA Headquarters at (765) 287-1256, ext. 129.
UPCOMING MEMORIAL DAY WALK OF FAME BRICK SALE
By Clarissa Poston, AMA Foundation Communications Specialist | clarissap@modelaircraft.org
ESTABLISHED IN 2001, the AMA Walk of Fame at the International Aeromodeling Center is designed in the shape of a large propeller and signifies the history of the hobby with honored names from all sectors of model aeronautics. With more than 1,500 bricks, the Walk of Fame holds an immense amount of rich model aviation history. To view an updated virtual tour of the Walk of Fame, visit https://droneiq.online/WOF_Tour2025/index.htm.
In honor of Memorial Day, Walk of Fame bricks that are purchased in May will be 10% off! To take advantage of this discount and honor yourself or a loved one, use discount code MemBrick when ordering. This offer is only applicable from May 1-31.
Walk of Fame bricks are available in different shapes, colors, and materials, and they can be ordered by visiting https://amafoundation.modelaircraft.org/walk-of-fame.
Purchasing a brick permanently includes your name, or the name of an honoree, along the Walk of Fame. It’s a permanent testimony to your continuing support of the hobby!
Model Builder Grumman Ag Cat
AMA PLANS SERVICE now houses all plans formerly sold through Model Builder magazine, Bill Northrup’s Plan Service, and the Scratch Builder’s Almanac. There are more than 18,000 plans in the collection.
The full-scale Grumman Ag Cat was designed in the late 1950s to replace the worn-out Stearmans and N3Ns that were being used for crop dusting. Floyd Fitzgerald designed the model from a set of three-views provided by Grumman. It was included in the December 1978 issue of Model Builder. The gas-powered RC Grumman Ag Cat biplane has a 92-inch wingspan and weighs 18 pounds. The designer noted that it is not a beginner’s model.
Plans for the Grumman Ag Cat, plans number 12781, can be ordered for $27 by visiting https://plans.modelaircraft.org or by calling AMA Plans Service at (765) 287-1256, ext. 507.
Historic Catalogs and Publications
THIS MONTH, we will explore a few items from recent donations to the National Model Aviation Museum’s archives.
In January 2025, we received a collection of catalogs and publications circa the early- and mid-1930s. This material, housed in the museum archives as the James Tangney Collection, #0530, is a fantastic look back at pre-World War II aeromodeling in the US.
Publications include Jimmie Allen Club News, Model Airplane Flying, and Sportsman Aviation and Modelplanes/Sportsman Aviation and Model Flying. Advertising and mailing material are from Donald F. Duncan Inc., Richfield Oil Company of California, Selley Manufacturing Co. Inc., RCA Manufacturing Co., Inc., SK Flyer Headquarters (Sky Flyer model airplane kits), and Model Aircraft Products/Model Aviator Products. (Credit: Donated in memory of James Tangney.)
A few highlights of this great collection are as follows:
- Sportsman Aviation and Model Flying, Vol. 1 No. 10, December 1, 1933 [A2025.03.16]: This newsletter’s cover page reports on the first model airplane contest sponsored by the American Legion, held September 30-October 1, 1933, at Butler University in Indianapolis. The photos were taken by Joe Ott, according to the article.
Do you want to read more about Joe Ott? A biography about the famous aeromodeling author and kit maker is in the AMA History Project at www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/OttJoe.pdf.
- Model Airplane Flying, Vol. 1 No. 2, March 1, 1934 [A2025.03.04]: Although we only have the first and last page of this 8-page newsletter, you can still read tips on carving propellers, model wheel construction, “The Cloud Busters” comic strip by A. Brown, and several advertisements of the time, including one for Joe Ott’s book, Model Airplanes: Building and Flying. The museum has two copies of this book in its rare books storage.
- Selley Manufacturing Company Inc. advertising material [A2025.03.08, A2025.03.11, A2025.03.12]: Items from this Brooklyn, New York, company include three catalogs, a pricelist, and a form letter about new scalelike model fittings. The red, ivory, and black Selley catalog, circa 1932, describes the aeromodeling and full-scale aviation experiences of Armour Selley, the company’s president, including how he broke five aeromodeling world records in 1912 and introduced a slow-turning propeller for Duration models.
Scrapbook of 1952 Minnesota Contest Photos
Received by the museum in December 2024, the Richard and Harriet Gleason Collection, #0528, is composed of one unassuming, faded, stained, bluish-gray, cloth-covered binder measuring 10 x 2 x 12 inches and labeled “Squadron #18 Hopkins Hurricanes? April 28, 1952” [A2024.19.02]. Inside, this humble scrapbook is chock full of black and white photographs with typed descriptions pertaining to the 1952 Minnesota Plymouth Model Plane Contest.
Pictured in the photos are the prize and trophy tables, contestants flying models and receiving awards, other activities at the contest, and even local television celebrity Mel Jass with a contestant. (According to information from the St. Louis Park Historical Society’s website, Mel was a newscaster who was working at the time for television station WTCN in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Read more about Mel at https://slphistory.org/jassmel.)
Winners of this Minnesota contest presumably went on to Plymouth Motor Corporation’s sixth International Model Plane Contest, held in Detroit in late August 1952.
Lytton Calrow, Harriet Gleason’s father, is also pictured in the scrapbook. According to information from the donor and the Find a Grave memorial page about Harriet, Lytton ran a hobby shop in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Harriet first met her husband, Richard. Later in life, Richard owned a model plans business in Austin, Minnesota, as seen in a 1996 article in the Austin Daily Herald.
If any of our readers attended this 1952 Minnesota contest, we would love to hear your story! Your response could end up in a future “History Preserved” column. Call us at (765) 287-1256, ext. 511, or email us at museumarchives@modelaircraft.org.
Thanks for the Continued Responses
We appreciate our readers for continuing to reach out to us about the items we have mentioned that we need in “History Preserved.” We’ve received some great leads and offers of publications and artifacts. A huge thank-you to all of you who have looked for items and contacted us, and many thanks to our kind donors!
Are you looking to downsize your collection and you wonder how to go about donating to the museum?
- Check out the “History Preserved” article in the November 2024 issue.
- Visit our Donation FAQ page at www.modelaircraft.org/museum/donation-faq.
- Contact us directly. We would be happy to talk you through the process!
SOURCES:
“A Model of Success”
Lee Bonorden
Austin Daily Herald, May 19, 1996
Harriet Paul Calrow Gleason
Find a Grave, undated
www.findagrave.com/memorial/106625083/harriet_paul-gleason
“Indianapolis American Legion”
Sportsman Aviation and Model Flying
Vol. 1 No. 10, December 1, 1933 [A2025.03.16]
Mel Jass
St. Louis Park Historical Society, undated
https://slphistory.org/jassmel
“The Story of a Pioneer”
Selley Model Airplanes and Accessories catalog
Selley Manufacturing Co. Inc., circa 1932 [A2025.03.08]
