VintageViews T
he Vintage Radio Control Society selects a “Theme” each year. Some- times it is a single plane design as it was when this concept first start-
ed in 2004. The “Theme” that year was the Top Dawg, a popular design by Ken Willard. Since then the “Theme” has continued and varied between a specific single design to any plane by a single designer, as was done when the society honored Hal deBolt by se- lecting any of his many planes as the “Theme”. A few years ago the society recog- nized Joe Bridi by selecting his Kaos or any variation of the Kaos as the “Theme”. For 2014 the VRCS has chosen the Ugly
Stik or any variation of that design. The original Ugly Stik was actually named Das Ugly Stik by its designer Phil Kraft. Since Phil first flew Das Ugly Stik in 1965 it has become one of the most popular designs and many variations have been designed and flown. In this article I will take a look at the many “Stik” designs that have evolved from Phil’s original Das Ugly Stik. The concept for the original “Stik” was to
design an R/C plane which could be built in an absolute minimum amount of time. Its purpose was so that Phil could have a flying test bed for the new proportional control de- velopments and an all-around shop airplane which could be used as a loaner for visiting flyers, testing repaired equipment, and any use which required an airplane which could be considered expendable.
I mentioned above that one of Phil’s objec- tives was to design a plane that could be built in an absolute minimum of time. There- fore, the design was very simple with no curves or frills whatsoever. It had a square cross section fuselage with a totally exposed engine, flat horizontal and vertical stabiliz- ers and a rectangular wing. The wing ribs were flat from the spar to the rear to simplify construction without the use of a wing jig. This may be hard to believe but Phil built the plane and flew it in four days. The plans were finished on a Sunday afternoon and the framework was completed by 10 o’clock
PHOTOGRAPHY: BOB NOLL
The first kit of Das Ugly Stik was produced by Jim Jensen and was an exact copy of Phil Kraft’s original design except for the addition of 3 degrees of dihedral.
that evening. Two more evenings were re- quired for
covering and doping and on Thursday of that week the plane was first flown. Phil used a Veco .45, which was one of the most popular engines at that time, to power his Stik.
This square design suggested that it may be a WWI Fokker Eindecker look-alike and so it was trimmed out with a scheme that re- sembled the popular Fokker designs with the German Cross on a white background. Phil even added a pilot and machine gun lat- er to contribute to the theme. Phil never re- alized that his Stik would become so very popular, so much so that Das Ugly Stik be- came the most copied R/C plane of its day and variations began to show up all over the country.
In this article I will attempt to list many of those variations. I’m sure I won’t mention all of them and it might be fun to hear from
my readers if they know of a “Stik variation” that I missed. Phil’s original plans for Das Ugly Stik were published in the 1966 Grid Leaks. Grid Leaks magazines were published by Ace R/C of Higginsville, MO, one of the first suppli- ers of DIY R/C components. Grid Leaks in- cluded information about R/C developments and techniques, mostly single channel and reeds. Full size plans for Das Ugly Stik sold for $3. Grid Leaks was published ten times a year, sold for 35 cents a copy and a yearly subscription cost only $5. Das Ugly Stik was kitted by Jim Jensen and the kit differed slightly from Phil’s origi- nal design, most noticeably the wing dihe- dral. Jim decided to include the customary three degrees of dihedral while Phil’s original design had no dihedral. Jim probably did that because he felt it looked better with slight di- hedral, and it did. Though some modelers
by bob noll You can reach Bob Nollvia e-mail at
bobrc@aol.com
Das Little Stik was kitted by Midwest Products (at left) and was a 46-inch wingspan version of Das Ugly Stik for .19 to .35 engines. Cliff Weirick and Larry Leonard (above) with Das Liddle Stiks at Universal Studios in 1968 with their 75% Stiks.
42 DECEMBER 2013
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