RE: Handlaunch a Thermic 36?
Glider Guider,
I am not sure what the glider on the cover of your original Model Glider Design book is. This same glider as a smaller picture is also shown on the covers of the reissue 1934 and 1935-36 Junior Aeronautics Year books. I do not know if it was pictured on the originals. Not that it has struts. I do not think it was a model in the Thermic series, and probably not a Zaic design. There is a photo of it on p.189 of Model Glider Deisgn, but with no caption.
Here are some pictures of a JETCO Thermic 36, a Thermic Traveler (electric version, kit can also be built as glider), and two versions of the Thermic 100 - a pod and boom and a later full fuselage model.
Enough trivia I suppose, these old deisgns were just beautiful though!
Arlen