Brief bio of Alex Morton- Note-"Sandy"is a nickname for Alex. This bio was written November 8, 2009.
Born in 1926, the youngest of five children. He started building model airplanes 77 years ago in 1932.
He was in the U.S.Army Air Corps in WWII as a Pilot Cadet. The war came to an end before he saw overseas duty.
After the war he graduated from San Jose State University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.
Most of his 35 engineering years was spent making top secret electronic systems for the intelligence community. After retirement in 1982 he went into business for himself for 8 years.
He’s been married 61+ years to his bride, Florence. They have 2 children, 4 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren!
In October 2009 he received his 5,000 volunteer-hour award for work for at The Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA. He built the 1903 Wright Flyer model currently in the Birth of Aviation exhibit in the Red Barn. He has loaned the museum a 1/7th scale P-47D-23RE model which can be seen in the Personal Courage Wing(PCW), beneath the P-38.
On 4 June 2009 he installed his completed 1/10th scale Montgolfier Balloon in the lobby of the Museum. It depicts the untethered flight of Rozier and d'Arlandes, 21 November 1783.
The Museum of Flight will soon have his latest creation, a quarter scale model of the Neiuport 28C-1 with an operating rotary engine showing visitors the difference between a radial and a rotary engine.
He spends Monday mornings as a docent. You’ll usually find him roaming the PCW, looking for visitors to share stories with!
His other interests lie in realistic water fowl carving,building from scratch and flying pre-1920 bi-plane scale R/C models, and, finally, furniture making.