#Clutton FRED

[cluttonfred]

FRED is 60 years old today! November 3rd, 2023 is the 60th anniversary of the first flight of Eric Clutton's Flying Runabout Experimental Design aka FRED. I filmed this little clip when I visited Eric in Tullahoma, Tennessee back in 2012. Sadly, Eric passed away in February 2022 but his simple, practical, affordable, safe and fun little aeroplane soldiers on. That FREDs continue to be built and flown here and there all over the world is a fitting tribute to, as Eric liked to joke, "Stoke-on-Trent's other aeroplane designer". (R.J. Mitchell of Supermarine Spitfire fame grew up in the same town.) Here's wishing blue skies to all the FRED builders, pilots, and fans out there on this special day!

[airmanisr]

Clutton FRED Series 2 ‘G-BMMF’ by Alan Wilson Via Flickr: c/n PFA 029-10296 Built 1990 FRED stands for ‘Flying Runabout Experimental Design’. This homebuilt example is on display at the South Wales Aviation Museum. St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, UK 12th June 2021

[cluttonfred]

FRED’s 59th birthday!

Today marks 59 years since the first flight of Eric Clutton’s FRED on November 3rd, 1963. Sadly, it is also the first such anniversary since Eric passed away in February of this year. Nonetheless, thanks to avid aviation photographer Derek Heley, a Londoner by birth but a Geordie by choice, here are some great shots of various FREDs spanning three decades.

Photos courtesy of Derek Heley and used by permission

[cluttonfred]

FRED plans and Eric Clutton’s books are available again!

Benjamin Mehalic, winner of the First Annual Eric Clutton Memorial Swap Meet & Fun Fly at the Coffee Airfoilers Radio Control Club in Tullahoma, Tennessee, smiles in a May 21, 2022 photo by Jonathan Holt.

While Eric Clutton passed away on February 6, 2022, he left instructions for his friend Jonathan Holt to continue selling his books and FRED plans to benefit the local model aircraft club Eric loved so much.  Plans and books are once again available and you can find the details at https://cluttonfred.info/plansbooks.  I’ll let Jonathan tell the rest:

We had the First Annual Eric Clutton Memorial Swap Meet & Fun Fly that weekend.  Our Club President, Don Cleveland, came up with the idea of “Buy It & Fly It”, which is buy the aircraft at the swap meet and fly it at the fun fly.  I came up with a criteria for judging which included content from the swap meet, effort it took to make it fly and doing it on the least amount on money.  Benjamin won the judging on all aspects.  It was fitting that it was won with a British fighter and a new generation of RC pilot to carry the torch.  It really is a perfect situation.

The young man is a club member that had only seen Eric in passing.  Eric was always gracious with his time and advice with young people in the hobby.  I’m guessing that may have came from his career as a school teacher.  I know you knew Eric from the full-scale aircraft world and so did I somewhat, but in the model aircraft world Eric was all about swap meets and building models from scratch.  He, like myself, took a lot of pride in being able to do that in as frugal a way as possible.  He would have really liked this event.

I agree completely that this is a fitting tribute to Eric in a way that would have made him smile.  Hats off to Jonathan and the Coffee Airfoilers!

[cluttonfred]

Sadly, I have to report that Eric Clutton, designer of the Flying Runabout Experimental Design (FRED) homebuilt plane, passed away last night at the age of 93.  He was hospitalized little more than a week ago following a stroke. Here he is less than a year ago smiling at home in Tullahoma, Tennessee holding a scale model Short Sterling in a photo by Jonathan Holt . Behind him you can see a framed original drawing of the prototype FRED by artist Dave Black of Albuquerque, New Mexico that Dave and I presented to Eric on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of FRED's first flight. Blue skies, Eric!

[airmanisr]

Clutton FRED Srs.3 'G-BMSL' by Alan Wilson Via Flickr: msn PFA/029-11142. A visitor at the 2012 VAC & Daffodil Fly-in. Fenland Airfield. 14-4-2012

[cluttonfred]

Happy 93rd birthday, Eric Clutton!  Courtesy of Clutton FRED fan and Coffee Airfoilers member Jonathan Holt, here are some photos of Eric from just last month when he was honored with a lifetime membership in the Tullahoma, Tennessee RC model club.  Eric is, of course, well-known in the RC model community as a long-time model designer and builder under the sobriquet “Doctor Diesel” since he used to distribute diesel RC model engines made by friends back in England.  About the model, Eric wrote to me back in January, “Hi Matt .... lots of building but very little flying!  My latest project is an R/C model (about 40" span) of the prototype Spitfire.  I think I was eight when it first flew!  A lovely light blue all over and electric powered.  ERIC.”  All the best from all of us, Eric!

[airmanisr]

Clutton FRED Series 2 [G-BJAD] by Alan Wilson Via Flickr: c/n PFA 029-10586 Registered in 1981 but never completed. Arrived in January 2002 and seen on display in Hangar 1. Newark Air Museum Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire, UK 7th August 2020

[airmanisr]

G-RONW Cranfield by Mike Illien

[cluttonfred]

Here’s a quick note and two pics from FRED designer Eric Clutton, still plugging away at RC models at age 92. This one is a cartoon model of the original Clutton FRED in its early red-and-white color scheme. Eric says, “Just a couple of my cartoon FRED! It was actually a Stevens kit but I modified the wing mounting quite a bit and have since reduced the wing angle because it kinda flew hanging on the prop! I am just completing my virus term model  -- a Fokker Triplane scaled up from a small drawing and built from stuff I already had in stock. I will take a finished photo if the sun ever comes out again. I had forgotten it actually has FOUR wings with one in between the wheels (I also made those)! All electric-powered because that is easier for old farts. ERIC”

[cluttonfred]

This handsome gent is 92 years old today.  Happy birthday, Eric Clutton!  I checked in with Eric a couple of weeks ago.  Here is what he had to say, “All is well here but Nashville has been declared a disaster area.  A bit late in my opinion!  I have a house full of mostly around 4ft R/C models.  Just working on a Fokker Tripe about 24", all scratch-built, of course, and all electric-powered.  I must like building wings because I also have a Sopwith Tripe and a sorta-scale Dastardly and Muttley tripe!  Remember them from the old TV cartoons?  ERIC”         

[cluttonfred]

Roger Callow (that’s him in the white Luton Minor) wrote to me on Facebook today with this FRED photo and story from over 30 years ago:  “Hi. I've just looked at the ‘cluttonfred.info’ site and saw a photo of Tony Oliver's FRED G-OLVR in flight.I took part in the photo sortie during which this photo was taken. I was flying my Luton Minor G-BBEA and two chaps based at RAF Henlow where Tony's FRED was also based took the photos from their Bolkow Junior. The date of the flight according to my log book was the 27th May 1987.The sortie took place over Sandy Heath, Bedfordshire and in one of the photos I have in my possession you can clearly see Sandy Heath TV transmitter mast in the background.”  Thanks, Roger!

[cluttonfred]

Happy birthday, Eric Clutton!

Intrepid FRED designer/builder Eric Clutton turns 91 years young today!  Here’s wishing Eric a very happy birthday on behalf of all those who have taken wing thanks to his inspiration and a little aeroplane called FRED.  To celebrate, here is a pic of Tony Oliver’s G-OLVR, a well-known FRED that first flew in 1978.  From the VW engine on the nose this appears to be G-OLVR in its early days (it later sported a Continental A-65) so I’m going to guess early 1980s somewhere over England.  G-OLVR is currently owned and under restoration by Phil Darnbrough.  Cheers, Matthew

Photo courtesy of Tony Oliver & Matt Naiva

[cluttonfred]

A RECENT NOTE FROM ERIC CLUTTON

Hi Matt ... here is the photo of my model FRED in his WW1 colours ! R/C  on rudder, elevator and throttle.  Electric powered and26" span  (four times the 3 view in my brochure !)  Bigger than it sounds because of the low aspect ratio.  ERIC.

[cluttonfred]

Stuart Procter says, “I can’t wait for those crisp clear spring days for some FRED flying!”

[cluttonfred]

Happy birthday, FRED!

Eric Clutton and Ernie Sherry’s original Flying Runabout Experimental Design (FRED) first took to the air on this day, November 3rd, 1963.  So happy 55th birthday, FRED!

The original FRED sitting pretty somewhere in England circa 1972.  Photo courtesy of Tony Oliver.