SPORTCARRIER

BENEDEK György. Born 1921 July 18, in Budapest. Originally from Transylvania, his parents were exiled from Kolozsvár after the Trianon peace treaty in 1920 by the Romanian government. He completed his high school education at the Mátyás Király gimnázium in Buda. Graduated in 1939 with distinction, then he received his mechanical engineering diploma at the technical university of József Nádor, in Budapest, December, 1943. He submitted his doctoral thesis in 1975 at the Drezda F*LIST Transportation College, dealing with one of the topics of static electricity.

He started the sport of airplane modeling in September 1937 in the aero club at the gimnazium organized by Dr. Ferenc Caval-loni, a young physics teacher, and he was the first junior presi-dent of the club. He participated for the first time in 1938 at the country's model airplane contest in Budaörs where he achieved notable successes in the categories of glider and powered air plane models. In the closed fuselage rubber band powered cate-gory he placed 2nd next to the then famous Rechnitzer (Rohonci) siblings. His first success came in 1939 at the Hármashatárhegy downhill competition in the magnetic needle guided glider model won first place with 14 minutes and 05 seconds, while crossing the Danube and landed in Angyalföld in Teve street, about 7 kilometers from the starting position.

In 1940 he started the indoor modeling in cooperation with Harsány György, a chemist in cosmetics. In 1941 he placed first with 4 minutes and 20 seconds during the open field (planes) national contest.

By now he established several national records. In 1942 he organized the 1st national indoor contest where he placed 1-2-3-4 with his model airplanes, his record was 5 minutes and 01 second. At the national slope start glider contest he placed first with 6 minutes and 20 seconds and at the manual winch start with 51 minutes and 31 seconds set a new record. In this year he was the first to receive the airplane modeling gold badge in accordance with the FAI requirements, as well as he won the annual individual aggregate points count, and set 2 international and 14 national records. In 1943 he placed first again in the indoor contest. In this year he set 2 new International and 13 national records and again he won the total points count again. In 1944 in Esztergom he placed first in the rubber and mechanical engines powered categories and set a new national record.

After the second world war, 1945-46 he played an active role in the reorganization of the airplane modeling sport, participated in the first contest in 1946, which was organized with the help and cooperation of MADISZ of Budafok.

During the 1947 national championship he placed first with his rubber engine powered model, which at this time flew 50 kilometers to the village of HORT, and this performance was an international record. In this year he was first to receive the gold model airplane badge.

In 1948 he participated in the founding of the "Országos Repülő Egyesület" (National Flying Club) and he was appointed to lead the airplane modeling branch. The extraordinary advancement of airplane modeling was helped by the fact that Rédei György was appointed the secretary general of OKRE, who started his carrier also as an airplane modeler at the Mátyás gimnázium and was already a participant in the national organizations during the war years. Benedek György participated only in the indoor contest in 1948 and he placed first with 8 minutes and 23 seconds.

In this year OMRE organized a national centennial model airplane contest commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution at the location of the not yet completed Ferihegy Airport. Benedek participated as an organizer of this event, but not as part of the contest, he set 4 international and 12 national records, and with this accomplishment again he placed first in the annual individual point contest. His high altitude record of 2,364 meters, achieved with his BV-1 glider model, is still unbroken after 43 years. In this year's indoor record settin attempt he was first to surpass 10 minutes and this was a national record. In 1948 he received the then "Népi Repülésért" (Flying for People) gold badge, and for his 3 international records he received a letter of recognition from the secretary of transportation.

In 1949 he was the originator and experimenter of the introduction of cable controlled (U-control) model airplanes and specifically the jet category. This modern propelling system was first successfully flown by the Csepel Club with the leadership of Hatos Géza. Benedek set 1 international and 7 national records this year.

The extraordinary level of progress of the airplane modeling sport, within the jurisdiction of MORE, unfortunately did not last long. After the communist party took over the political power the cleanup operation of the political scene included the airplane modeling sport also. Toward the end of the year they arrested Rédei György secretary general, ignoring the fact that his father was a participant in the 1919 socialist republic based on his con-viction of ideology, and for this reason he was persecuted by the Horthy government and later by the fascist party that considered him dangerous. Rédai György was taken to the concentration camp at Kistarcsa, without any legal justification, and was re-leased only after four years when he was declared innocent, however, they "forgot" to rehabilitate his legal status and was not allowed to participate in the flying sport. After the arrest of the secretary general the MORE leadership was given to Rágyánski András and Rónai Rudolf, who were appointed by the party cen-tral committee who eliminated the former colleges of the previous secretary general by many different political maneuvers. In 1950 March it was the turn of Benedek György'. Prior to this event the newly appointed political officers, Türős József and Vágo Pál, of MORE conducted several clandestine investigations at night in the offices of the airplane modeling club. Although this did not achieve the desired results, did not find either political or other irregularities, Benedek was removed based on the then infamous 6660/1948 political decree, effective immediately. This decree was created to eliminate the individuals who's attitudes were "anti socialist republic", in Benedek's case based on his intellectual family background (1. Attachment).

There were clear, prior signs of the impending happenings of these events, and in he face of these danger signs Benedek continued with his modeling activities and prior to his dismissal in March of 1950 he set two more national records, then in June 4th, just prior to his dismissal from the sport altogether, he set an FAI international record in the jet engine category at 180 kilometer per hour. As a result of this the now renamed Magyar Repülő Szövetség notified Benedek, in writing, that he is allowed to per-form airplane modeling activities only with their concurrence. Fortunately the original of this letter, that seems unbelievable now, and relegated by the originators to the "forget it" pile, is preserved (a copy, identified as 2. is attached).

Benedek in spite of the prohibition continued to work covertly and in 1952, cooperating with Horváth József engineer in Székesfe-hérvár, jointly they built 10 american designed Dyna-jet style engines. With this type of engine they were able to achieve 220 kilometer per hour speed that was better then the then existing Hungarian national record. During this time they published an airplane modeling newsletter titled "Modellrepülés" in 10 copies "szamizdat", monthly publication designed to familiarize the new-est development in the sport. In this time frame the only official publication contained information from the Soviet Union only. In secret, with Benedek's leadership they organized the "Cavalloni Cup", under FAI rules, rubber engine powered contests every year, from 1950. The "Cup" was founded in 1948 by Rédei György and Benedek György, in honor of their teacher, and the first and second contests were held with international participation and festive circumstances. After the communist take over the leading airplane model educators were black listed, declared them enemies of the people, including Nagy Julián and Cavalloni Ferenc, and the Cavalloni Cup was discontinued.

In 1953 the Nagy Imre style leadership resulted in a mellowed political scene that fortunately extended to the flying sports also, and removed Rágyánszki András who was dutifully executing the political orders of the era, however, all of this was too late for the sport, Rágyánszki was the one who obliterated the files and the library of the Magyar Aero Szövetség (Hungarian Aero Associa-tion), and as part of this process irreplaceable original documents have been destroyed, including the documents that covered the Endresz-Magyar ocean flight.

This political thawing allowed Benedek to participate in the sport of airplane modeling. in 1954 again he placed first in the rubber engine category. His participation was not completely sanctioned even by the new leadership, allegedly he was told at the office of the secretary that "we allowed Benedek to participate in the sport but not that for him to win".

He designed and built in 1955 a new jet engine with which he placed first at the national championship with a speed of 248 kilometer per hour. This was a surprise, since 1950 the reigning engine was a Husicka design and Czechoslovak built with which Horvath Ernő won the past contests with ease.

In 1956 he participated in the free flight models qualifying contest and in the rubber engine category placed first with 900+896+900 seconds. In this year the socialist countries organized an interna-tional contest in Hungary and Benedek, as member of the Hun-garian team placed third in the rubber engine category and with the same model of his he placed first in the national contest. He received government recognition for his international accom-plishment. During the last contest of the year just prior to the Hungarian revolution, October 21st he placed first at the contest held on the lake bottom in Városliget with 248 km/hr, and directly after the contest he recorded 257 km/hr for a world record.

He placed first in1957 at contest held in Budapest with his rubber engine powered free flight model and he placed fourth at the national contest with the same model, and in the U-control jet category placed first again. In this year he was appointed to organize and direct the "Modelkisérleti Intézet" (MOKI) [Model Research Institute]. In October he set a new FAI world speed record with his jet propelled model of 281 km/hr (3. Attachment). His political background continued to haunt him, he was not allowed to travel to the world championship held in Brussel not-withstanding his world record, and the declared winner in the Jet category placed with a slower speed than his. The leaders of the sport politics thought that by now he can not be dangerous in the socialist countries and he was allowed to participate, this year, in the A/2 world championship, as the coach of the Hungarian team, held in Mlada Boleslav, Czechoslovakia. It needs to be noted that one of the effective member of the Hungarian team, Reé András is one of the important leaders of today's sport modeling.

1958 finds him scoring second place with his rubber engine pow-ered at the free flight models qualifying contest, and placed first at the indoor national championship. He placed second with his rubber engine powered model at the Budapest championship and third at the nationals. At the world championship in Cranfield, England he was in first place after the first four starts but the unfortunate fifth start placed him in fifth place, the position of the Hungarian team and with this the Hungarian team placed first.

At the national U-control championship, with his jet model, he won with 255 km/hr. In 1959 at the Budapest championship, in the rubber engine category he placed first with maximum time, at the MAV Cup in the same category he placed first, and the circu-lar path jet category he won as well, although at 248 km/hr only.

1960 finds him with radio controlled glider model at the national championship where he placed first, at the Budapest U-control contest with his jet model placed first with 257 km/hr, and at the national championship first again with 248 km/hr. At a V-Cup contest he wins with rubber engine model with 859 seconds. In 1961 at the Budapest club contest he placed first with his radio controlled glider model. In June at the national indoor champion-ship he placed first with 20 minutes and 09 seconds, with this he was the first to exceed the 20 minutes barrier. At the national he was first with rubber engine model at maximum time, and with the radio controlled glider he was second. At the circular flight na-tional with his jet model he recorded 257 km/hr again.

His airplane model activities came to an end in March, 1962 when he was permanently prohibited to participate.

During his model airplane carrier activities he conducted an active technical publishing and theoretical education that included fa-miliarization of the concept of lift.

His initial technical articles and drawings appeared in 1939-40 in the "Magyar Szárnyak", (Hungarian Wings), then the "ifj Repülő", (junior Flyer) "Magyar Repülő" (Hungarian Flyer), "Repülő" (Flyer) and "Modellezés" (Airplane Modeling) magazines all published his plans, drawings and articles. Until his first prohibition in 1950 the most recognized of his designs appeared such as the C-17 slope glider, the Uborka and the BV-1 manually winched gliders, CF-11 rubber engine powered and Pajtás gasoline engine models, edited the drawings of the Meszetler György designed and Svahulay Sándor developed "CINEGE III" training glider model. His technical articles were dealing with theoretical topics, practical applications, and laboratory measurements. In 1943-44 he de-signed a series of wing profiles based on low speed aerodynam-ics for free flying model airplanes. This was first introduced in 1957 in the "Magyar Repülő" magazine by Koppány György.

After his return to airplane modeling in 1954 he continued his theoretical work and designed a new set of wing profiles. The series of profiles that proved to be the best are the B-8356 and B-6356-b designed in 1944, while of the profiles, designed in 1955 the B-7406-b and B6456-f proved to be the best, and based on the air tunnel tests performed in Stuttgart at the technical univer-sity are better then any other profiles designed to date. "The Fight for the Low Descending Speed" series of articles appeared in the "Modellezés" magazine form January to October, 1956 and in the "Repülés" magazine 1957 issues. Benedek became the manager of the Dózsa György club in 1957.

From the beginning of 1957, as the manager of the "Modelkisér-leti Intézet" (Model Research Institute) he regularly reported the work of the institute, published information about new motors, models, radio control instruments, rubber engine models, propel-lers, jet engine measurements, modern air flow technology, etc.

In 1960 he left MOKI due to internal disagreements about the circular flight world championship and he worked in the industry as a design engineer. Continued his sport activities in the Dózsa Club, until March, 1962. At this time he was excluded from the sport as the result of a lawsuit relating to conceptual opposition of the leadership activities (4. Attachment). In 1984 at the 75th anni-versary of the Hungarian airplane modeling sport and the MOKI 30th anniversary in 1987 he received MHSz recognition of his past performance, however, controversially the 1962 negative as-sessment of his was not withdrawn (5. Attachment).

In 1986 after 25 years of forced hiatus he returned to the sport by the request of Pinkert György club manager, with the intent of developing the CO2 powered airplane modeling. In 1986 at the first national and at the Budapest contests he placed first. In 1987 in Kladno, Czechoslovakia, the largest contest in the world of this type, he placed first, then, in 1988 he placed second. On this Smola memorial contest he placed first in 1989, second in 1990. In 1989 in Spitzberg, Austria, he placed first. He participated in significant contests until June 1991 with successful results. His articles of CO2 power and of various models appeared regularly in both domestic and foreign technical journals.

In recognition of his most significant work, the design of the wing profiles, in 1981 he received his greatest recognition, the USA National Free Flight Society awarded the "Model of the Year" plaque. The greatest significance of this award is that it was in recognition of his actual work, not based on the recommendation of a domestic sport or political organization, such as, it used to be with the FAI Paul Tissandier diplomas (6. Attachment).