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  #1  
Old 04-28-2009, 10:17 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Default Seeking glider in "Handbook of Model Rocketry"

Hello All,

In the late 1970s or early 1980s I had an unusual hand-launched glider that is illustrated in G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry," and I would like to acquire another one if possible.

This glider is shown in Figure 13-11 on page 203 of the "Handbook of Model Rocketry" (7th edition), in Chapter 13 ("Glide Recovery.") The caption says, "Elliptical dihedral of a wing." This photograph also appeared in several previous editions of the book.

It is a polystyrene foam hand-launched glider of the pod-and-boom type, with a "Y"-shaped (when viewed from the front or rear) tail assembly. It is rather similar to the F/F (Free Flight) gliders on this web site: www.f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/hand.htm . Does anyone here know where the glider shown in the book might still be found, or know the name of this glider (and its manufacturer)?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
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  #2  
Old 04-29-2009, 10:23 AM
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georgegassaway georgegassaway is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
It is a polystyrene foam hand-launched glider of the pod-and-boom type, with a "Y"-shaped (when viewed from the front or rear) tail assembly. It is rather similar to the F/F (Free Flight) gliders on this web site: www.f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/hand.htm . Does anyone here know where the glider shown in the book might still be found, or know the name of this glider (and its manufacturer)

It was a mass-produced hand launched glider that was around for a relatively brief time in the mid 1970's. Some Hobby Shops carried it, but it was not a popular item.

As I recall, the elliptical wings were molded expanded foam which included a partial “fuselage” area with a 1/4” (or so) hole thru it for the dowel fuselage to run through. A molded rubber piece was at front, also mounted to the dowel, both for noseweight and to keep the dowel from spearing anything (anyone). The tail surfaces were also molded foam, in one piece, to mount to the dowel. Actually I am pretty sure the dowel was tapered.

I never had one, but I saw a few people who had them (and I might have seen them once in a Hobby Shop). They were not as good for a contest B/G as people could build from scratch, except for those who could not build gliders very well at ALL. This was because the wing airfoil was sort of draggy for rocket boost, the glider was sort of big for anything under D power, and while the foam made the wings light, the tail was a hair heavy and the short nose required the big rubber piece up front to be somewhat “heavy” to balance the whole model out

I do not recall the name of the company. I am almost certain we are talking about a 30+ year dead product. So the most likely (?) way to get one now would be via someplace like eBay. But that is SO obscure that I doubt you’d find one listed (Well, you might find “foam glider” listed a lot, but not this one). Or if you ever were successful in finding out the name of that company, a Google Search might bring up some info.

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Old 04-29-2009, 10:35 AM
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Royatl Royatl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
Hello All,

In the late 1970s or early 1980s I had an unusual hand-launched glider that is illustrated in G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry," and I would like to acquire another one if possible.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.


Since Bill Stine frequents the forums, and since that photo looks like one of the ones that his dad took or had taken, he might have the info you want.
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Old 04-29-2009, 12:11 PM
Old Rocketeer "II" Old Rocketeer "II" is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Royatl
Since Bill Stine frequents the forums, and since that photo looks like one of the ones that his dad took or had taken, he might have the info you want.


I think it was made by North Pacific.

It has not been in the marketplace for 30 or more years.

When Quest did its line of foam gliders four years ago we designed a nice eliptical wing glider similar to this one but it never made it into production.
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Old 04-29-2009, 12:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Rocketeer "II"
I think it was made by North Pacific.

It has not been in the marketplace for 30 or more years.

When Quest did its line of foam gliders four years ago we designed a nice eliptical wing glider similar to this one but it never made it into production.



Ok, so according to a comment on Jeff Duntemann's blog , North Pacific was bought by Comet, which was bought by Guillow in 1998, but the North Pacific designs were gone by then.

North Pacific made these nifty nickle gliders whose wings were held on by a small plastic extrusion, and John Langford would use a paper clip to hook these up to regular rockets and fly them in 1/4a and 1/2a boost glide contests as parasite gliders. They outperformed anything we'd seen till then ('70-71).
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Old 04-30-2009, 04:50 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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I thank you all very much for your replies! Here is a link to an "online museum" of balsa toy gliders, rubber-powered "stick" airplanes, and rubber-powered helicopters www.oldwoodtoys.com/new_page_2.htm , some of which date from the 1920s!

The old North Pacific foam glider in the "Handbook of Model Rocketry" had good wind penetration because it was rather heavy for its size (which allowed me to achieve high hand launches), yet it glided pretty well in calm air as well. Maybe it didn't catch on at the time because it didn't "look like an airplane?" The Airglider 40 (see: http://www.nextag.com/airglider-40/products-html ) looks similar to it but has a "V"-tail instead of a "Y"-tail, as well as cloth-covered flying surfaces.

I'll see if I can find even a beat-up one on eBay or elsewhere. I could replicate it pretty closely in balsa, using three instead of the usual two polyhedral panels in the wings in order to more closely approximate the elliptical dihedral of the original foam glider.
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
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Last edited by blackshire : 04-30-2009 at 04:53 AM. Reason: This ol' hoss done forgot somethin'.
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Old 04-30-2009, 07:54 AM
Ltvscout Ltvscout is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Royatl
Ok, so according to a comment on Jeff Duntemann's blog , North Pacific was bought by Comet, which was bought by Guillow in 1998, but the North Pacific designs were gone by then.

North Pacific made these nifty nickle gliders whose wings were held on by a small plastic extrusion, and John Langford would use a paper clip to hook these up to regular rockets and fly them in 1/4a and 1/2a boost glide contests as parasite gliders. They outperformed anything we'd seen till then ('70-71).

Boy, does that bring back memories. I bought a TON of North Pacific balsa planes as a kid. 99% of them were the rubber-band powered type vs a straight glider. I also liked the catapault launched glider that folded its wings to get way up there before they popped open for a nice long glide.

I was also very big into kites as a kid. (I do stunt kites now from time to time.) I would put a small hook on the nose of a glider and put it on the string. The wind would carry it up the string. I'd jerk the line a few times and it would fall off and glide down. Fun!
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Old 04-30-2009, 08:16 AM
Eagle3 Eagle3 is offline
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Sort of related..... I'm looking for plans for the Jasco "Fleet" of hand toss gliders. I've scoured the web and come up empty. I believe Jasco had another "box of gliders" product, but I don't recall the name. Anyways, if anyone knows how to get the plans for these I'd greatly appreciate it. A couple could be converted.
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Old 04-30-2009, 10:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
I thank you all very much for your replies! Here is a link to an "online museum" of balsa toy gliders, rubber-powered "stick" airplanes, and rubber-powered helicopters www.oldwoodtoys.com/new_page_2.htm , some of which date from the 1920s!


The "American Airlines" promo glider mentioned in the "Gliders part II" segment is the North Pacific nickle glider I mentioned earlier.
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Old 04-30-2009, 11:51 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eagle3
Sort of related..... I'm looking for plans for the Jasco "Fleet" of hand toss gliders. I've scoured the web and come up empty. I believe Jasco had another "box of gliders" product, but I don't recall the name. Anyways, if anyone knows how to get the plans for these I'd greatly appreciate it. A couple could be converted.


Here are two sources for JASCO and JETCO gliders. Tom Martin of Tom Martin R/C (see: www.tmrcsailplanes.com/plans-and-patterns.html ) has plans and laser-cut kits of most of the JASCO and JETCO gliders, and Mike Smock's company called Aerosente (see: www.aerosente.com ) markets them and provides abundant building and trimming information on his web site.

Was the "box of gliders" product you're referring to a 3-kit combo that included a conventional-configuration glider with elliptical wings and tail surfaces ("Orthodox"), a swept-wing tailless glider with a central vertical stabilizer ("Flying Wing"), and a canard glider with elliptical main wings and canard wings ("Tail First")? If so, that was the JETCO (and I believe JASCO made it as well) Thermic Trio. Tom Martin has the plans for these (although he hasn't scanned them yet), and Mike Smock has expressed interest in releasing the Thermic Trio as a laser-cut kit. It was my first "glued-together" balsa chuck glider kit, and I would love to build another 'Trio.
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR
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