John Brodbeck Sr.
September 14, 1913 – November 2, 2004
John Brodbeck Sr., often known as "Mr. B.," passed away at his home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The "B" in K&B Manufacturing, John was inducted into the Model Aviation Hall of Fame in 1977 and the North American Model Boat Association (NAMBA) International Hall of Fame in 1982.
Honors
- Inducted into the Model Aviation Hall of Fame (1977)
- Inducted into the NAMBA International Hall of Fame (1982)
Early years and wartime work
John began aeromodeling in 1936, using a Brown Junior engine. Unhappy with the engine's performance, he made modifications and considered building his own engine. World War II intervened, and he went to work at California Machining, eventually becoming general manager.
He met Lud Kading—the "K" in K&B—during a car trade, and the two began flying models together. Lud was John's first choice to run the tool shop at California Machining; both worked there for the duration of the war.
Founding K&B and early production
As World War II wound down, John and Lud decided to start their own business, taking on whatever machining work came their way. K&B Manufacturing built cannon yokes for Lockheed and produced precision-machined parts for a government project: 12 hollow balls, two inches in diameter, of exceptionally pure aluminum and extremely close tolerances. After the war they were informed those precision-machined parts were cores for the Manhattan Project.
Using savings and working capital, John and Lud began making model engines. K&B based its .29 engine on the old Torpedo design. An old friend, Bill Atwood, had purchased the rights to the Torpedo and Bullet engines but was no longer producing them; John bought the name and some old inventory from Bill.
"It's had a lot of ups and downs," John told John Worth, former AMA president and executive director, in an interview, "but I was thrifty and we always had working capital."
In 1946 they built their first engine—the Torpedo—which reached hobby shops the following year. They experimented with a tiny .10 engine but had trouble because existing glow plugs were too large for the cylinder. John devised the "capsule plug," a one-piece combustion chamber and plug, and succeeded in making the small engine work.
There were no kits or propellers for such a small engine, so John and Lud designed their own 4.75-inch bent-aluminum propeller and manufactured it themselves to keep the project secret. They made an initial run of 10,000 Infant Torpedo engines and announced the product after producing the first 3,500. One week later they had orders for 280,000 engines. Over the ensuing year they worked to meet demand; roughly 400,000 Infant Torpedo engines were produced in all.
K&B later introduced .035 and .049 engines that became more popular than the .20. The company benefited from a period of growth and innovation in the hobby industry and had the skills to take advantage of it.
Later years and legacy
Lud Kading eventually left the company, but John never removed the "K" from K&B; the two remained lifelong friends. John ran the company until turning leadership over to his son, John Brodbeck Jr. K&B was later sold, but engines continued to be marketed under the K&B name, making it one of the longest continuous manufacturers of model engines in the United States. K&B Model Products Inc. has remained a prominent American model engine manufacturer.
John credited K&B's success to keeping up with technology. The company was an early adopter of CNC innovations, which allowed faster production while maintaining quality. "The industry's been good to me," he told John Worth. "If I had it to do over again, I'd do the same thing."
Survivors
- A daughter
- A son-in-law
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
