Education

AMA/CHARLES H. GRANT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

In 2008, the Academy of Model Aeronautics awarded $40,000 in college scholarships. With this amount, it brings the total awarded in scholarships to $1 million. To learn more about scholarship eligibility requirements and how to apply, click HERE.   

Our scholarship is named after long-time Academy of Model Aeronautics member, Charles H. Grant (1894 – 1987), who was dedicated to teaching young people about aviation through building and flying model airplanes. During his life, Mr. Grant designed countless numbers of model airplanes and published more than 300 articles and the book, “The Aero-Science of Free Flight” in 1941.

Many of Mr. Grant’s aeronautical designs were adopted by major aircraft and aerospace manufacturers to solve critical air flow and stability problems. In fact, today’s airliners and military aircraft have the basic wing-flap (leading and trailing edge flaps) configuration he designed for model airplanes. In addition, he developed “The Grant Law of Spiral Stability,” which made pilotless aircraft stable in all conditions of flight. Applications of this law made pilotless aircraft completely stable and solved the problem of spiral stability of glide-bombs used during World War II.

In 1927, Mr. Grant founded the Boys’ Model Plane Camp in Vermont with the sole purpose of teaching hundreds of young people the principles of flight design using model airplanes. Often, Charles H. Grant is referred to as the Father of Model Aeronautics in America. To learn more about the life of Charles H. Grant, click on the link for his complete biography.  

Mr. Grant’s other honors and accomplishments include:

Editor of Model Airplane News 1931 – 1943

Academy of Model Aeronautics Fellow 1964

Model Aviation Hall of Fame 1969

National Free Flight Society Hall of Fame 1979

Society of Antique Modeler Hall of Fame 1990

Kits and Planes Antiquitous Hall of Fame 1996