Newton Sky Kings was founded in 1957. Much like other clubs of this kind, a few guys who got together to fly decided to take the next step, and organize their activities.
At first it was getting together at the school yard to fly. Emerson Hough School was a favorite spot,
Lincoln School, which is gone now, and the Newton Senior High School. Control Line flying was most popular at that time, and schoolgrounds offered the space needed to fly, while being fairly close to home.
The Group had a good relationship with the City, and the City agreed to let them use land at the then,
fairly new, Newton Municiple Airport. Much time and effort was put in to mowing, etc., so that they
had a nice circle to fly on. It wasn't long however, that they felt the need for a hard surface to fly from.
Using private funding, and "sweat equity", they dug, by hand, a 70' diameter circle, about 4' wide, and
put down asphalt. The new asphalt circle was put to good use, and gave several
years of heavy use to the club.
When Maytag built their new facility at the North end of the airport, the new road that
went in took about 1/2 of this circle. I think the rest of the circle will go when the airport finishes
all their projects that they are working on now.
Here is a photo of what is left of that circle now.
