AMA Salutes Burt Rutan: Round-the-World Aircraft
By John Worth
May 15, 1987, was a proud day for AMA and modelers everywhere. On that day the designer of the round-the-world Voyager aircraft, AMA member Burt Rutan, was presented with the AMA Distinguished Service Award. AMA President Don Lowe made the presentation at a special luncheon held in the AMA Museum.
Burt's award was "for increasing public awareness of aeromodeling's contribution to the Voyager project." His parents, in TV interviews, freely acknowledged how much his modeling background helped in developing his talents and ideas.
At the AMA luncheon Burt talked for over an hour about his modeling activity, and his words have been recorded for posterity (and AMA's history) on videotape. He talked about building and flying all kinds of models: Free Flight, Control Line, Radio Control, with emphasis on Scale. Burt was one of the top Navy Carrier (CL) modelers on the West Coast scene, participating in many WAM (Western Associated Modelers) meets during the 1960s. He was especially successful in Carrier because he had developed very low-speed flying capability (hovering, actually), which gained him many points for being able to achieve a big spread between high- and low-speed flight.
He also experimented with cross-country RC, making flights controlled from a convertible driving along a highway while the model flew overhead — a forerunner of the AMA Trans-Am cross-country flights of the 1970s.
In contrast to his current use of exotic construction techniques using sophisticated adhesives, plastics, fiberglass, foam, and composite materials, Rutan noted that in his early modeling days he couldn't afford the "high priced" glue like Ambroid, so he used less expensive products. He also was dependent upon friends to get him to meets since he had no transportation of his own.
He noted during the luncheon that he expected to get back into modeling again when the current hoopla over the Voyager flight settles down. He said he had a set of Futaba RC gear he has used. Further discussion indicated a desire on his part to get to the 1987 Nats in Lincoln to meet old friends and famous modelers. After the luncheon this was made firm, and Burt was expected to be guest of honor at the AMA banquet on Wednesday of Nats week.
Burt Rutan — Continued
The AMA awards ceremony was attended by:
- Burt Rutan and his friend Tonya Simone
- AMA President Don Lowe
- National Aeronautic Association Executive Vice President Ev Langworthy
- AMA Executive Director John Worth and Mrs. Worth
- AMA Vice-Presidents:
- Don Krafft (District 1)
- Dave Brown (District 3)
- Howard Crispin (District 4)
- John Clemens (District 8)
- Dick Crowley (District 9)
- AMA member Dave Edmonds
- HQ staffers:
- Hurst Bowers
- Joyce Hager
- Geoff Styles
- Jeff Troy
- Vince Mankowski
- Lou Ward
- Doug Pratt
Special guests were Luther Hux and his wife Dawn — they provided the model Voyager which was the luncheon centerpiece (and also most of the photos for this article).
Postscript: The Voyager model (RC) had not been flown at the time of the awards ceremony, but the next morning — following advice from Burt concerning trim and design factors — Luther Hux flew the model successfully four times. As with the full-scale design, the model flies well.
In a fitting follow-up to the eve before, Luther said to Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, "During past years I have been flying a Space Shuttle model at AMA air shows. Whenever it landed, everyone cheered as if they were watching the real thing. I know that those cheers were not for the model and not for the people who flew the full-scale Shuttle, as a matter of pride that it was achieved by Americans. This year, when I fly the Voyager model, I'm looking forward to listening to them cheer for you."
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
