Company History
Jansson
Dick Jansson was a MECHANICAL engineer who taught himself about electronics in the 1950s as he became interested in RC boats and planes. He taught himself well. So well in fact that Ace Radio Control boasted of Jansson’s designs in its ads and emblazoned his name on radios like the Triple Treat. Sterling went even further.
When this large, established hobby company decided to enter the RC radio field, Sterling selected Jansson as its designer. From the outset, Sterling’s huge advertisements for their unique, innovative radio proudly proclaimed “Designed by Dick Jansson.” Sterling’s confidence in Jansson’s creation was so great that they offered an amazing five-year guaranty to replace the airborne unit if it failed for any reason—including a crash!
Many predicted this guaranty would either bankrupt the company or quietly disappear from future ads. It didn’t. In 1968, Sterling introduced an analog proportional radio, also designed by Jansson, and included the same the five year guaranty.
Dick Jansson also designed a thermal sensor for sailplanes marketed by Ace. One of his most incredible achievements in the field was published but never produced. As proportional control systems took hold in the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of now-obsolete reed radios sat in modelers homes all over the world. Most of these had been purchased for substantial sums of money.
The “Impossible Dream” chased by many was to convert these omnipresent reed sets to proportional. As they tried and failed, they began to look like alchemists trying to convert lead to gold. One man, however, succeeded. Dick Jansson. However, for myriad, complex reasons, this was never commercialized.
In his day job, Dick Jansson helped design space craft and satellites, especially concerning mechanical and thermal elements. Here is a partial sampling of the many materials which hopefully will one day be incorporated into a more complete history of Dick Jansson’s many contributions to RC history.
