Introducing the AMA Alpha! The Alpha is a rubber-powered airplane that provides amazing flight duration, controlled flight, and can easily be disassembled and taken home to fly again.
The Academy sponsors aviation events annually in the Science Olympiad and provides $5,000 annually to assist winners to attend secondary education. In addition, a member of the AMA Education Committee was the designer of the 2013 aviation challenge, a balsa catapult glider.
Sir George Cayley, often called the Father of Aeronautics, designed a helicopter powered by a bow-string mechanism with feather blades (similar to the reproduction shown here). Later, he experimented by flying a model with multiple adjustable surfaces, allowing him to understand how every change affected the model’s flight. This model is a ½ scale replica of his original 1804 model. Cayley used the data from these experiments to publish his On Aerial Navigation in 1809.
