The Man Behind The Microhenrys Passes Away

Tribute to Former Model Aviation Contributor Ed Henry's Microhenrys were featured in Model Aviation from 1988 to 1998 See some of Ed Henry's work and contributions to aeromodeling.

The creator of The Microhenrys comic strip, Ed Henry, passed away on Sunday, July 3, 2011, at the age of 92 in his hometown of Murphysoboro, Illinois. Henry’s work was enjoyed by hundreds of thousands in Model Aviation magazine for more than 10 years. His cartoon work received praise from the likes of Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, and Jim Davis, creator of Garfield.

In addition to creating more than 1,000 Microhenrys comic strips for Model Aviation, Henry received notoriety for many other great accomplishments and innovations including the Fly Seat. The Fly Seat is a full-size cockpit for flying Radio Control model aircraft. It consists of a full-size bucket seat, control stick, and foot pedals that control a radio control transmitter on a boom in front of the rotatable bucket seat assembly.
The famous newscaster Paul Harvey featured Ed Henry’s Fly Seat to an audience of two million listeners. Photographs and multipage articles about the Fly Seat have appeared in roughly 60 publications around the world, resulting in approximately nine million in circulation. The Fly Seat has been donated to the AMA National Model Aviation Museum in Muncie, Indiana.

Other great inventions include the Add-A-Tickle charger, the first-ever Radio Control Dogfight (now called RC Combat) performed in the US, and various model aircraft with unique features such as snow skis. Many of these innovations have been featured in past issues of Model Aviation.

Ed Henry also won numerous awards, flew models around the world, founded and led an AMA club, and even authored the original AMA Safety Code.

Ed Henry’s contributions to the hobby, sport, and educational pursuit of model aviation will always be greatly appreciated. You can read more about Ed Henry through the National Model Aviation Museum’s online History Program at https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/files/Henry-Edward-Ed.pdf.