At the BMFA AGM Paul Beard, the principle developer behind Horizon Hobby’s 2.4GHz Spektrum radio system, was honoured for his outstanding work for the aero modelling community by having a citation for outstanding service and receiving the Ray Malstrom Award for
“Services to Model Flying outside the framework of the Association”

Paul was absolutely delighted to receive the award, and we at Horizon Hobby UK are equally delighted that Paul’s outstanding work has been recognised by the British Model Flying Association.
  Paul Beard is presented with the Ray Malstrom Award by ACM Sir Michael Alcock.
British born Paul flew in from California to attend the AGM and to give a two-hour seminar on the new technology. He explained some of the fundamentals of Spektrum and answered many questions from the floor. He took this opportunity to dispel some of the myths that surround this innovative system, ensuring that the delegates had a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the technology.
Paul also took the opportunity to give a glimpse of a few of the future developments that aero modellers around the world will be able to benefit from.
A two hour presentation helped to enlighten deligates and dispel some of the myths surrounding the new Spektrum 2.4GHz technology.
   
On display a superb scale De Haviland Airco DH9, flown on DX7.
 

The Citation

Every now and then a person or a product comes along that changes forever the way we do things, whether in our day to day life or in a leisure pursuit. In this instance it is in the field of radio control aero-modelling that things have changed in a radical way with the advent of 2.4Ghz Spread Spektrum Technology.
The person largely responsible for this change is Paul Beard of Horizon Hobby USA. Paul studied at Manchester University and qualified with BSc (Hons) Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He first became interested in modelling after an exchange trip to Germany in 1976 where he built and flew a free flight Graupner “ Der Klien UHU”. During this year his girlfriend’s father was having trouble with a single channel MacGregor system and he set about fixing the problem, and became hooked on anything to do with radios. He went on to build a transistor radio from the “Ladybird” book and also built a “Sinclair” matchbox radio. It was at this time he took part time work in a TV repair shop in Offerton near Stockport.
In 1978 he got hooked on radio controlled yachts and became the club trouble-shooter on any radio issues. He designed a sail winch servo using a modified Futaba servo and made about fifty of them and fortunately sold them all. He also used to modify the two channel Futaba proportional receivers into four channel versions for the club.

After university, Paul moved to Ipswich and visited Galaxy models one day to inquire about any local RC sailing action - and it was there that he saw a model helicopter on the counter. To quote Paul, it was “love at first” sight and he was completely and utterly hooked within the first nanosecond.

By the time Paul’s planned immigration to the USA came around Paul had amassed at least five RC Helis and had to sell them all to help finance the move. Besides in those days it would have been like taking tea to China anyway, as by sheer coincidence he settled in Milpitas California - the same town as Helicopter World!

1995 was a bad year for Paul in as much as he lost two helicopters to unintentional switch-on’s by other transmitters, despite having the peg! This didn't guarantee model safety. At this time Paul was working on spread spectrum radio systems for Hertz, the car rental people, and these are still in use today to check your car in remotely. The idea to re-deploy some of these components to try and put together a radio control system came at this time. In essence the system worked but had horrible fade problems. It took Paul a further seven years to overcome these this issue. During this time Paul had no idea whether he would be able to overcome these problems and design a viable spread spectrum radio link for RC models, especially one that was both reliable and affordable. The time and money investment was enormous, but the prospect of improving RC safety for modellers was a huge motivator, and by 2003 he had a very viable prototype.
Paul and Horizon Hobby USA first came together in a working relationship in 2004 and further development of the system saw the first commercially available 2.4Ghz Spektrum systems introduced to R/C car and boat users. These were quickly followed by the introduction of a 7-channel system for aero modellers.
The introduction of this 2.4Ghz technology to aero modellers around the world has amongst the other benefits that the system has to offer, forever removed the risk of being “shot down” and to that end every aero modeller is indebted to, Paul Beard.

 
 

 

  
  Paul was accompanied by his sister Janet