The Maker Of Giants

"He's a jewel," is how Jim Welborn describes Sebring resident Jim Messer.

Welborn is the president of the 75-member Highlands Radio Control Club, a group of enthusiasts that build and fly airplane models at their airfield on the property of the Highlands County landfill on Arbuckle Creek Road.

Jim Messer, 78, who is the secretary of the club, is the aficionado of model airplane flying and their design. In countries around the world hobbyists would be able to identify the name of the man associated with Giant Scale Model airplanes - models of at least one-quarter scale. Messer was the initiator of the movement.

He designed them and adapted gasoline weed-wacker and chainsaw engines to power them. And last month his contributions to the pastime were officially recognized. He was inducted into the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) Hall of Fame. An honor that has been bestowed upon those individuals "who have made significant contributions to the sport of aeromodeling." Since this Hall of Fame's inception in 1969, less than 250 members, who have met the criteria of "Competitor, Designer and Teacher," have received the award.

Located in Muncie, Ind., the AMA, established in 1936, is the official national body for model aviation in the United States. It boasts a membership of over 150,000 and oversees in excess of 2,500 clubs.

A Day To Remember

Each July Messer and Peggy, his wife of 57 years, return to their hometown of Olean, N.Y. to attend a model airplane rally so popular that the municipal airport is closed for two days to accommodate it. Most years Messer is asked to demonstrate, along with others, his model flying skills.

"When I'm flying," he said, "all my concentration is on my model."

This July 12 his participation in the event appeared to him to be like previous years. Except this time after he safely landed his plane and turned toward the crowd of a thousand or so spectators, he found himself face-to-face with an AMA official who presented him with a plaque recognizing his induction into the Hall of Fame.

"How do you make a grown man cry? It's easy..." he said leaving the sentence unfinished.

Never did the accomplished modeler think his childhood interest would carry him to worldwide acclaim. Peg likes to tell how her husband's early grade school teacher in his two-room schoolhouse would let the young lad make models in class just to keep him from getting into mischief.

Like most youngsters of that era he started with the building of rubber band-powered models. In 1941 he built his first gas-powered model. Four years later he was winning in competitions. By the early 1950s he had discovered radio controlled flights and in 1975 he adapted a chainsaw engine to a larger scaled model that helped make him the world's driving force behind the giant scale movement.

Giant scale models can have wingspans in the 14-foot or 15-foot range and can weigh around 45 to 50 pounds. With engines of up to 10 horse power, they fly at speeds of 60 mph and altitudes of 1,000 feet. While the giants start at one-quarter scale, Messer does build them up to 40 percent the size of a real plane. For example: a 40 percent model of a 36-foot wingspan Piper Cub would have a wingspan of 14 ½ feet.

Don't Hang Out The Wash

Messer and his wife were born, raised and reared their nine children in Olean. Olean, in southeast New York, was an oil town on the northern boundary of the Bradford Oil Fields. Jim's father was an oil well shooter. That's the guy who is responsible for bringing in the well by detonating it with large amounts of nitroglycerin.

"Shooting a well," Messer reminisces, "was a form of local entertainment." Townspeople turned out to witness the event and housewives were advised not to hang out their wash on those days because after the shooting everything was coated with a film of the black stuff.

Messer is in the process of releasing a book about has experiences. The book, which should be available within the next couple of months, is titled "Growing Up in the Bradford Oil Fields."

In the midst of the oil fields Messer's family continued to grow and expand. While Jim, a graduate engineer, was earning a living, Peg, with the off and on help of the children, managed the family's model airplane business - "Jim Messer's Quality Model Products." Products that found their way to South Africa, to Russia and beyond.

Paper Preferred Over Plastic

Messer is an "ace" in the field of model airplanes. He is a "scratch-built" modeler. He may well begin a design on the back of a brown paper bag. From this concept he'll develop a prototype model, which he will continually adjust, adapt and modify until he has a model that will do what he wants it to. Then he will draw up plans that other modelers can use to build their own flying machines.

Over the years the model designer has developed over 40 new airplanes. And to this day he continues to design and build at least one new model every year in his tidy workroom off a garage filled with giant scale models that were sketched on the back of a grocery bag.