Originally Posted by
lflf
... One thing I'd really love to see, is a picture of Phil Kraft's orignal test bed airplane that was the Ugly Stik's forerunner. I've read elsewhere that the original test bed had all square flying surfaces, completely square, and was really ugly, and that he called it the box-fli. I think the ugly stik as designed by George Walker is actually quite pretty, it has an aggressive, hawk like feel about it with the original flat wings and the fuselage being straight on the bottom. The ugly stik is to rc airplanes what the Fender telecaster is to electric guitars.
Seems there never was a picture of this legendary Box-Fli. George Walker told me he said "that's one ugly stick" when he saw the model for the first time. That must have been the normal reaction, they just dubbed it ugly stick or similar. But George asked for a plan and went on to turn the boxy test bed into an interesting model. I think it reminds of macabre Halloween symbols like witches. Phil Kraft virtually calls it a joke with its "macabre" German look. (And George added "Das" to the name to add to this Germanness.)
Anyway, George used a photo of his prototype to outline the boxy test bed. It's kind of reverse engineering because he remembers what he did to turn the ugly stick into Das Ugly Stik, as he puts it. He always felt the straight wing looks like drooping, regardless of "decorated" or not. That's why he asked Phil Kraft about dihedral, and when Phil agreed George drew dihedral in the Jensen kit plan. He thinks the test bed just had the wing covered with natural-colored silk and was painted with clear dope so fuselage and tail had a balsa look.