Frank Zaic is a legend. He devoted his lifetime to designing, building and flying model airplanes. Zaic was a prolific writer authoring papers, articles and his famous "Model Aeronautic Year Books", which are still treasured to this day. He had a design "eye" that was both functional and artistic - dare I say almost spiritual? There is something magical 60 years later to building his kits or just perusing one of his yearbooks. One is transported back to a golden age when there was a purity and a functionality to design rarely produced today due to commercial or technological influences. You can almost hear Frank's voice in his plans, models and his writings. Although I never met him, having built 4 of his designs, reviewed all of his yearbooks and studied most of his plans - I feel like I know Frank - like the way you know Jack Aubrey after reading Patrick O'Brian. Over the past year I've had the chance to talk to several of Frank's associates and acquaintances.
Richard Smith is one of Frank's associates having worked for JASCO and contributed to his yearbooks. Below is an interview I conducted with Richard about his experiences working for JASCO and more specifically his relationship with Frank Zaic. Richard's account provides a fascinating look into Frank Zaic and the evolution of JASCO from a labor of love for Frank to a profitable enterprise run by his sister Christine. As Richard readily admits - these are his recollections - he doesn't claim to be the authoritative source on Frank Zaic. Just one mans account of what it was like to be around Frank back in the day...
Part 3 - The Post War Years
When Frank and John Zaic were mustered out of the Army and returned to New York in 1946, hopefully to a better life, they found that their sister Christine had very ably filled their shoes. Perhaps a little to well since out of necessity she had morphed JASCO into a for profit endeavor. A quantum break from it's prior business model of a (defacto) non profit operation. Christine's success is more remarkable because she emigrated as a child from a mid European country whose culture was not noted for encouraging a women to do anything but run the household.
The Zaic's were always closed mouthed about there family interactions. However it appears that the family was led by a matriarch for fearsome aspect who maintained an incredible degree of control over the lives of her children. Ehling loved to paint a fantasy image of the mother which over time he came embellish. The image was of Christine and her mother, after business hours, gathered around a table (ill lit) bagging small hardware items for resale at the JASCO office. True or not it was accepted as gospel.
In any event Christine had directed her energies to selling the Thermic kits through wholesalers at the expense of the mail order hardware operation. Frank never publically commented to me on on his feeling respecting what JASCO had become. However with the exception of the Floater, which I will get to later and possibly the Trooper (designer unknown) none of the post war JASCO kits were of his devising (although he drew the plans for some.)
Frank did not lose his interest in model aeronautics. He now became interested in applying his theories to models which would be more flight worthy rather then decorative. Frank suspected that a model in free flight flew at such a high angle of attack and so slowly that the airfoil plots of the day did not depict the actual performance curve of a selected airfoil.
To to verify this Frank designed a vane type device which articulated in the vertical rather then horizontal plane. This instrument was to be mounted parallel to the chord line of a wing, built with the airfoil to measured. The experimental 6 foot wing was mounted with the vane on a purpose built airframe. This design became... YES the JASCO Floater.
Franks data as accumulated by his angle of attack recorder convinced him that at the wing loading and Reynolds numbers common at the time that the average angle of attack rather then the common 1.5 to 3 degree assumption was actually closer to 6 degrees Although in its self not particularly important there was a very important performance benefit here. By shimming the wing to 6 degrees positive, the fuselage and horizontal stabilizer would fly parallel with the airstream and with that enjoy a major decrease in drag. In addition under circumstances that Frank never described he determined that the best way to trim a glider to circle tightly was to cant the horizontal stabilizer from its customary 90 degree relation ship to the fuselage.
When these two very minor modifications were incorporated into a what became the Floater, a towline glider, incorporating a rather primitive structure, but superlative performance was released by JASCO. In a patronizing way it was aimed at those with "big ideas" The Floater did very well in AMA sanctioned contests.
I remember the first time I saw a Floater in flight. It seemed to rotate around its wing tip. Since the practice of the time was to tow the model into a thermal the tight turn and spiral stability of the design guaranteed a max.
Right around this time that the K&B Baby Torpedo .020 miniature glow engine was introduced. It would be charitable to say this engine with its stamped metal propeller was capable of anything but modest performance but it completely changed the direction and basic appeal of model airplanes. Just as Park Flyers are redefining the hobby today so it was the the Baby Torpedo.
I believe that the economy, small size and ubiquitness of this engine caused Frank to formalize his theory's respecting what was needed to guarantee the stability of powered, unguided airframes via his book "Circular Airflow Theory." I have not read this publication in years I am not going to even attempt a categorization of it. However, of importance to my purpose here, is point out that the book has plans of Franks only documented, built and tested IC powered model. This model is represented as a test bed in validation of his theories,
Perhaps more fundamental to the development of model aeronautics was the appearance of a cheap RC receiver, escapement and transmitter system which was marketed by Berkley. There are endless very entertaining recollections of travails associated with operating this early and primitive product. But, the fact that it was light, simple and worked a good part of the time was more then enough to guarantee its success. Unfortunately the Airotrol equipment operated on the amateur 6 meter band. You needed a HAM License (Morse code and a written test) to use it legally. However the FCC opened up a single frequency (465MZ) for license free usage. Howard McIntee produced a receiver and transmitter that operated on this band and with that the RC revolution was born.
Operation of a McIntee set was challenging. After power was applied the receiver took a minute or so to warm up and become responsive, it was heavy, with its attached antenna it was bulky, heavy batteries were require which needed frequent replacement. More importantly and often the occasion for the merriment of others the range was low... very low. Although the transmitter had a Yagi style antenna to beam the signal it was not uncommon to see the pilot madly chasing his model around in an attempt to retain control.
Sensing opportunity, DeBolt kitted his Live Wire Trainer and with that put the first nail in the coffin of controline and free Flight modeling (except for the specialized classes).
Frank in response to the Live Wire Trainer designed and produced (with his money) several prototype kits of a super Floater which he called the G-84 (I suppose G meant guided). He gave me one. I have never heard of anyone who has replicated this airplane. Indeed I do not believe that it was ever flown with onboard functioning electronics. Still I think that it could have flown very well in low winds and to model soaring it ranks near Good's Guff in importance. I am leaving the Thermic-100 out of this. Although beautiful it is a purely speculative design.
In the event RC soaring development migrated south to the DC RC Society and particularly to Walter Good and Maynard Hill.
With the general availability of die cut and pre-shaped kit parts Christine found he self and her company even more marginalized
Christine realized that to modernize and thereby increase the appeal of the complex structures defining the JASCO/Thermic gliders she had to supply die cut parts. That was going be an expensive option. Presuming it was accomplished, Frank's structures would still remain challenging to build. .
As to die cutting.. From the examples saw at JASCO the die itself was based upon a sheet of hardwood sized to fit in a press. The cutting parts were of strip steel let into the board by milled slots in the outlines of each part. The whole affair looked like a bunch of cookie cutters on a mounting board. In use a sheet of balsa was placed beneath the die which was forced down on the balsa. With a new die the results were acceptable. As time went on less so
With Franks absence and John's generally relaxed manner Christine had little alternative but to find someone outside of her family to help drag her company out of its languor
At this point Frank Ehling, the "Bad Boy" of modeling arrives on the scene. Frank Ehling, American born was of Frank Zaic's generation. Zaic frequently published Ehlings designs in his Yearbooks. Ehling came on-board with the "bad boy" label because like most successful competitors he could and would exploit loop holes in the rules. Frank was involved in several rather celebrated disputes regarding the intention of rather then actual language of a rule. A most interesting, famous and controversial dispute led to a suspension of the PAA class events until a certain section of its language was recast.
All that aside Ehling had an instinctive response to airframe design and more important knew how to rationalize this instinct into hardware which would maximize his chances of winning.
Ehling, under his own name and a multitude of pseudonyms was grinding out a series of simple but well performing models for publication in Al Lewis's of Air Trails magazine. Ehlings models would also appear from time to time in Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Magazines. Ehlings success even prompted him to design a semi scale electric powered stern wheel paddle boat which was (briefly) kitted.
Christine brought Ehling on board to modernize/simplify the Thermic line and also to broaden the companies general appeal. This in the event included a series of contest ready 1/2A free flight models. It goes without saying that Frank Zaic could not have been enthused at his sisters plans to popularize his beloved company and retired from all things JASCO. As it played out it seems that he reserved the trade name (JASCO) for himself but not the Thermic label or glider designs themselves and with that left the scene for sunny Calfornia.
At this point JASCO was rename JETCO.
Ehling as good as his word a reengineered the famous Thermic-50 and 50X . He retained their signature profiles but grossly reduced the parts count. Of greater importance he replaced by Zaic's individually plotted NCAA-6409 airfoils with simple arc profiles glued to a pre-shaped leading and trailing edges. It goes without saying that these charmless designs did nothing to better the lack luster performance of Zaic's classic air frames. Ehling went a bit further with the Thermic-72-X . For this design he abandoned the built up pod in favor of block balsa, moved the vertical stabilizer forward (to allow the incorporation of a seldom needed pop-up dethermalizer) but retained Zaic's under cambered airfoil and general flying surface construction. In its way the finished product is a rather handsome affair but could never be confused with a Frank Zaic design. I built three of these models and they were without exception terrible towliner's. A Floater could best them under any circumstance.
Ehling designed a series of variants to his successful pylon, glow powered, Phoenix airframe. The first, the Baby Phoenix was a terrific flyer. The derivatives were at best mediocre. In response to the DeBolt Live Wire trainer JETCO released a single channel RC model. It's only claim to fame was the introduction of Nylon as a covering material.
Ehling followed up the disastrous Thermic 72 with JETCO Nordic a superlative design which would fly off the drawing board and was always competitive. This design should be re-kitted.
Ehling continued to design and Christine to kit a multitude of models including a control liner. Eventually under circumstance unknown to me (perhaps the AMA reorganization) he withdrew. However by this time the JASCO mystique had disappeared and JETCO although always marketing excellent designs in kits of the highest quality became just another of the many kit suppliers of the time.
RETURN to Part 1 - Who is Richard Smith and what was his relationship with Frank Zaic and Jasco?
RETURN to Part 2 - The Pre War Years - Frank learns his craft working in a patent office, puts together his first book, designs the Thermics.
PURCHASING FRANK ZAIC'S YEARBOOKS
The good folks at Hannan's Runway still have a nice supply of most of Zaic's books and publications. I bought mine from them and they were quite delightful to deal with. The Hannan's are still good friends with Frank's widow Carmine. Click the link to visit their web site.
PURCHASING KITS
We currently sell the "18", "20", "B", "50", "50X" and the "70". Each kit has a build log online so you see how other modelers approached building the kits. I have built the "18", "20", "B", and the "50" and they truly are a magical experience as the design comes to life. Click here for more information on the "50", "50X" and the "70". Click here for more information on the "18", "20", and "B".
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