Fox Valley Aero Club is Celebrating 100 Years of Model Aviation

On June 21st to June 23rd Fox Valley Aero Club is celebrating 100 years of Model Aviation History in conjunction with the 100 Year Anniversary of the formation of the RAF (British Royal Air Force).

This Radio Control Model Airplane Group, located in St Charles Illinois, is having its 5th Annual Windy City Warbirds & Classics Air Show to represent 100 years of Aviation History.

The British Royal Air Force (RAF) was formed April 1st 1918 by combining the Royal Flying Corp (RFC) and the Royal Navel Air Service (RNAS). It was the world’s first and most famous independent Air Force. You can see some of these historic examples of RAF planes with their famous British Roundel insignias at the event. The British Roundel is synonymous with stories of courage, adaptability, and innovation. Some RAF examples you will see are the Sopwith Pup, Sopwith Camel, the Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane.

.Cliff Fullhart, whose interest in aviation began at the age of nine, first joined the St Charles RC Club in 1972 when it was called “The Flying Fools.” In 1975 the Club changed locations and took on a new name “Fox Valley Aero Club.” In 1976 Cliff was the second president and is now the only remaining member of the original Club. Cliff states, “RC Modeling inspired me to earn my pilots license in 1989, buy a plane and accumulate over 4000 hours in the air.”

Cliff particularly enjoys biplanes with a preference for WW1 planes. “I guess I admire those young pilots who flew them in mortal combat sometimes to 18,000 feet. Those early pilots flew with no parachute or a supply of oxygen.” He adds, “There is just something unique about constructing a model of these biplanes that flew in combat over 100 years ago and then have the joy of seeing it fly.”

In addition to the RAF planes, the Windy City Warbirds and Classics RC Air Show will feature other scale WWI biplanes that have been carefully custom built to look exactly like the real planes as they existed in WWI. There will also be many examples of WWII aircraft from allied fighters like the P 51 to axis fighters from Japan and Germany. Each RC model is crafted in such a way as to spark the imagination. You will ask yourself as the planes fly by, “Is it real or is it a scale model?” Some examples of classic airplanes are the popular J3 Cub, the Cessna 310, or a classic Stearman.

Finally, what would a model airplane air show event be without real turbine scale jets? These miniature turbines sound like the real thing because they are real scale jet engines. There will be jet warbird replicas that flew the skies in Vietnam and more modern examples from present day. All of these jets, like their prop driven brethren, are detailed to mimic actual planes as closely as possible. Many of these replica scale RC planes take more than 2 years to build, some as long as 8 years.

Fox Valley Aero Club is located at 3821 Karl Madsen Drive, St Charles, Illinois. There will be over 90 pilots from 7 surrounding states and 2 countries. There will be over 300 giant scale RC planes on display during this event. We will have food vendors on site and RAF T Shirts on sale. Some grandstand seating is available but you are always welcome to bring lawn chairs.

There will be a Candy Drop from an RC Airplane after the noon air show on Saturday. Admission is $5 per person, kids under 12 are free. Event T-shirts and Hats will be available for purchase.

For additional photos and information about the June 21-23, 5th Annual Windy City Warbirds and Classics Air Show our website can be viewed at www.foxvalleyaero.com