Wing Men

As the turbines spool past 100,000 rpm, Johns releases the brakes, and the A-10 begins to roll. With its twin rudders buffeted by a gusty crosswind, the fighter jet zigzags awkwardly at first, before Johns gets it straightened out. It shrieks past us at full throttle, tracking down the runway’s centerline. Then, with a subtle tug of his index finger, Johns lifts the plane’s nose, and it bounds into the air with an almost startling decisiveness. Selby squints and watches his creation climb and bank to the left, its silhouette tapering into the sun.

Fighter Command: Johns, Selby and Davidson go over their calculations after the Warthog’s inaugural flight.  John B. Carnett

Best of the Best

Scale-model jets are the apogee of radio-controlled model aeronautics: The technical challenge of building jet power in miniature is far beyond the abilities of the average hobbyist. Handcrafted by an elite cadre of backyard aviators, these models can fly at speeds of up to 300 mph, and at Selby’s level of competition, they’re built to look and perform exactly like their real-life counterparts.

“We’re at the obsessive end of the spectrum,” Selby says. At the age of 53, he’s thin and fit, with a calm, quick smile. He flew model airplanes as a kid in Rochester, New York, and brought his hobby with him when he began working in Asian finance in his 20s. Selby made prescient investments in everything from airfreight to fish packing, and after a stint as chief of staff for the sultan of Brunei, he now manages the assets of the Thai monarchy. He collects fast cars, big boats and Khmer art, and keeps his collection of rare guitars (including instruments signed and given to him by Keith Richards and Pete Townshend) in a dedicated room of the apartment he shares with his Thai wife, Lek.

But Selby’s greatest passion is building hyper-realistic scale-model planes. “Building and tinkering is so far from what I do work-wise, it takes my mind off it,” he says. “Also, it’s part of my attempting not to grow up.” It is a pursuit that has become increasingly sophisticated over the past five years. For those like Selby, with plenty of resources, ambition and technical savvy, high-tech composite materials and miniaturized controls have enabled higher strength-to-weight ratios, and telemetry and digital engine-management systems have given RC pilots more power and control. Model kits are more realistic and reliable than ever before, and super-modelers like Selby, who build their own from scratch, are taking on larger, more ambitious projects.

“Around the world,” Tiano says, “there’s a niche group of maybe 2,000 people who have as much dedication as these guys. There are about 200 who have the skills to execute what they dream up. And of these 200, there are maybe two dozen guys like Mike who can create something truly remarkable.” Those people would be Selby’s competition at Top Gun in April.

Among them is Walt Fletcher, who retired from the U.S. Army Special Forces to run the Hobby Hut in St. George, Utah. He is readying a one-third-scale Fokker DR-1 triplane, flown by World War I flying ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. the Red Baron. The pilot’s head will turn left or right, and he’ll be able to wave to the judges as the plane goes by, Fletcher tells me. “And it’s got speakers that blast out sound bites of the Le Rhone rotary engine and the machine guns.”