Author: Bob Angel
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/10
Page Numbers: 134,135
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Jim Walker remembered

Bob Angell | [email protected]

JIM WALKER is probably a familiar name to most Old-Timers. He was a skilled aeromodeler, inventor, showman, and businessman. He is probably best remembered as the inventor of U-Control, and he held the patent on the basic control-line (CL) flying setup.

Jim was a highly motivated Type A personality who was continually dreaming up and perfecting new inventions. He traveled to demonstrate his products to modelers and the public at every opportunity.

American Junior Aircraft Company

Jim founded the American Junior Aircraft Company, which grew into a business that employed many research and testing people along with production types. He was selling 5¢ balsa gliders at a time when aviation was new and exciting.

Most young boys wanted to fly models, and Jim’s fit into the affordable price range. Sheer sales volume of the gliders and follow-on, low-priced offerings were enough to produce profits and expand American Junior. The AJ Hornet—a simple rubber-powered stick design—became extremely popular.

A catapult folding-wing version followed the conventional gliders. The small model was shot vertically from a stretched rubber band. With wings folded, it went higher than most other gliders. At the top of the climb, the spring-loaded wings unfolded and rotated into position for the glide back to earth. That was one of Jim’s 31 patents and, as did many of them, it fit into a category somewhere between a model and a toy.

The Ceiling Walker was another such item, bordering on being a toy and a rudimentary helicopter model. The Ceiling Walker was a simple stick with a rubber motor powering a propeller at each end. It would rise vertically until it skipped along a ceiling, and it could go higher if flown outdoors.

CL was thriving immediately after World War II, and that probably accounted for American Junior’s biggest sales and profits. I took up CL at that time, but I never got to meet the great Jim Walker or witness his flying demonstrations. However, I still felt like I knew him. Wherever he appeared, an eager crowd gathered to watch his performance and occasionally receive a handout of one of the items being demonstrated.

U-Reely, U-Control and the Sabre Dance

Jim’s U-Reely CL reel became quite useful where I lived, for a practical reason. When an unmuffled engine fired up, hordes of kids, large and small, came running from all directions. If flying wires were laid out on the ground, they were usually invisible to the excited group. Before you could shoo them aside, little feet would snag the wires, permanently kinking them and sometimes giving the model a good sideways yank.

With a U-Reely, you could start an engine, unreel a few feet of flying wires, launch, and carefully let out more line while helpers attempted crowd control. When the engine quit, you could keep the airplane flying by whipping it, while cranking the lines in without the model ever touching the ground. I still have a couple of U-Reelys. But since they are both a reel and a control handle, serious CL aerobatics fliers consider them too heavy and unwieldy for competition.

The Sabre Dance was one of Jim’s famous flying routines. He used his popular U-Control Fireball that was powered by a two-speed spark-ignition engine. A battery in Jim’s pocket powered an onboard solenoid switch, with current running through the control wires. He could switch between the high- and low-speed breaker points in flight. At low speed, he could hang the airplane on its prop, somewhat similar to today’s 3-D RC performances.

Jim’s Fireball was popular in my area. Most used fairly docile O&R .23 engines. Mounting-hole patterns weren’t interchangeable on many engines at the time, but we discovered that an Air-O-Mighty Midget .45 would fit into the smaller O&R mount. This produced an overpowered hot rod that was probably less maneuverable but highly desirable nonetheless.

“Ukie” models were typically overpowered for years, until George Aldrich and others demonstrated that a larger aircraft and smaller engine was a much better combination for graceful, realistic flight maneuvers.

Before RC became dominant, Jim invented a sound-controlled glider. A blast or two from various noisemakers could cause the model to turn. One of his test outings would have made a good plot for a TV situation comedy. Jim had several noisemakers with him, including horns, whistles, drums, and even a small .22 caliber pistol. Firing a gun to turn the glider got the neighbors’ attention, and they called the police.

An officer arrived and naturally wanted to know what was going on. Jim explained what he was doing, and that his pistol wasn’t too effective at turning the glider. Skipping to the closing scene, the cop was actively engrossed in the test, firing his louder service revolver to turn the model.

Sometime after Jim’s death in 1958, Frank Macy opened an American Junior store as a sort of tribute to Jim and as a small business, supplying some of the original models that would otherwise have disappeared. But Frank passed away in mid-2009, so that source is also gone.

An American Junior website remains, for those who would like to see more of Jim Walker’s history and models. There’s even a short movie clip of the Sabre Dance routine. See this column’s “Sources” for the website address.

Hearing loss is not necessarily age related; it is caused mostly by accumulated damage from high noise levels. Our Old-Timer unmuffled engines are among some of the worst offenders.

Most fliers have heard this, but many seem to think that it doesn’t apply to them or that their hearing is already damaged and can’t get worse. Wrong!

I’ve had enough cumulative exposure to have my hearing dulled slightly. But I’ve also seen enough firsthand evidence in others to be a believer.

I wear ear protection at the flying field and encourage others to do the same. I usually carry spare disposable earplugs in my flight box, to give to timers or others who will use them.

I used to use the visible earmuff type, to encourage others to use ear protection. But for unexplained reasons I noticed mild vertigo when wearing them, especially combined with the low-blood-pressure effect of rising from a squatting position. That’s not good when you’re preparing a model to take off.

The muffs were vented to atmospheric pressure, so that wasn’t causing the vertigo. But I did find that foam earplugs didn’t cause that problem. And earplugs are usually rated as high as or better than the muffs in suppressing noise.

When you bench-run an unmuffled engine it’s a good idea to use both plugs and muffs.

Typical RC trainers are drastically different from typical Old-Timers

They’re heavier, faster, and have quicker, twitchier control responses, and they have more controls to be mastered. But with a good instructor, a beginner with fair motor skills can learn to fly most RC trainers in a reasonable amount of time.

Still, most beginners can more quickly master the basics of takeoffs, simple flight, and landings with a docile Old-Timer. After all, they were designed to fly free, with no active guidance whatsoever.

This doesn’t mean that a skilled pilot who is destined to graduate to RC pylon racing or aerobatics will get there any faster. But it does mean that the average sport flier will get to the point where he or she can reliably fly unassisted in much less time and with fewer hours spent making repairs.

Brown Juniors

Brown Juniors were the most widely successful of the 1930s-era free-flight engines. They were among the easiest to start and most reliable-running power plants of their day. As a result, Brown Juniors were produced and sold in such numbers that they are available today on eBay, at swap meets, and through the Model Engine Collectors Association.

Although most available Browns are now used, they are usually found in good enough mechanical condition to fly in a couple of Society of Antique Modelers special events featuring only those engines. The sight and sound of a slow-revving Brown pulling a big old model gracefully into the air is, to many, the ultimate combination.

I recently answered some questions from a fellow who had just acquired his first Brown. One item might be useful to a few others.

The points didn’t quite open, and he was wondering if he should bend the point assembly for adjustment. Bending points, especially spring steel, can easily result in breakage. Fortunately there’s an obscure adjustment provision for the Brown’s points.

Behind the drive washer is an insulated eccentric sleeve, which can be rotated to adjust the fixed point for gap. And the exact gap isn’t critical on a Brown, because of its relatively slow rpm and a cam shape that alters the dwell very little with a change in gap.

Sources

  • Brown Jr. engine parts and repairs
  • Jack Van Dusen
  • (215) 672-0608

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.