Written by AMA staff (02/2010); Transcribed by JS (05/2010)
Matthew Kudija of Templeton, California, is the son of David and Karen Kudija, and has two younger sisters. A high achiever, Matthew earned his Eagle Scout badge while still in the eighth grade, and received his private pilot’s license two days after his 17th birthday.
Matthew joined the Civil Air Patrol in eighth grade and now holds the rank of Cadet First Lieutenant. He served as Squadron 103 Cadet Commander from March 2006 to 2007.
In the Scouts, Matthew was the American Legion Scout of the Year for the Department of California and, among other honors, he was a member of the National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience staff and participated in the 2007 World Scout Jamboree as a Senior Patrol Leader.
Scouting also gave Matthew a chance to hone his model-aviation skills. “I was working on the aviation merit badge at the time,” he wrote, “and having been interested in flying and aviation for a number of years, decided to pursue model aviation.”
After some research and a visit to a local club, Matthew bought and assembled a glow-powered trainer. He experimented with various modifications including a detachable, servo-operated bomb bay, a servo-operated camera mount, and other control-surface mixing techniques.
He built a small flying wing that he could fly at home and used the aircraft as a test bed for his eighth grade Science Fair project, which examined the effects of various CG locations and propeller dimensions on maximum cruise speed.
“I am an aspiring engineer,” he wrote, “and therefore my most rewarding modeling activities have been with planes that I have designed myself.” The first such aircraft was a small, scratch-built sailplane that he built, which fulfilled the requirements for his model designing and building merit badge.
Matthew graduated from Mission College Preparatory School with a 4.49 grade point average out of a possible 4.55.
AMA History Program National Model Aviation Museum 5151 E. Memorial Dr.
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