The Poletto Collection is the largest model aircraft and airliner collection in the world.

“There are 885 aircraft in the collection total,” said Benjamin Donnelly, the stepson of the creator and a Professor of History at University of Providence.

Bary Polletto began the collection in the late 1970’s, first put on display at the Great Falls International Airport.

It was then the collection grew, and a hobby became an overwhelming and unfathomable number of aircraft for one many.

With 885 total planes, there are 97 types of aircraft from 190 nations around the globe. Some of which are not countries anymore.

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Poletto worked for Pan American Airlines as a load master in the 60’s creating a spark for a cabin in the sky.

For Donnelly, his love began with his biological father.

“My dad was in the Air Force, so I grew up around airplanes. So, my earliest memories are my dad taking me out to the to the tarmac out at Malmstrom. And there’s he’s got a picture of me as a three-year-old hugging the landing gear, an F-4 Phantom fighter. And so, I’ve been around airplanes all my life today.”

As much as his love for planes began at a young age, Ben doesn’t call himself a model builder. He is a historian by trade and his vast knowledge of each aircraft in the collection is documented.

The collection grew and others donated to it, time began to fade for his stepfather.

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Poletto built his final aircraft model in 2008 and five years later he passed away, leaving the collection to his stepson, Benjamin.

“It means a lot to me to be able to continue on their legacy of that. I mean, I may not be a model builder myself, but I can at

MALVERN – A small yellow model airplane glided peacefully through the air, about 50 feet above a wide, open field. Soon, a smaller model plane with red wings flew up behind it, bumping it from beneath. The yellow plane was sent spiraling, crashing nose-first into the field.

And with the plane’s destruction, onlookers cheered. 

More:PHOTOS: ‘Flite Fest’ takes off in Malvern

“Oh, you got him!” a man shouted into a microphone while dozens of model planes circled above. “Whoever got that one, come see me. We’ve got a prize for you.”

The spectacle, aptly named “Combat,” is part of Flite Fest 2022, the largest electric flying event in the world. For four days in the summer every year, model plane enthusiasts come from all over the country and the world to buy, build, display and fly model airplanes.

But flying model planes isn’t the niche, expensive pastime that some might assume. In fact, one of the event’s organizers said, it’s the exact opposite. 

“It’s not just a hobby,” said Josh Bixler, president of Flite Test, the model plane company that runs the event. “It’s a lifestyle, and it’s something that can give you a career path and something that can be beneficial in schools.”

Bringing families together

Bixler, 43, explained that he and his wife created the family-operated Flite Test after they observed a trend of disconnect within families. They wanted to give parents and children a way to express their common interests through an activity that was fun, challenging and rewarding. 

More:Flite Test bringing remote airplane manufacturing to Stark County

The idea for a model plane company came from Bixler’s own experiences with his father. When he was 7 years old, he said, he and his dad spent months building a model airplane. When it was finished,

Over the summer last year I took my daughters out to Bong State Recreation Area in Wisconsin. The massive park offers miles and miles of walking and riding trails, large camping areas, a place to ride your dirt bike, and even a model rocketry range. During my stay I was reminded that it was once an Air Force base, and that it’s named after Richard “Dick” Ira Bong, the United States’ top ace of World War II. Active from 1941-1945, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions over the Pacific. By the end of the war, and before his untimely death as a test pilot for one of our country’s first combat jet aircraft, he was credited with 40 air-to-air kills.

As a thank-you for the trip and the brief history lesson, my daughters got me a model of his airplane — the P-38J, perhaps the best airplane of WWII and, incidentally, one of the very latest designs by Japanese model-maker Tamiya. It was even made in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and The Richard I. Bong Center.

I was touched, honestly, but also a bit overwhelmed. I haven’t built or painted a model airplane since I was 12 — although I have spent the past several years getting back into the hobby of painting Warhammer 40,000 miniatures. Once I dove in, I found that taking some time off to create something completely different was refreshing — and educational. I ended up devouring hours of YouTube tutorials and fan-made guides along the way, as well.

So here’s what good old Dick Bong’s twin-boomed warbird taught me about Space Marines — and the people who love them.

Model planes get way more expensive than 40K

Turns out that while 40K is considered an expensive hobby, scale modeling can

The Air National Guard is saying goodbye to its fleet of 11 niche reconnaissance planes after years of sparring with Congress over their future.

RC-26 Condors are small propeller planes that can find and map targets from drug-runners to forest fires using infrared and electro-optical imaging. The planes entered the Air Force in 1989 and are spread across units in Alabama, Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington state.

Condors offer an aerial surveillance option for local and federal law enforcement agencies, allowing them to cut down on high-speed chases and more easily gather evidence on drug trafficking organizations, the Air Force said in a release Tuesday.

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“Officers, civilians, suspects, families and regular citizens … have no idea that the reason that they are alive is because those guys were experts at their jobs, helped chase down and arrest drug dealers, in ways that could not have been done in any other platform,” said Lt. Col. Benjamin West, RC-26 program manager at the Wisconsin Air National Guard.

The aircraft can also relay video of natural disasters to civilian and military agencies on the ground.

“We can downlink that video to people on the ground so they can see from the air what’s been damaged, who needs rescuing, and they can coordinate from there,” Adam Kinzinger, the former Illinois Republican congressman who flies the RC-26 as a lieutenant colonel in the Wisconsin Guard, said in an Air Force release.

Those capabilities recently made RC-26s a target of federal scrutiny.

Condors were seen flying over the District of Columbia, Minneapolis and Phoenix amid civil unrest across the country in 2020, spurring allegations that the Guard was inappropriately using the aircraft to spy on Americans protesting police brutality. A Los Angeles Times investigation that year noted that

How many of you know that we have a first-class RC airfield in our backyard as well as a certified USA-BMX track?

Triple Creek RC Aircraft Club (TCRC), situated on 58 acres of county-owned property shared with the BMX Triple Creek track, is located at 12705 Balm Boyette Rd. south of Rhodine Rd. and north of County Road 672 and Balm Road in Riverview.

The club, which has been active for over 17 years and has nearly 150 members, provides a wonderful opportunity for both new as well as established RC pilots to join a group of like-minded enthusiasts who love to fly, instruct or just hang out and enjoy a day at the airfield.

The airfield features a 350-foot by 35-foot paved runway, a 40-acre flat and mowed outfield, and three taxiways. There is a large, open pit area for parked aircraft and a covered pit area with worktables and electricity at every station for pilots to work on their planes. There is also a spectator area with a kitchen and serving area for anyone wanting to prepare a snack at the park.

“Getting started is as easy as contacting the club or an existing member and setting up an intro flight,” said Keith Hall, president of the TCRC. Existing members will be happy to discuss the requirements and gear necessary to get started. It was surprising how little of an investment it took to get involved with RC planes if taking it up as a new hobby.

“All you need is an airplane, transmitter, AMA membership for insurance and a FAA registration, the same as drone operators need. Trainer planes start as low as $200 and can be found at local hobby shops as well as online, or you can come out to the field at one of

Which RC planes are best?

Kids start flying with paper gliders they make themselves, then move on to balsa wood gliders that go farther and stay aloft longer. When kids first get into powered flight, some begin with tethered aircraft they fly in circles around themselves, changing only speed and altitude. Radio-controlled airplanes cut the cord and replace it with radio waves sending flight instructions from a handheld controller. 

If you are looking for an RC for a beginner, take a close look at the HobbyZone Carbon Cub RC Airplane. This plane is capable of loops, rolls and upside-down flight when pilots become more skilled.

What to know before you buy an RC plane

Airplanes and drones are both capable of flight, but each has a different purpose. Therefore,  don’t buy one or the other thinking they are the same thing.

Airplanes

Airplanes are fixed-wing aircraft with horizontal and vertical stabilizers at the rear. Airplanes use puller or pusher propellers to convert forward thrust into speed.  

Drones 

Drones are hovercraft that use the downward force of three or more propellers to allow the drone to hover in place. This is what makes them excellent video camera platforms. 

How much experience does the pilot have?

When flying a powered aircraft hundreds of feet away from you, things can go wrong even when the pilot is an experienced one. The package on that good-looking RC plane may say “ready to fly”, but is the pilot ready too? Before your RC airplane starts its first flight, make sure you:

• Understand the rules and regulations governing the flying of RC planes where you live.
• Ask the company that insures your home and cars what sorts of policies will protect you in the event your RC plane damages someone else’s property.
• Find a large open

The Finnish Armed Forces pre-announced the U.S. flight and made a statement saying “There have been no changes in Finland’s military security situation or environment in the recent past. Flight operations with international partners are art of normal bilateral and multilateral cooperation.”

However, Thursday’s flight was all but normal. This is the first time in history that a U.S. RC-135 Rivet Joint made a sortie inside Finnish airspace.

The plane, which took off from Mildenhall Air Base north of London, first flew over the Baltic States before entering Finnish airspace east of Helsinki. The large reconnaissance aircraft continued north all along the border with Russia. 

Unlike when Russian military aircraft are flying over international airspace in Europe, the U.S. RC-135 had its transponder system turned on, making it visible even to public air traffic tracking systems like FlightRadar24.com.

A few kilometers inside the Arctic Circle, the American aircraft turned 180 degrees and followed the same path south. The northernmost part of the flight crossed over Rovaniemi airport, home to Lapland Air Command which is in charge of Finland’s air defense and surveillance in the north.

As previously reported by the Barents Observer, Rovaniemi Air Base will be the first to receive new F-35 fighter jets as Finland starts replacing the current fleet of F/A-18 Hornets in 2026.

Military expert Per Erik Solli with the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs’ research group on security and defense says the flight was significant as NATO “now can use the airspace over mid- and northern Finland to collect information about the Kola-base complex area.”

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Russia’s Kola Peninsula is home to Putin’s fleet of ballistic missile submarines, multi-purpose submarines with long-range cruise missiles, and supersonic bomber planes. 

Real-time monitoring 

The RC-135 Rivet Joint carries monitoring sensors supporting NATO intelligence with near real-time on-scene electronic