#FantasyFreeFlight: 1915 National Competition Structure

Sponsored by the Aero Club of America in 1915, the first National Model Aeroplane Competition was formatted for maximum participation without the hassle of travel or shipping models to be proxy flown. Instead, the national contest was actually a series of local events. It worked like this:

  • Each club held elimination rounds and the four winners and four runners-up would represent their club at the official contests.
  • Official contests were held “at places selected by the model clubs” during a time frame set by the Aero Club of America. The contest was  judged by representatives of the Aero Club of America.
  • There were three events: Distance flown after Hand Launch, Flight Duration after Rise off Water and Flight Duration after Rise off Ground.
  • The results of the contests were mailed to the Aero Club of America to determine the winners.
  • The results of each individual competing in the club were averaged over three flights. These averages were then added and averaged again in order to arrive at the club’s score.
  • For example, the Concord Model Aero Club (who only posted results for one event to Aerial Age Weekly, and are therefore not included in the Fantasy Free Flight contest) scores looked like this:

Concord Model Aero Club: William F. Schult took home 1st place witha flight average of 28.2 seconds; Waid Carl took 2nd place with a flight average of 12.1 seconds; Earl H. Bean took 3rd with a flight average of 9.7 seconds; Benjamin Smith took 4th with a flight average of 1 second.

  • There were cash prizes for individuals, but the Henry S. Villard Cup went to the “club whose members collectively make the largest score during the three months – this to be computed by the point system.”
The Villard Trophy in black and white, as it appeared in the July 5, 1915 issue of Aerial Age Weekly.
The Henry S. Villard Trophy was the prize for the winning club. (Photo credit: Phipps, Walter H., ed. “Model News Column: Big Prizes Offered for National Model Aeroplane Contest.” Aerial Age Weekly, July 5, 1915)

Celebrate the centennial of national model aviation competition by participating in #FantasyFreeFlight – learn how it works here!  Don’t forget to share your club and brag about your accomplishments on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag.

The exhibit has the trophy in front and the panel behind. A black and white photograph of Henry Villard in the cockpit of a plane at the age of 12 is also on exhibit.
The Villard Cup is at the museum until September 2015 thanks to a loan from the San Diego Air and Space Museum. It is on exhibit in the museum’s Nats exhibit, along with some personal items of Villard loaned from Villard’s friend Willis Allen of Allen Airways Flying Museum.

link to main information page for #FantasyFreeFlight

 

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