Kaz!
By Duane Wilson
It started as a simple announcement on an RC Universe (RCU) forum that a model was being auctioned. But it wasn’t just any airplane; it was arguably the most famous sport and RC aerobatics (Pattern) aircraft designed in more than 50 years of RC history: Ed Kazmirski’s legendary Taurus.
More than a year later, modelers around the world were still talking about the Taurus and Kaz’s other designs. If you have never heard of him, the Taurus, or his other creations, read on; you might want to fly them someday soon.
Kaz’s Achievements
- September 1957: Kaz’s first 1st-place finish
- August 1959: Participated in Nats with modified Astro-Hog
- June 1960: Orion plans published
- July 1960: FAI Championships in Switzerland, Orion takes win
- November 1960: Orion kit released
- August 1961: Participated in Nats with modified Orion
- November 1961: First flight of “contest prototype” Taurus
- December 1961: First formal Taurus plans drawn
- April 1962: Kaz’s three-week tour of Africa
- August 1962: Taurus wins at Nats
- October 1962: Taurus plans published in Radio Control Models and Electronics magazine
- December 1962: Top Flite releases Taurus kit
- January 1963: Taurus plans/article published in Model Airplane News magazine
- August 1963: Kaz’s USS Lexington carrier demonstration
- August 1963: Taurus takes 3rd at FAI Championships in Belgium
- Early 1964: R/C Expert article about Japanese tour with Taurus 2
- March–April 1964: Grid Leaks publishes article about the Kazmirski pusher
- April 1964: Tauri (high-wing trainer) plans published
- August 1964: Kaz participates in Nats with Taurus 2
- May 1965: Simla debuts
- August 1965: Radio Control Modeler ad shows Simla
- August 1965: Kaz participates in Nats with Simla
- 1965: Kaz is captain of the US team at FAI World Championships
—Duane Wilson
The Taurus: A Pattern Landmark
The Taurus is perhaps the first modern Pattern airplane. It was originally designed to fly on a .45 two-stroke engine and the old toggle-switch reed radio systems of the early 1960s. Many modern aeromodelers who have piloted it say that the Taurus flies even better with today’s proportional radios and a .45- to .61-size two-stroke or equivalent four-stroke engine. The Taurus also makes a great electric-powered model.
With a 70-inch wingspan and designed for precision aerobatics, it is still a great Pattern trainer or super-smooth-flying sport aircraft. There were many pioneers of early RC Pattern, each with his own contribution to the hobby, but Ed Kazmirski (often referred to as “Kaz”) was easily the most famous. He emerged on the national scene just as Pattern competition was starting to hit its stride. Before long, everyone at the field seemed to be flying a trainer, a Cub, or a Taurus.
Even as a newcomer to competition, his ability to master reed radios allowed him to claim his first victory at the prestigious Detroit Invitational the first time he entered. Kaz quickly established himself as the man to beat among the leading pilots of the day. Not only a superb competitor, he was also an influential leader, a trendsetter, and a self-taught designer.
Kaz was not only the best-known pilot in the US, but he became a worldwide RC celebrity because of his extensive travels overseas. Those trips included RC aerobatic demonstration tours to the African nation of Rhodesia and to Japan. He was named to the US Pattern team for the World Championships twice, traveling to Switzerland and Belgium, and he managed the team in 1965.
Kaz was a true "rock star" in RC circles, with many contributions to the hobby and an amazing number of activities and accomplishments concentrated into a relatively short span of time. He flew off the USS Lexington aircraft carrier for US Navy sailors and demonstrated RC in a Major League baseball park in front of thousands of Chicago White Sox fans. Those are only a couple of the many experiences Kaz had during his extraordinary RC career.
Design and Development of the Taurus
Almost immediately after his early successes, Kaz started work on a radically different Pattern concept that became the Taurus. During what became a four-year development period, he produced at least two prototypes of which we are aware.
The first prototype was derived from the Orion, but it wouldn't have been recognizable to us today as a Taurus. The long nose moment and stubby tail proved to be a disappointment, as Ed later said. Learning from that effort, Kaz developed a second prototype based on smooth flying, higher drag, and slower, more constant speed. The flight characteristics resulted from an attempt to build as light a model as possible that employed a relatively thick airfoil, short nose, and long tail moment. These design features became the benchmark for all Taurus models.
From available evidence, it appears Kaz never drew formal plans for his designs. The earliest plans we have were for the second prototype; Frank Myers drew them and labeled the model the "Prototype Contest Model." That version was dated December 6, 1961, and it was drawn after the fact from the completed model. The plans provide a first-flight date of Thanksgiving 1961. This model sports a pilot figure named "Fil Kilroy" (who greatly resembles Kaz), smoking a cigar.
Kaz experimented to refine the design: he tried two airfoils, changed wing shape and position, altered stabilizer thickness, and lengthened tail moment. Yet all versions adhered to the same successful formula. The second-generation Taurus, flown during the 1964 season, employed a tapered leading edge and straight trailing edge found on most subsequent Pattern airplanes.
Kaz borrowed a new airfoil from Fritz Bosch, a German pilot he met at the 1963 World Championships. The Bosch airfoil was symmetrical, had a sharper leading edge for a better spin, yet retained thickness for the increased drag Kaz wanted. A new feature was a large, thick-sectioned horizontal stabilizer, again to increase drag. The fuselage became sleeker and had the longest tail moment of the series.
Magazine clips and photos continued to surface on the RCU thread, revealing previously unknown models. We were surprised to learn that several Taurus variants were built during a relatively short span of years; even the jetlike pusher Taurus was built for the 1964 Toledo model show.
The Simla: Kaz’s Ambitious Project
The biggest surprise to the modeling world came in 1965, when Kaz turned in an ambitious project based on the Taurus: a large-scale, 102-inch-wingspan model designed to fly better and smoother than the conventional-size Pattern aircraft of the time. The Simla, named after a town in the Himalaya Mountains, served as an experimental design.
The Simla had:
- Adjustable wing positions (shoulder, mid, and low)
- Adjustable dihedral and incidence
- Plug-in wings (unheard of in the mid-1960s)
As with all of Kaz's designs, the Simla drew a crowd wherever it went. I interviewed Kaz by phone about the Simla (see the October 2007 Model Airplane News "In the Air") shortly before his death in 2007. It had generated renewed interest when its picture was published in the July issue.
Kaz told me that before the first flight, a photographic floodlight fell on the Simla during a professional photo shoot and landed "right on the CG." Flight performance suffered from the extra 12 ounces added during repairs on this already much larger and heavier airplane (with a .60 two-stroke engine). Still, the Simla flew well in several contests and underwent two modifications in an effort to improve performance before competing in the 1965 Nats.
Unfortunately, the Simla’s life was short. It mysteriously disappeared from a crawlspace in Kaz’s home and was permanently lost. It was a difficult loss for him; as with all of his designs, there were no plans. This incident might have hastened Kaz's early departure from RC. You could hear the sense of loss in his voice while he told the Simla story after all those years, but he was gratified to learn of renewed public interest in his last design.
After Kaz's passing, previously unknown photographs of the Simla were found in his estate, making it possible, for the first time, to reconstruct his final creation. There is now a SICS re-creation project underway; I’m sure Kaz would have loved to see it fly again.
Withdrawal from Competition and Later Life
Kaz withdrew from aerobatic competition in the late 1960s, primarily to spend more time tending to the family business. Other factors may have contributed, including the rise of then-new proportional radios that were easier to fly and the tremendous influx of competitive pilots as Pattern competition rapidly grew in popularity.
After leaving RC, Kaz turned his talents to other interests including photography, in which he built a nationally recognized reputation. He published many award-winning photos in travel publications such as National Geographic Travel.
Although he left RC behind, Kaz had made a permanent mark on RC and Pattern competition as a man ahead of his time. He had many innovations to his credit, shaping the sport for years to come. Similar to a national founding father, Kaz hasn't been forgotten. He later said that the 11 years spent in RC were the best of his life.
The Taurus Puzzle: Rediscovery and Research
Few people knew what had become of Kaz's models, or if they even existed decades later. Speculation ended with a one-sentence announcement on RCU's Classic RC Pattern Flying forum in June 2008.
Those interested in the designer and his airplanes were amazed to see pictures of his two remaining personal Tauruses offered by Chuck Noble, owner of the auction house that handled Kaz's estate. The aircraft had not only survived, but they had been carefully preserved in the travel crate built for his first overseas trip 47 years earlier. The models were in surprisingly good condition given their age and flight histories, requiring only minimal restoration and cleanup. The painted finishes looked better than those on most models typically seen at the flying field.
Chuck later released more information, photos, and details. What at first was an object of curiosity quickly turned into an international investigation. Taurus fans—like "aircraft archeologists"—scoured RC magazine archives, contributing rare photos, specifications, and data as Kaz's RC career was put under the microscope.
A nucleus of five of us from diverse locations worldwide (including Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, and New Zealand) contributed hard facts, ideas, and educated guesses. These discussions were sometimes frank, but we shared the common goal of reconstructing the true history of the Taurus and the sequence of events that led to each of Kaz's designs.
The first Taurus auctioned (which started the forum thread) was the most famous of Kaz's two models and the inspiration for the Top Flite kit released in 1963. The Vintage Radio Control Society (VR/CS) purchased the aircraft for donation to the AMA museum in Muncie, Indiana.
A fellow VR/CS member and I purchased the second Taurus (which I had seen Kaz fly as a young teen). The Taurus 2 has since been restored to original flying condition and has been flown a handful of times at special events. In spite of the risks, we think at least one of Kaz's airplanes deserves to test its wings again as a living memorial to him. It still flies beautifully.
Legendary models remain great for a reason: they withstand the test of time. After nearly 50 years, the Taurus's excellent flying characteristics continue to make it a favorite. Even when it was the world's premier Pattern aircraft, Kaz noted it was so stable he had to develop a special kickup elevator with the reed radio to get it to spin. With its moderate and consistent airspeed throughout maneuvers, the Taurus remains so easy to fly that the average aerobatic pilot can concentrate on performing maneuvers — not on fighting the model through them.
At well more than 80 pages and 80,000-plus hits, the Ed Kazmirski’s Taurus thread on RCU’s Classic RC Pattern Flying forum is long but rewarding, with much solid historical documentation among opinions and theories. When exploring the Taurus's evolution, we developed a sense of what Kaz was trying to achieve and how this special airplane influenced aircraft design for years.
We think we have a good timeline for many highlights of Kaz's career, but several questions remain unanswered:
- What about a nearly finished variant discovered and preserved with the other two models for more than 40 years—when was it built?
- What happened to the pusher Taurus and other prototypes?
- Was Kaz truly satisfied with the final Taurus 2? If not, what would he have changed?
I hope aeromodelers who knew and flew with Kaz can add to, or correct, the reconstructed history to help complete the story.
Where to Find Plans and Kits
For those who want to fly something different while flying a piece of history, Jeff Petroski of Home and Hobby Solutions has a reasonable laser-cut kit of the Taurus. He also has kits for Kaz's Orion, Taurus 2, and the large-scale Simla designs in the works.
Author
Duane Wilson [email protected]
Sources
- Kazmirski RCU thread: www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_379/ft.htm
- Home and Hobby Solutions, Inc
2076 Mountain Laurel Rd. Lancaster, SC 29720 www.homeandhobbysolutions.net
- Vintage Radio Control Society
(607) 754-5279 (President Bob Noll) www.vintagersociety.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
