Modeling Icon Receives
AMA Fellowship Award

    Model-aviation legend and AMA Life Member Leon Shulman was recently presented with the Academy's highest honor: the AMA Fellowship Award.

    Leon's distinguished modeling career began in the early 1920s. Since then he has designed several well-known FF models including the Zomby, the Banshee, the Wedgy, and the Skyscraper. In the mid-1940s he developed and manufactured the famous .29 cu. in.-displacement Drone Diesel, which was one of the more popular model-aircraft engines during that period.

    Leon's hobby drove him to a successful career in the hobby industry, leading to a position as vice president of Monogram Models in Chicago. Illinois. Later in his career, beginning in the 1950s, Leon became a manufacturer's sales representative for many of the more prominent modeling companies of that period including Top Flite, Du-Bro, Fox Engines, Midwest Products, Bonner Electronics, and E.K. Logitrol Radios.

    Leon has been recognized several times during his life for the contributions he has made to model aviation. He has received the Howard McEntee Award and the AMA Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the Vintage Radio Control Society Hall of Fame, the National Free Flight Hall of Fame, the Society of Antique Modelers Hall of Fame, and the Model Aviation Hall of Fame.

    Today Leon continues to design and fly models and has recently had several articles published in various modeling magazines. He also spends much of his time watching his son Don and grandsons Jason and David follow in his footsteps as outstanding modelers.

    On behalf of all AMA members, the Academy thanks Leon Shulman for more than 80 years of involvement in the hobby/sport of model aviation.  MA

—Dave Mathewson
District II Vice President
 

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