Bill Young died on November 30, 2011, after a long illness. He was a loving husband, father, and friend. He will be greatly missed.

This site will remain active and will serve as a memorial to Bill’s life and work. We are also leaving up his catalog of plans and manuals. These items are not currently available for sale, but may become so again at a later date as we locate the originals. If you are interested in one or more of the items, or if you have any questions or comments, please contact the webmaster, Jeremy C. Young, by e-mail. For obvious reasons, Bill’s electronic U-Control handles will no longer be manufactured. Thank you for your interest.

Click here to read a transcript of a 2008 oral history of Bill Young.

Click here to read Bill’s successful nomination to the AMA Hall of Fame.

Click here to read Bill’s obituary.

Welcome to Bill Young Designs, the online home of veteran modeler and designer Bill Young (1934-2011). Bill had over sixty years’ experience in model aircraft, boats, cars, trains, and rockets.

Bill was a pioneering model boat designer and racer and served as President of the Western Association of Model Boaters during the late 1960′s. In that capacity. he was instrumental in founding the North American Model Boat Association (NAMBA) in 1970. From 1982-1994, Bill served as a volunteer historian for the Northrop N9M-B Restoration Project at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California; his article on the N9M, co-authored with Gerald Balzer, was published in the 1994 American Aviation Historical Society Journal. Bill wrote a monthly column titled “Electric Scale” in Scale R/C Modeler from 1988-1996.  He was also published in many other model airplane magazines including Model Builder, Flying Models, and R/C Modeler. From 1996-2007, Bill was the proprietor of Bill Young Designs and Hobbies, a full-service hobby shop in Flagstaff, AZ. He was also a sought-after electronics designer and inventor with many original designs of electronic model aircraft devices to his credit. In 2011, Bill was elected to the Academy of Model Aeronautics Hall of Fame.

Over the years, Bill authored and/or collected scale model plans, photographs, and manuals for a variety of rare and specialized aircraft. Many of these historic materials cannot be obtained anywhere else, and Bill’s original plans or manuals are in many cases the only ones available. Now, for the first time, Bill’s designs, publications, and model airplane devices are available for purchase in a single online location.

We encourage you to look through the complete online catalog of Bill’s publications and electronic devices. If you’re interested in Bill’s life story, please read his oral history. For more information, please feel free to contact the webmaster, Jeremy C. Young, via e-mail.

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