Western Wind
In 1973, Jef designed the Western Wind radio-controlled sailplane kit. It was five feet and four inches in span, used a two-channel radio control system, and sold for $12.95. He formed a company, Jef’s Friends (a limited partnership) funded by a number of acquaintances.
The low price of the kit was due to its being manufactured from one piece of custom-made, moisture-resistant corrugated cardboard. The quality of the cardboard was such that some Western Winds are still flying, nearly 30 years later (this note written in 2001).
The die-cut cardboard not only formed the kit, but the display and mailing box and instructions as well (along with a flight box that was partially die-cut into the back of the front panel). The model flew well, and was incredibly sturdy. A number of clubs, including the S.F. Vultures, flew an event called "cardboard combat" where the aim was to knock the other ships out of the air. Even in this rough-and-tumble play, the Western Winds were rarely damaged, the radio equipment well-protected by the cardboard (there’s a reason they ship electronics and optics in cardboard boxes).
The model was very easy to build, you punched out the pieces and glued them together quickly with a hot-glue gun. About 50 prototypes were hand-built and tested to insure good flying qualities, buildability, and durability. Some 15 subjects, ranging from beginners to experts, were used to test the instructions on prototype kits. Thus, when the product hit the market, few purchasers had any problems with it.
The printed and die-cut panels were delivered flat on palettes to Jef’s garage at 141 Lake Street, in Brisbane California. Brisbane is just south of San Francisco, on the bay side of the San Francisco peninsula. There, he and his friends folded the kits into flat, readily-shipped packages and sealed them with a hot glue gun. Douglas Wyatt, Brian Howard, Judy Painter, and Rich Powers were among the friends who helped out. The investors got back double their investment in 2 years, and about 2,500 Western Winds were sold. Many fliers got their start with the Western Wind, and Jef has often been asked to revive the design, which he worked out using the PDP-10 at the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he was a visiting scholar. It may have been the first computer-aided-design model airplane kit.
A number of model airplane magazines reviewed the Western Wind, and all but one liked it. That one, RCM, then under the aegis of the late Don Dewey, reviewed the kit by merely looking at it unbuilt and writing that they would never risk a radio in such a thing. They never flew it in, but reported having seen one beginner try to fly a Western Wind and having it blow back over his head -- a common occurrence with many model sailplanes in the hands of a newcomer to the sport and having nothing to do with the plane’s flying qualities.
Jef turned the review to his benefit with an advertisement that challenged RCM’s staff to try to break a radio (that Jef would supply) by crashing a Western Wind, even deliberately. They never took up the challenge, of course, and the unique ads helped sell a lot of planes. Sometimes, when we go out flying, people still come up to Jef and tell him how they learned to fly with a Western Wind.
|
