My Father Andrew Bauer passed away early in the morning of September 6 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 82.  He was loved by his family and many friends and was respected by his professional colleagues from his years as a PhD in the field of aeronautical engineering.  He also had many friends in the free flight community and was probably best known for the many papers he wrote for the NFFS symposium as well as his many years supporting and teaching myself in my younger free flight years.

My Father grew up in the golden age of model airplanes and started building simple stick and tissue rubber powered models at an early age in his hometown of Urbana, Ohio.  He remarked about how great it was when he finally got some real model airplane glue like ambroid that was strong enough to make a real flying airplane after some initial failures with paste or” LePage’s” type stuff.  He used to tell the story that he became so well known as the kid who made and flew airplanes that at one of his birthday parties around age 10 every single present he opened was a model airplane kit and he was actually a bit disappointed that there were not any other type of gifts.  He went on to build FF power models and eventually built some of his own RC gear and models during the years when simply steering a FF model around the sky was considered a big accomplishment.

He was successful enough at school to earn a scholarship to Ohio State University where he obtained first a Bachelor’s and then a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.  He then drove an old Plymouth all the way across the country to California to take his first job as an engineer working for McDonnel Douglas around 1952.  After getting married and starting a family he decided to further his education by moving to Palo Alto and earning a PhD from Stanford University.  Years later when both the Stanford and Ohio State football teams were meeting at the Rose Bowl he decided he had to be there but couldn’t decide which team to root for so he just got tickets in the middle somewhere and rooted for both.  After Stanford he returned to Southern California where he worked in the aerospace business for the remainder of his career.

My Father had a brilliant mind and was a great thinker and inventor.  He spent his own time on many various personal engineering projects and inventions over the years.  One of his best known adventures started with an engineering puzzle that asked the question “is it possible to build a vehicle that is powered by the wind and can travel directly downwind at a speed greater than the wind?”  His colleagues at the time were divided on the issue but he became convinced after studying the problem that it was indeed possible.  He became so passionate that he eventually designed and built a full size man carrying windmill powered vehicle to prove his point.  Using his modeling skills he built the large fabric covered windmill blades which were mechanically coupled to drive the main wheel of the vehicle.  The blades featured a variable pitch mechanism so that the blade pitch could be changed by the driver which was needed since when the vehicle approached the wind speed the blades would behave more like a propeller than a windmill.  I was there when he assembled the “wind machine” on the runway at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley.  There was a small streamer tied to the front of the vehicle that would fly in the wind and would initially point downwind as the vehicle started to roll.  When the vehicle speed equaled the wind speed the streamer went limp and then the miracle happened when the streamer direction reversed proving that the wind machine was traveling downwind faster than the wind.  Although there was no practical use for this invention it did win my Father some attention and he ended up lecturing to many groups on the topic and made smaller demonstration models.  Even Paul MaCready whom my Dad had known for many years was very interested and had him put on several demonstrations.

I can remember growing up and seeing all the airplanes in my Dad’s room and asking him from a very young age when I could fly a model airplane.  He was eager to satisfy my interest and when I was about 4 years old he built a simple tethered model powered by an 049 engine.  There was just a single string attached to the wingtip and all I had to do was stand in the middle holding the other end as the model would circle around me, but most flights didn’t last very long.  However I used that same engine on a little tethered car and at 5 years old I could fuel it up, start it, and watch that little car zip around a tether in our driveway.  I loved it.

The next few years my Dad helped me learn to build and fly real control line models and we spent many Saturdays with friends at local schoolyards flying these models.  When the Nationals were coming to Los Alamitos California in 1967 my Dad thought it would be great to find an event that I could compete in.  He decided that A1 towline glider would be the ideal event for a junior to compete in and he brought home a Top Kick kit.  With a lot of help from him I got it put together just in time for the Nationals and it flew very well.  My Dad added his own personal engineering touch by adding a vertical fin to the nose which he thought would make it easier for me to tow straight.  I guess it worked as I was able to tow it as an 8 year old kid, but I think I took it off years later.

My Dad was completely unselfish in devoting his time to helping me build and fly models for many years following.  He could have built and competed with his own models, but opted to help and support me instead for which I will always be grateful.  He did occasionally build his own models as I was always encouraging him to do so and they were usually experimental in nature.  One in particular I remember was a F1A with a slotted or two piece airfoil.  It flew very well and he entered a few contests but unfortunately it was lost one morning at Mile Square when it failed to DT and disappeared into the clouds.

A few years after flying that A1 in my first Nationals my Dad and I discovered local free flight competitions at Taft, CA and started attending contests there and joined the local SHOC club.  I then became converted to free flight and started building and flying all kinds of rubber, power, and gliding models with help from my Dad.  This all led to traveling to the Glenview Nats in 1972 and the Lake Charles Nats in 1974 where my Dad helped me pursue the Jr. and Sr. national champion awards respectively.  When I eventually got serious with F1A gliders my Dad was the primary force in designing our very first electronic timer.  After he got the first one working he taught me all about it and turned it over to me and I built and designed all the following timers.  We had great brain storming sessions driving to and from contests and one afternoon leaving Taft I remember him saying that it should be possible to use a strain gage to measure the force on a towhook, creating an electronic towhook.  Years later I made his original idea a reality and now it is standard on all my gliders.

After retiring from regular employment my Father continued to study aerodynamics and worked on several projects including helping an old friend from his Ohio State days, Jack Norris, write a book on propeller design for full scale aircraft entitled “Propellers, The First and Final Explanation”.  The theory has already been used successfully designing a propeller for a formula 1 gold race in Reno, CA.  Details on obtaining the book are on this website:  http://www.propellersexplained.com/.

More important than model airplanes my Father has been a kind, unselfish and giving person volunteering his time to his family, church, and friends whenever needed.  He kept a daily journal for a good part of his life and it is filled with details of working, making family plans, visiting neighbors, and regularly attending church meetings and doing volunteer work for church offices and groups.  He is survived by his wife Mary Ann, daughter Rebecca, myself and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held this Friday, September 10, 11:30am at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 674 S. Yorba St, Orange, California.  Any that would like to attend are welcome.

My Mother requested that in lieu of flowers any donations be made to a favorite charity or the Jr. FAI team fund.

Ken Bauer