In the 1930’s, when Bill Clouser was a young boy, he rode his bike about ten miles every Sunday afternoon to Lambert Airport in St. Louis to watch commercial and private planes takeoff and land. He was a fan of the DC-3 and always enjoyed watching the Stearman and the Staggerwing Beech Model 17 with its unique configuration. Many years later he was fortunate to have a friend give him a ride in a restored Stearman. He talked about that trip for many years.

As an adult, Bill was a professional model builder and artist who used his talents to build models of commercial buildings, trains, streetcars and aircraft for various companies including McDonnell Aircraft, NASA and the Smithsonian. He was hired by McDonnell to build two models of the Mercury space capsule before the prototype was built, and later he was very pleased to meet the astronauts who actually flew in the space capsules. Bill also built a model of the Mississippi Test Facilities of the Saturn V rocket for NASA. In 1964, he also built a St Louis PCC streetcar and a Cincinnati and Lake Erie (C&LE) Interurban car for the Smithsonian which were both located in the Smithsonian’s American History Museum for many years.

Bill was a very enthusiastic fan of all the Mercury and Gemini space flights and followed the space program throughout his life however, biplanes were his favorite aircraft. After he retired, he would often build models of biplanes like the Boeing P-12E which was also one of his favorites. Bill enjoyed researching the actual color schemes of various squadrons and would often mix his own paint in order to paint each plane with the exact squadron colors. In addition, he would create his own set of decals to replicate the squadron markings of the plane.

His passion for building models which were an exact replica of the real airplane was never satisfied.