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MDA was originally started and operated by Tom Chipley after his original Mud Duck design became so popular. The original design was published as a construction article in Model Aviation magazine in the mid-80's. The design was similar to the present day Mud Duck but was of built up balsa construction and flew on .40 glow power. Tom had been the artist who drew the cutaway views for Model Aviation construction articles and introduced Ace and Spinner, his animated characters with a sense of humor. Tom began to experiment with the Mud Duck design and it mutated into the 108" wing span Mud Duck (MK I). The construction materials were changed to FomeCor® board. Tom offered the new design in plans after repeated requests from modelers. A new revision was made to the design which increased strength in the wings and some other key points. The new release was designated the Mud Duck MK II. Since there was never a version released, designated as the "MkI", some modelers out there erroneously refer to the original balsa version as the "Mark I". Any references to the first version of the larger (FomeCor) duck is referred to as the MK I on this website and where ever I may respond to questions.. To avoid further confusion, it is common for most modelers to refer to the Mud Duck Mk II as the "Giant Mud Duck" also. The "Giant" was entered into modelers vocabulary by a review article published in a modeling magazine that was titled "The Giant Mud Duck" although that was not the name or designation of the kit. KITTING BEGINS Tom began to offer the (Giant) Mud Duck as a kit. All kits were cut by hand. He designed the Agri-Duck and added it to the MDA product line shortly thereafter. The Agri-Duck is the low wing variant of the Mud Duck and roughly resembles a crop duster. The Agri-Duck also became available as a kit as well as plans AGRI-DUCK MDA began to become a pretty busy operation in the following years and all along Tom, along with a friend, were producing all these kits cutting them by hand. Due to the large size of the parts involved with the Mud Duck and Agri-Duck, the costs involved to produce die cutting equipment to automate this job would have made the cost of the kits excessively expensive. CRICKIT Tom designed a more nimble and smaller airplane that resemble the Mud Duck named the CricKit. The CricKit seemed to have mixed reviews with modelers. The main reason being, many purchased the CricKit thinking it was a small version of the big, gentle Mud Duck. The CricKit is a fun-flying, super-nimble airplane, despite it's appearance, but requires the pilot to be the kind that likes to explore the world of the unruly. INTRO: The MUD DUCK SPORT Tom decided to produce a smaller version of the Giant Mud Duck which could be manufactured in greater numbers and still keep costs low. The smaller version became a 3/4 scale version of the Giant Mud Duck at an 80" wingspan. MDA GOES INTO HIBERNATION Unfortunately, not long after releasing the Mud Duck Sport, Tom decided to pursue different goals. Tom loves the Mud Duck and the process of designing, but decided he had, had enough of the business end of this operation. As anyone who has owned a small business can tell you, it's not easy and eats up all of your time. Tom stopped operating MDA and offered it for sale. After some time of exploring different offers for it he decide to let a friend take a go at it, but after some time that effort did not materialize and he once again offered MDA for sale. NEW OWNERSHIP I fell in love with
the Mud Duck a few years before Tom closed the doors. A fellow club member
had built the Mud Duck and it was all the rage at the field. I wanted one
the first time I saw it My Wife and I purchased the company from Tom at a time while I was between jobs. The plans was that I use the opportunity to get Mud Duck up and running while I was going back to school. At that point the company hadn't been operating in a few years. Too many business efforts fail due to poor planning and a lack of proper capital. To ensure a quality product and timely service to Mud Duck customers, I had decided to hold off re-starting MDA until I could give it, its best shot. That plans was to include kitting and everything that Tom had offered. I created this website back in 2004 to get the modeling community to aware that MDA was back and not defunct, but in a state of gradually starting back up and only offering plans and some limited kits that remained in inventory. I operate MDA on a very part time basis currently and the operation is very small, essentially just a plans service and support. I would like to accommodate the vast majority of modelers who request kits again, but with the economy and my personal responsibilities, I am unable to manage bringing kits back into production. FUTURE MDA is back as limited as the product line may be to start and we will continue to try to offer modelers more. I have plans and ideas for new subjects an will be adding products as time goes on. I hope to be able to offer kits again, but in the meantime I will continue to provide PLANS and SUPPORT, as well as a resource and community for Mud Duck enthusiasts with the addition of forums and a FAQ (frequently asked questions) database. My wife Kristen and I (Greg Drusjack) are the owners of Mud Duck Aviation. We purchased the company from the original designer and owner of Mud Duck, Tom Chipley. Mud Duck Aviation (MDA) is now a (very) small, part-time business based in New Jersey. |
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,
but my must-have list was way long and space was at a premium then. I
finally purchased an Agri-Duck kit from a different fellow club member when he
left the hobby and I immediately started building it. By this time Tom had
shut down MDA and I was really wanting a Mud Duck MkII. I had looked for
resources on the internet regarding anything Mud Duck related but found only
broken links to Toms old MDA website that was no longer available. This
was early in the days when RCOnline was the only game in town and even then it
barely had any content. So I created a free (ad sponsored) website called
"The Duck Page" that was very limited but provided some kind of place for "Mud
Duck" info.