Das Ugly Stik prototype maiden flight - 1966

One of George Walker's early sixties R/C 8mm movies. (9) You may play the video 1.25 times faster with the settings at the player's right bottom, that should make speed almost correct.

Early 1966 at the San Gabriel Valley (Whittier Narrows) R/C field.

George Walker had the idea how to embellish Phil Kraft's ugly, boxy test bed and built a prototype. It was flown by Jim Jensen, who was regarded as a very good pilot and who remarked "we're going to have to make a kit". George Walker filmed the maiden flight with a Yashica 8mm camera. There are two flights in this video.

George says he was too nervous so he flew his prototype only after Jim Jensen and only shortly. Jensen flew the Ugly Stik as if he had done it for years. Of course, Kraft proportional R/C has been used.

Phil Kraft liked the model and wanted his own one, which was built by Dick Kidd, who was a very good builder. Later, Phil Kraft flew his model but was not filmed, only photographed by George Walker.

In the photos, you can tell the two prototypes apart by their vertical tail. George Walker's model has a red fin and a white rudder while Phil Kraft's model has withe fin and rudder. The pilot has a red or white scarf, respectively.

George Walker's model has the engine cowl on the photos while the cowls were removed for the flights. These photos were as well shot by George Walker, except the one where he's posing with his prototype.

They have been used for the famous May-June 1966 Grid Leaks (volume 7 number 3) article.

What is shown between 0:15 and 0:45 is the wing center near the trailing edge. You see the German cross on the fuselage top "below" it. It's a funny warning in a mixture of German and English, just for a laugh. We couldn't make out the text in the video, but later George found it somewhere else, see his comment below.

My lengthy write-up about Das Ugly Stik is here: https://erdlenbruch.de/Burkhard/dl.ph...

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Technical Notes:

Contrast has been cranked up by two points.

Original 8mm film has 16 frames per second,
PAL video runs at 25 fps, that is 56.25% faster (too fast),
slowed to half speed is 78.125% of original speed (21.875% slower).
Rather 22% slower than 56% faster was our (George's and my) choice.
You may play it 1.25 times faster here with the settings at the player's right bottom,
that should make speed almost correct.