TONY AVAK
21640 Atalanta St.
Lexington Park, MD 20653
Home Phone. (301) 862-4517
avakar@erols.com

Tony has been building and flying model airships since the early 70's. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from UCLA (class of '79). Since 1981 he has been working at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (formerly Naval Air Test Center) at Patuxent River Maryland as a reliability and maintainability engineer for tactical strike aircraft (AV-8B Harrier, A-6E Intruder and F-14 Tomcat).

Tony has written articles about model LTA that have appeared in Model Builder, Model Aviation, and Model Airplane News magazines. Some of the "novelty blimps" he has built include a 1.1 ounce (without helium) rubber band powered single channel blimp, a nine foot long "Viking Blimp" with five pairs of rowing oars (currently flying daily at the Jim Stafford Theater in Branson, Missouri), a 14 foot long "Shark Blimp" with an articulated keel for turning, and a nine foot long "Video Blimp" that transmits an image to a television on the ground.

Tony is glad to advise anyone who would like to learn more about getting started in model LTA. He also has half-mil aluminized mylar (four feet wide) available for sale at $0.50 per foot ($10.00 minimum) plus $8.00 for UPS in the continental US. Free samples for a SASE.



MIKE DODD
1598 Gallery Avenue
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23454
Doddzep@aol.com


Mike has designed various ornithopters and fish shaped blimps. He has designed, built and flown a variety of unusual blimps. He is an expert designer of rubber band powered blimps. He likes to employ innovative and unusual propulsion techniques on his blimps.

Mike has provided us with a set of plans for a MICRO BLIMP.



JOHN PIRI
713 Cottonwood Drive
Ridgecrest, California 93555
WCBlimps@mchsi.com

John has been designing and building micro miniature electronics for over 25 years. He is very knowledgeable on the subject of micro throttle controls and micro receivers. He has been designing and flying miniature blimps for the past six years. Articles have appeared in the February, 1994 issue of Model Builder Magazine reviewing the Pillow Blimp. Another article appeared in Model Builder July, 1995 reviewing his throttle control. Since then he has developed several new models and styles of blimps. He is committed to designing small lightweight micro blimps for flying in an average size house.

John has complete instructions for you to MAKE A BLIMP BAG.

John and Carol Piri WCBlimps@mchsi.com

Last updated: May, 2003