I AM the AMA - Eric Boehm Aviation curator, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Eric Boehm: Aviation curator, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Mark Benson: How did you get involved in model aviation?

Eric Boehm: I think, like a lot of us in this hobby, we got started with our dads. My dad was a lifelong modeler from the late 1930s through the 1940s. Model airplanes were always in our house when I was a kid.

MB: How has model aviation impacted your life and/or career?

EB: I blame model aviation for my life’s trajectory. I always wanted to be a pilot. It just wasn’t in the cards for me, but I always wanted to be around aviation. I ended up enlisting in the Air Force just to be around airplanes. I became an airplane mechanic, but models were always a part of my life. Through all that, I ended up with a history degree, and with that history degree I now work at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Where else would an airplane mechanic with a history degree work, especially if you want to be in New York City?

MB: What disciplines of modeling do you currently participate in?

EB: I currently participate in Control Line (CL) but I’ve done them all. I kind of bounced back and forth. It seems like every five or six 2019s, I change my mind about my interest. I’ve done RC, Free Flight (FF), and CL. I’ve built hundreds of airplanes and even an RC boat.

MB: What other hobbies do you have?

EB: My other big hobby is a vintage British car. I have a 1974 Triumph TR6. I have always wanted one. When I was a kid working in a gas station—my first job to support my model airplane hobby—I remember one pulling in in the early ‘70s. I said, "I got to have me one of those," and eventually got one.

It’s a lot of work. I probably spend more time fixing it than driving it, but that’s part of that hobby. If you get an old British car, you’d better be ready to start working.

MB: Who or what has influenced you the most?

EB: My biggest influence was initially my dad—and probably was always my dad—but there has always been somebody else who entered my life and was kind of like a father figure, even when my dad wasn’t around like when I was in the Air Force.

MB: How do you determine what aircraft to build?

EB: I have to build one of those lists. It’s usually just a kind of a love-at-first-sight sort of thing. It’s a scale-model sometimes; it’s the lines of a CL Stunt model; and it’s just "wow I got to have that." And there’s just that bucket list thing …

There is a FF model from what I think was from the late 1930s or ‘40s called Snow White. It’s just a beautiful model airplane. It is a huge, gas-powered thing and it’s just beautiful. The last model airplane I ever build late in life will probably be that Snow White.