Go Back  RCU Forums > RC Airplanes > Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC
Reload this Page >

Early Sixties R/C Video Footage

Notices
Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC Want to discuss some of those from the golden age, vintage rc planes or even an old classic antique vintage rc planes, radios, engines, etc? This is the place for you. Enjoy!

Early Sixties R/C Video Footage

Old 01-09-2017, 01:01 AM
  #1  
UStik
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Augsburg, GERMANY
Posts: 1,017
Received 8 Likes on 8 Posts
Default Early Sixties R/C Video Footage

I'm pleased to announce George Walker's Early Sixties R/C 8mm movies, with Das Ugly Stik maiden flight, Phil Kraft, and more.

A short explanation for those who didn't read my recent posts in this forum's Ugly Stik thread:
George Walker was close friend to Phil Kraft and worked a lot for him (PCB drawings, advertizing, lettering, signets). He also knew Dick Kidd, Don Dewey, and other well-known persons in the Los Angeles model aviation community. He was RCM magazine's first art director and drew the Kwik-Fli Mk. I plan. Sometimes he flew with Phil Kraft and filmed him, or just himself flying. Above all, he filmed the maiden flight of Das Ugly Stik, of which he was the originator. He had embellished Phil Kraft's boxy and ugly test bed, which had been designed to test-fly the new proportional R/C under development, and built the prototype. In late 2016, George had the films digitized and gave them to me for publishing. That's because I had researched the model's history and written a lengthy article about it, which became well-known in the Internet.

Today is George's birthday, so this is a good day to publish his movies as kind of congratulation!

Ten short videos are at YouTube now where you can not only watch them but also write comments. Especially the experts are asked to contribute if they have any corrections or additions.

As a matter of course, the videos are not exactly perfect and especially their speed is not correct. Please see the information under each video and in the playlist.

Here you go.

Last edited by UStik; 01-09-2017 at 01:18 AM.
Old 01-13-2017, 03:53 AM
  #2  
gene6029
 
gene6029's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: wilson, NC
Posts: 1,219
Likes: 0
Received 20 Likes on 9 Posts
Default

Thank you for takeing the time to post those films. There is a lot of information on them for people building period correct models.....Gene
Old 01-15-2017, 06:05 PM
  #3  
TFF
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 4,183
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Default

Very cool.
Old 01-20-2017, 12:17 PM
  #4  
jaymen
 
jaymen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Mission Viejo, CA
Posts: 625
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Default

Just so everyone one knows, Phil Kraft got his idea for his test plane, which evolved into the Ugly Stick, from Zel Ritchie.
Zel was the owner and president of Space Control in Gardena and was producing the first commercially made 4 channel full house proportional system back in 1960. Zel test flew each radio himself in a plane he built specifically for that purpose. It used 1/4" thick balsa sheet for the sides and was very boxy to have plenty of room which allowed easy access to the fuselage to change out the radio in a few minutes. This was long before Phil started making proportional gear, in fact Kraft was in it's infancy and Phils shop was his garage. But Phil, like other LARK members, knew Zel and was very familiar with his test plane he called "the box".

So, he was influenced by Zel, and when he started making his first proportional radios, he also test flew each one of them. Thus the Ugly Stick came into being as Phils ideal test bed for radios. When it became apparent that he had more radios than time to test fly them, he needed to have extra planes and pilots, and this led to the Ugly Stick being kitted and Phil had quite a few of them professionally built for his testing program.
Old 01-21-2017, 02:50 AM
  #5  
UStik
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Augsburg, GERMANY
Posts: 1,017
Received 8 Likes on 8 Posts
Default

Thanks for this information! Could you transfer (or copy) it to the Ugly Stik thread where it actually belongs?

And I have a question you can possibly answer: Phil Kraft wrote that he designed and built the test bed in 1964 (must have been in the first half of 1964). The R/C Hall of Fame tells that Kraft started production of the KP-4 only in June 1965. For me that means the test bed was initially meant for testing the KP-4 prototypes, even though it has been undoubtedly used for testing the mass-produced R/C sets later. It would also interesting to know if Phil Kraft really had the later test beds built in numbers from Jensen kits or scratch-built as "Box-Flis".

Of course, this post actually belongs to the Ugly Stik thread as well. Moderator?

Last edited by UStik; 01-21-2017 at 02:53 AM.
Old 01-21-2017, 07:50 PM
  #6  
GREG DOE
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: , TN
Posts: 892
Likes: 0
Received 26 Likes on 23 Posts
Default

Keep in mind that the Jensen Ugly Stick plans show Bonner Transmite servos, which were reed servos.
Old 01-21-2017, 11:55 PM
  #7  
UStik
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Augsburg, GERMANY
Posts: 1,017
Received 8 Likes on 8 Posts
Default

Originally Posted by GREG DOE
Keep in mind that the Jensen Ugly Stick plans show Bonner Transmite servos, which were reed servos.
That's a good one!

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.