Josh Bixler and his team once got a 3D printer to fly — while it was printing. They’ve turned Harry Potter into a remote-controlled airframe; devised a “Tubby” B-17 that’s an RC version of World War II’s iconic Flying Fortress; and taken on proof-of-concept RC projects for clients ranging from NASA to Tyler Perry. Want to see (faux) pigs fly? This is the place.
Flite Test LLC runs on ingenuity, electric motors, and tractor-trailer loads of foam board at its home in Edgewater Airpark, a 25-acre oasis for RC aviation enthusiasts that’s surrounded by Edgewater Golf Course in the countryside near Minerva in eastern Ohio. After Bixler and his wife, Jen, purchased the 18-hole course in 2018, they not only kept it open to the public but also carved out space where they could create an airpark complete with runways and a seasonal hobby store beside the pro shop. “Our vision is connecting people with family and friends around everyday activities like golf and model airplanes,” Bixler says.
Josh and Jen Bixler run Flite Test LLC in Minerva.
Aviation has been a lifelong passion for Bixler, who grew up in the Alliance area on a farm with a grass airstrip. His father was a general aviation pilot who taught him to fly (“I soloed in a single-engine Taylorcraft monoplane,” he says proudly). Bixler also learned the basic principles of aircraft design and construction while he and his father built numerous RC model airplanes.
Shortly after he and Jen married, they ran a youth ministry for a church and tried to find activities that the kids were able to do with their parents. Bixler started designing easy-to-assemble RC airplanes that families could build in a few hours from foam board and other inexpensive materials. “My logic was that, for the price of a video game, we could get the entire family to spend time together by doing an engaging hobby,” he says.
The Flite Test brand was born in 2010, when veteran video producer Chad Kapper started making YouTube videos of Bixler’s foam board planes and practice flights. Bixler began making laser-cut model airplane kits to sell on Flite Test’s website, and soon enough, he decided to follow his heart: He quit his secure job painting Corvette parts and went all-in on becoming an RC airplane manufacturer. He enlisted his wife to organize the production process (raw materials in, finished items out) that Flite Test still uses, and they set up
shop in Kapper’s one-car garage.
“We began the business with one laser, a workbench, a computer, and a propane space heater,” Bixler says.
Today, Flite Test is one of the nation’s leading RC aircraft manufacturers and recreational aviation e-commerce stores. “We sell 36,000 airplane kits and 1,000 drones every year,” Bixler says. Visitors to the website (www.flitetest.com) can also find model aircraft plans that are free to download.
Flite Test’s customer base includes individuals, STEM schools, homeschoolers, and hobby shops, and its YouTube shows boast a worldwide audience of 2.1 million subscribers.
Although it’s now a subsidiary of New Philadelphia-based Lauren International, Flite Test remains a family operation. As president, Josh oversees the design team, whose studios are housed in the golf course’s former banquet hall; Jen manages manufacturing and shipping in a recently constructed 6,000-square-foot building. Their two grown sons also work there — Noah Bixler is the lead producer for Flite Test’s YouTube content, and in addition to piloting the video drones and working on aircraft, Michael Bixler helps to maintain the golf course.
Using flight controller boards and gyros has allowed Flite Test to produce technologically advanced aircraft, and one of its signature design features is interchangeable electronic components that can be swapped among airplanes. The popular “First Flyers” STEM build kit, for example, includes three different, easily maneuverable airframes that can all be used as gliders or combined with a Flite Test power pack for RC flying. “People always comment that our RC models are clever and affordable,” Bixler says, “but we never compromise on either the build experience or how well our aircraft fly.”
