Written & Submitted by JZ (10/2002); Transcribed & Edited by SS (10/2002), updated by JS (08/2008), Reformatted by JS (02/2010)
Career
- 1944-1959: Flew U-Control when he saw his first Radio Control model
- 1960: Joined the Beginners in Radio Drone (B.I.R.D.) chartered club; taught new club members how to fly
- Started flying competition and achieve expert class in a little over a year; flew in places such as Hawaii and Mexico
- 1967-1971: Served as Vice President of B.I.R.D. for two years, then served as President for the following two years
- Created a flying field at Carson, California
- Demonstrated flying and helped with flying projects at local schools
- 1974: Started making propellers with the encouragement of Irwin Ohlsson
- First propeller was called the Zinger; led to the development of the company J&Z Products, Inc.
- c. 2002: J&Z Products, Inc. had a 10,000-square-foot building in Harbor City, California, making various spinners, glow plugs, canopy glue, and producing approximately 3,000 propellers a day. The company covers 90% of the world market’s propellers.
- J&Z has sponsored AMA show teams for many years.
I was born in Rutland, Vermont, on May 4, 1935. I guess you could say that I started making model airplanes in 1944. I was very moved by the airplanes that were in the movies at that time. One particular airplane was a German Stuka. It had wings like a bird. The cost at that time was about 15 cents. I was able to purchase one with the help of my parents. It was a small rubber band model consisting of small balsa sticks, silk span covering, and a tube of glue. I was never able to fly it because I ruined the covering, so I played with it as it was and finally hung it up in my room.
We moved to Massachusetts in 1945. The first thing I did in the new house was clear a little area in the cellar to build my models. In the preceding years, I made many U-Control models with Arden, Brown Jr., Olhsson & Rice, and McCoy engines. In the early years, my AMA number was 267. Later, my lifetime membership number became L76.
I flew U-Control up until 1959. One day I was driving, noticed an airplane in the air, and traced it to a vacant lot. The man was flying an airplane with a remote control. I was so fascinated that I went to the hobby shop he recommended and purchased a 10-channel Orbit radio. It had tubes and two batteries with Bonner servos.
In 1960, I joined a chartered club name the B.I.R.D. (Beginners in Radio Drone.) The club had a lot of active members and some good flyers. By then, I had become a fairly good pilot and was elected to instruct new members on how to fly. I started to fly competition and found that I was good at Pattern and Scale flying. In a little over a year, I reached expert class. I was flying competition all over, including Hawaii and Acapulco, Mexico.
In 1967, I was elected Vice President of the B.I.R.D’s club and served for two years. After my term was up, I was elected President and served a little over two years. The activity increased so much that we had flyers from cities all around come to join. We were the largest AMA club with a total of 352 AMA members. I spent lots of my time working with the city of Carson, California, putting in a flying field. I spent time with local schools putting on demonstrations and helping with flying projects.
During my contest years, I was involved with reshaping propellers for maximum performance for my Pattern airplane. A well-known friend of mine (Irwin Ohlsson, AMA #4, designer and manufacture of the Ohlsson & Rice engine) said I should make propellers and sell them to the flyers. Therefore, in 1974, I asked a friend of mine if he would be interested in helping me with designing a machine for small propellers. He said yes.
The first machine was all hand-operated and was capable of making about 100 propellers a day with a lot of handwork. I took the propellers to a local contest and gave them to the flyers; it was an instance success. I named the propeller Zinger. The name of the company is J&Z Products, Inc., and we have a 10,000 square-foot building in Harbor City, California. On an average day, we produce approximate 3,000 propellers. We cover approximately 90% of the world market in propellers. We have been we sponsoring the AMA show team for many years.
Over the years, we increased our products line to making the following:
- Laminated propellers for the race fan
- Custom aluminum spinners from 3-inches to 7-inches
- Three- and four-bladed propellers
- Glow plugs
- Canopy glue (Z R/Z 56)
- Our latest is a Semi tar-tip propeller (to help with the noise problem)
In 1957, I acquired my private pilot license. I later received my commercial rating, and then twin-engine instrument rating. The company has its own aircraft, a Bonanza (B36 turbo charge,) that is used to go to many of the contests in the area. (signed) Joe Zingali October 2002
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