IPMS, the International Plastic Modellers' Society, is an international network of non-profit national and local modelling societies. The main focus of the IPMS is building of plastic model kits, but the society also encompasses other forms of scale modelling. Special Interest Groups are groups that are focussed on particular fields of interest, rather than being geographically organised.

Our group was founded in 1993, as a Special Interest Group under IPMS(UK). Nowadays the membership of our group is international - we are almost 100 members on four continents. The largest numbers of members are found in the USA and the UK. Since 2002 we are also an official Special Interest Group of IPMS/USA.

We have had a display at the last four IPMS(UK) Nationals, the latest IPMS/USA Nationals and a couple of other model shows, but otherwise, because the members are so spread out, there is unfortunately little scope for social activities. We produce the quarterly newsletter "Bent Throttles" and we have an internet discussion forum for exchange of information between the members. We have also produced some members-only decal sheets for racing and record aircraft.

We have had some debate about it, but not found any strict definitions – it will have to be up to each member…

Many of us are most interested in pure speed, such as in pylon racing and speed records, but there are also enthusiasts for long-distance racing and records among us. However, a plane hardly becomes a racing plane because someone sticks a racing number on it, or becomes a record aircraft because it can be found in the Guinness Book of Records or any of the FAI lists of town-to-town records. On the other hand, many fantastic planes never achieved any success at all, or perhaps even left the ground.

There has to be some drama about Racing & Record Aircraft, the drama of exploring some unknown parts of mechanic, aerodynamic or human envelopes…

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Updated 2006-12-31