Written by AMA staff (03/1990); Formatted by JS (05/2008), Reformatted (12/2010)
Joseph Bilgri (AMA 4393, Oroville CA) has been an active modeler since the 1930s. He enjoyed competitive flying. Starting with local contests, he soon moved up to Junior Birdmen events in Indoor and Outdoor Rubber and then on to powered aircraft. He competed at almost every Nats from the post-WWII era up to the 1960s. Qualifying for FAI teams, he flew for the USA many times between 1952 and 1973.
Sweden, France, Hungary, England, Italy – when he could not actually go onto the event he sent models that were flown by proxy fliers. Joe still holds three records in Mulvihill, and he accumulated many firsts and other top standings throughout his active flying career. As a designer and experimenter, he published dozens of articles on Wakefields, Mulvihills, Nordic Gliders, etc. in Model Airplane News, Air Trails, Flying Models, and foreign magazines. Several of his designs are still being flown competitively, which is a tribute to his designer skills.
Joe has also shown good leadership qualities. He managed the FAI Indoor team that went to England in 1962. At the 1970 event in Romania, he again was team manager. A Contests Director for several decades, he CD’d many local and regional contests. In 1954, he was CoContest Director at the Free Flight World Championships held on Long Island, NY. He has made a long and valuable contribution to the sport of model aviation for more than 50 years. He well deserves the honor of being inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame.
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