Larry Pope & his Burnelli Models - RC model in foreground

It was early April, 2006.  I was surfing the Net, not really looking for anything in particular.  I found this site called aircrash.org, something about lifting bodies, lifting fuselages and a man named Burnelli. What I stumbled upon has profoundly changed the direction of my life.

Shortly after my discovery I was inspired to start building Burnelli models.  At first they were static models and then I built an RC model of Burnelli’s last design before his death in 1964, the GB-888 which flew beautifully.  My passion and curiosity led me to interview people wherever my travels took me and to tell anyone who has an interest in aviation about Burnelli.

In 2007 I moved to the Austin, Texas area and last year I found out about the Central Texas Air Show held in Temple, Texas, which I knew to be the birthplace of Vincent Justus Burnelli and just up the road! So this year I took my planes, pictures and PowerPoint presentation to the air show in Temple.  The Wings Over Texas hangar where we’d been having the volunteer meetings was offered to me for free.  It was not in the main area of the air show but this turned out better than I could have ever dreamed.

Almost everyone involved in making the show possible came to a dinner in this hangar.  Almost 300 people passed through the food line that was only 10 feet from my presentation.  I’d also talked to the Temple Daily Telegram before the show, explaining what I was doing.  Incredibly, the story made the front page!  Many who’d seen my presentation and then read the story probably wished they’d have taken a closer look when they had the chance, maybe next year – I’m workin’ on it – but in the meantime, there’s the newspaper article, this website and the aircrash.org site to satisfy their curiosity.

Larry Pope – Austin, TX area

See the RC model here:

http://www.aviationpeopletalk.net/ or http://aerodromedia.blogspot.com/

Burnelli News Story video posted on Vimeo by Ralph Capobianco.

In November 1999, Fox News 29 in West Palm Beach, Florida did a “Fox Files Report” on Burnelli and interviewed our late Chairman and President, Chalmers H. Goodlin. For those of you who have not seen it, we believe it is an excellent 5 minute introduction to the topic.

Already 10 years has passed and, as far as we know, this is the only TV report done about Burnelli during that time. How do we get more coverage about this safer, more efficient design in the media?  Would you like to see more reports in the news? Write a letter to the editor, write / email your local TV station and ask them to expose Burnelli to others in your area. If you have other ideas on how to do this, please click on “comments” and post your ideas. Thanks!