Written & Submitted (1992), Edited by Model Aviation staff (10/1964); Transcribed by NR (08/1997); Edited by SS (2002), Updated by JS (10/2007), Reformatted by JS (09/2009), Updated by JS (01/2010)
Career
- Academy of Model Aeronautics Contest Director; directed Radio Control Pattern and Pylon, and Control Line contests for 20 years
- As requested by the Executive Director of the AMA, he became Team Manager for the New Zealand Team at the Springfield, OH Championships
- He was elected Contest Board Member for District II and served at that time as Contest Board Chairman
- 1982: Elected Vice President of the AMA for District I
- The inventor and developer of the foam wing construction technique; published the first article in 1964
- Was a leader member for 20 years
- President of seven different modeling clubs; two of these clubs have awarded Ed lifetime memberships
Honors
- 1985: AMA Meritorious Service Award
- 1995: Model Aviation Hall of Fame
Edward Izzo
CD (Contest Director) and LM (Leader Member) for 18 years. Directed local and state contests. Currently a Contest Board member and Chairman of Radio Control Contest Board. A mechanical engineer. Attends most of contest during the contest season in and beyond District II. An active flyer and contestant.
The information in this biography comes from Ed’s Model Aviation Hall of Fame application that was submitted first in 1982 by Norman A. Holland (AMA 196), Joseph Bridi (AMA 288), and Frank Vidmar (AMA 5252). Ed was accepted into the Hall of Fame posthumously in August of 1997.
As a Competitor
Ed has been a very active modeler since 1932. He started competing at that time by entering a scale contest sponsored by a local hobby shop. As a young boy, he was selected by Mr. Harry Copeland to demonstrate model airplanes at Exchange Club meetings. Through this effort, Mr. Copeland was able to obtain Exchange Club sponsorship for model aviation in New York State. This later contributed to national sponsorship of model aviation by the Exchange Club, which laid the groundwork for present national contests and the AMA.
In 1938, Ed entered his first National Championships, competing in Free Flight Rubber and Gas as well as Indoor. He finished in the first five places of each category.
From 1947 to 1957, he was very active in Control Line and competed in Control Line contests throughout the Northeast as well as National Championships in stunt and all categories of speed. Since 1957, he has been very active in Radio Control and has placed or was a winner in most of the major contests throughout the East and Midwest. He has been an FAI qualifier every year in this time span. He is still active in Pattern competition. He has also competed in all categories of Pylon racing, having finished within the top five of National Championships. He is also an active competitor in Radio Control Sport Scale since 1966 and has been a winner in the Sport Scale category in most of the major contests in the East. He has also qualified and competed in the Scale Masters Championships as well as Scale in the National Championships.
As a Contest Director
Ed has held a Contest Director's license with AMA for the past 20 years. He has been a Contest Director for Radio Control Pattern and Pylon as well as Control Line. He was co-director of several major Control Line contests in central New York and was an official at the Plymouth Aero League (PAL) National Championships.
He was responsible for the entire airplane processing at the World Championships held in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
As requested by the Executive Director of the AMA, he became Team Manager for the New Zealand Team at the Springfield, Ohio World Championships. He later acted as manager for New Zealand at Acapulco, Mexico.
He was elected Contest Board Member for District II and served at that time as Contest Board Chairman. Major changes were undertaken in Radio Control rules. These were the elimination of the old multi intermediate and rudder categories and the initiation of the present all multi-classes. He worked on the introduction of the present Pylon rules. He has been a Radio Control Contest Board Member for District I for the past five years and in 1982 was elected vice president of the AMA for District I.
As a Designer Ed was the originator and designer of the first all aluminum speed shell and later manufactured and sold this product throughout the United States. He is well known for his design of the Sabre-Hawk Pattern airplane that was published in Radio Control Modelers magazine. He has also designed a number of Pattern airplanes; significant among them was the Javelin, which was one of the first cowled in high aspect radio airplanes.
Ed was the inventor and developer of the foam wing
construction technique. Published the first article in 1964 and gave demonstrations at both the Buffalo and Toledo Symposiums. He recognized the commercial value of this invention, but decided to give it to the modeling public in return for many years of enjoyment he has received from the hobby.
As a Leader Ed has been a leader member for the past 20 years, elected president of seven different modeling clubs, and one of the original organizers of three of these clubs. Two of these clubs have awarded Ed lifetime memberships.
Ed has given numerous presentations on Radio Control topics to clubs throughout District I and II and for the past six years has been a principle speaker at the District II Radio Control Symposium in Syracuse, New York. Throughout his active career, he has always been willing to assist the beginning modeler with any of their problems.
As a Writer
Wrote and had published the construction article on the Sabre-Hawk Radio Control Pattern airplane. He also wrote and published the article on foam-wing construction technique, which was published in Model Airplane News in 1965.
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