A word about Frank Zaic and his model aeronautic interests in general. He was by profession a draftsman. In the early 1930's at the height of the depression he arrived in the US from a Slovakian country and got caught up in the Lindbergh mania. Lacking financial resources he directed his attention to self stabilized airframes (model airplanes) and attempted to promote scientific research into the specialized issues of slow speed unmanned flightt.

In furtherance of this he began to publish his Year Books. They were/are a vehicle for dissemnation of advances in model aircraft technology.

JASCO (Junior Aeronautical Supply Company) was founded to provide a centralized source of model airplane building supplies. Slightly later (reluctantly) his Thermic series of model aircraft kits were added to the JASCO line. If you read the year books Frank very clearly states that these kits were offered for no other purpose but to to demonstrate the workability of his theories.

The fact is that NO Zaic design (including the early Wakefield) was EVER competitive and no representations regarding superior performance were ever published.

The point that I am trying to make is that these beautiful objects (like many industrial designs of the time) were intended to be viewed more as a representation of an idealized flying machine then as a functional one. Therefore don't expect world class performance from any of the early JASCO models.

Some of his models where competitive, My dad and his friend flew a 1/2 A Powered plane called, i think it was the Hi top, I always knew it as the "long 'n skinny" and they won many 1/2 A contests here in South Africa with it and with lots of different motors, starting from Cox Thermal Hoppers through to TD .049
I still have the last one my dad built in the 1960's. The only modification they did was to slim the fuselage down from the 1.5" square to a 1.5" x 1/2" to cut drag.

As best I know Zaic never constructed a power plane except for the one he built to certify his Circular Airflow Theories. The Early yearbooks contain drawings of several designs which he drew up for publication but never kitted. I believe there was a thread here or at RC Universe regarding someone who built one. Remember that in the pre war period (1930's) gas powered models were a real novelty (like RC was in the 50's) and no one really knew how to properly vector the power.

The last time I saw him was at the 58 or 59 Nat's in Chicago and we discussed my aerial meteorological drone project. At that meeting he told me that he was only interested in his on going series of books and had not built a model in years.

It's possible that his brother John or someone at JETCO got him to draw up plans for their own design. I know of several such instances.

If you have anything on this model particularly the source of the design I would be very interested,

Originally Posted by sailnut

A word about Frank Zaic and his model aeronautic interests in general. He was by profession a draftsman. In the early 1930's at the height of the depression he arrived in the US from a Slovakian country and got caught up in the Lindbergh mania. Lacking financial resources he directed his attention to self stabilized airframes (model airplanes) and attempted to promote scientific research into the specialized issues of slow speed unmanned flightt.

In furtherance of this he began to publish his Year Books. They were/are a vehicle for dissemnation of advances in model aircraft technology.

JASCO (Junior Aeronautical Supply Company) was founded to provide a centralized source of model airplane building supplies. Slightly later (reluctantly) his Thermic series of model aircraft kits were added to the JASCO line. If you read the year books Frank very clearly states that these kits were offered for no other purpose but to to demonstrate the workability of his theories.

The fact is that NO Zaic design (including the early Wakefield) was EVER competitive and no representations regarding superior performance were ever published.

The point that I am trying to make is that these beautiful objects (like many industrial designs of the time) were intended to be viewed more as a representation of an idealized flying machine then as a functional one. Therefore don't expect world class performance from any of the early JASCO models.

I think you are correct. I met Frank outside of las Vegas many, many years ago at some contest held out in teh dirt south of town or maybe on some dry lakebed. He was flying some "modified" sail plane that was popular and kitted by another firm. His idea as to modifyied, was in simply sanding to shape a few parts better than the kit said.



Wm.

Originally Posted by sailnut

A word about Frank Zaic and his model aeronautic interests in general. He was by profession a draftsman. In the early 1930's at the height of the depression he arrived in the US from a Slovakian country and got caught up in the Lindbergh mania. Lacking financial resources he directed his attention to self stabilized airframes (model airplanes) and attempted to promote scientific research into the specialized issues of slow speed unmanned flightt.

In furtherance of this he began to publish his Year Books. They were/are a vehicle for dissemnation of advances in model aircraft technology.

JASCO (Junior Aeronautical Supply Company) was founded to provide a centralized source of model airplane building supplies. Slightly later (reluctantly) his Thermic series of model aircraft kits were added to the JASCO line. If you read the year books Frank very clearly states that these kits were offered for no other purpose but to to demonstrate the workability of his theories.

The fact is that NO Zaic design (including the early Wakefield) was EVER competitive and no representations regarding superior performance were ever published.

The point that I am trying to make is that these beautiful objects (like many industrial designs of the time) were intended to be viewed more as a representation of an idealized flying machine then as a functional one. Therefore don't expect world class performance from any of the early JASCO models.

Am I correct in thinking that this model, a Jasco Flamingo , was a Zaic design? I saw one of these at the Nationals some years ago and was so taken with it`s elegance I just had to build one from a plan I obtained through the kindness of a Forum contributor. I no longer have the model but as I recall it flew very well, exactly as you would expect a vintage model to perform. I`m very tempted to build another!

I must say it has the Zaic look although its a little short coupled. As to being distributed or kitted by JASCO... I don't remember seeing it advertised nor do I remember it being in the collection of Zaic prototypes that festooned the ceiling of the JASCO office.

There are an awful lot of non ZAIC designs/kits around which are purported to bear the name JASCO. Most of them seem to have originated during the years after Frank left (taking with him the JASCO trademark) and with that caused his sister and brother to reincorporate under the name JETCO. This happened during the time I worked for them.

As I have written elsewhere The new owners retained the classic Thermic trade mark but proceeded to simplify the structures for the sake of manufacturing economy. The arrival of 1/2 A glow engines and later 27mz RC equipment opened a flood of opportunity that which was addressed via Ehlings prodigious output and later individual licensing of outstanding designs by others not in their employ. However none of these kits bore the JASCO imprint. Because of the similarity of the trademark a lot of confusion arose and most likely a great many JETCO designs announced but not released or released in small quantities got relabeled in their customers minds as JASCO.

It is possible that Frank could or would bestow the JASCO imprint on certain designs that caught his fancy. The G110 seems an example. That said your model although not produced by JASCO in New York could legitimately bear the JASCO imprint. To that I can add nothing.

I thought so... The origin of your model was determined and discussed in the thread pointed to below.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...light=flamingo

Originally Posted by sailnut

I thought so... The origin of your model was determined and discussed in the thread pointed to below.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...light=flamingo

Yes, that was when I was looking for information/plan which I did get as you see! I`ve had great sucess from this Forum whenever I`ve asked.

I think there was an unrelated Jasco company in England. I've seen an ad or two in old magazines. No idea what they produced.

A few simple F/F and C/L models

How interesting this information about John Zaic. I think you all are interested in knowing about the Thermic 100. This was a beautiful sailplane. Some years ago I built one and converted to RC. Excellent performer!!

The Flamingo is a Roger Hammer design. It is shown in one of the Zaic yearbooks as the Jasco Flamingo designed by Roger Hammer. Where it went from there I don't know but I've not seen any reference to it being kitted by Frank or Jasco.

His designs may not have been all that successful in the meets of the day but there's no doubt that is Thermic glider series are easily worth putting Frank forward as one of the major founding fathers of this hobby. Reams of Thermic 50 kits were built by one and all. Not to mention the Thermic series of hand lanched gliders. While these gliders did not fit into the contest events of the day in many cases they most certainly helped encourage many a youngster and adult alike to see the hobby as a valid pastime.

And as many of us that participate in contests know it's not always your design but how often you fly it. If, for some reason, Frank was not that taken with or did not get enough opportunities to use his models in contests or didn't know when to fly and when to go make a sandwich and watch then his models would have been severley handicapped before he even let go of them.

I'm talking total conjecture on most of this. But one thing is for sure. His series of yearbooks are most welcome for their glimpse at the state of the art for model flying for the years they cover.

I just wish that I could have had the opportunity to meet him like some of you had.

I agree with everything written above...

The irony of all this is that Zaic's only really competitive design the Floater was built as a test bed to validate his theory's regarding the performance of the popular airfoils of the day at low Reynolds numbers.

Zaic was of the opinion that these airfoils were flying at such a high angle of attack and at such low Reynolds numbers that the existing performance plots were essentially useless.

The prototype of the model which was eventually released as the Floater (not a Thermic) was equipped with a vane device mounted over the wing parallel with mid chord line of the airfoil. Its purpose was to average the angle of attack at which the wing was flying.

It turned out, as Frank suspected this angle was about 6 degrees (a big surprise at the time)! The Floater was also one of the first models which featured a tilted horizontal stabilizer for turn control. Of course this meant the fuselage was not parallel with the airflow DRAG!! The remedy was simply to shim the wing to the correct angle of attack.

When kitted and released this force setup was very controversial but eventually became common in free flight modeling.

The result of all this was a simple airframe which turned so tightly it appeared to be pivoting on a wing tip with excellent spiral stability. If one to towed a Floater into a thermal vortex a max flight was a foregone conclusion.

The irony of all this is that the beautiful Thermic series of gliders could not approximate the performance of the plain Jane JASCO floaters.

For the curious the vane assembly is illustrated in one of the Zaic books

Hey Guys, go here http://aeromodelismovolarlibremente....r-book-by.html for a fee download of Frank's 1953 yearbook.

Chuck

Has anyone ever put together a database of Zaic/Jetco/Jasco designs? I have plans and kits for some pretty obscure ones..

In some cases it is clear that a name was reused on very different models. For instance, there is a 1944 Thermic C with a V tail, a 1946 Thermic C with a conventional tail - and far more detailed/complex plans - and a much simpler, very different Thermic C sold by Jetco - probably an Ehling design.

I have a 1950 Jasco catalog sheet that shows (amongst others)
Thermal Traveler
Thermal Cruiser
(the only difference between these two is the Cruiser has a fake cabin that probably did not meet contest rules)

Jasco Kid/Junior/Senior (does anyone have plans of these?)

Missing is the 'Jasco Special'. Does anyone have plans for this?

It also shows the Phoenix and Jr Phoenix, so I assume this is early in the Ehling era.

regards

Steve