Mine was the P-40 as well. That would've been probably in 1968 or 1969 I'd guess. My P-40 (probably really my second one as it wasn't the greatest trainer) still exists and is at my parents' house in Santa Fe, complete with the mod I made to keep the firewall from moving around inside the fuselage. I saw it when I visited last August but didn't want to try and figure out how to get it back here on the plane. It was enough to manage the Mountain Models EZ Scout I had with me (in a golf club case).

I built some Goldberg and at least a couple of Veco control line kits up through high school (and in parallel with my first go at model rocketry). I just barely got started in RC with a single-channel Ace pulse system in the aforementioned Schoolboy (with the Babe Bee on the nose because no way a Tee Dee .010 would fly it in Santa Fe) shortly before I went away to college in the fall of 1974. My multi-channel R/C start had to wait until after college and starting at Boeing in 1979.

Ahh, the sweet sound of a Cox .049 Babe Bee running at full pitch - one of my favorite sounds of childhood. I, too, had a Cox control line model, but I no longer remember whether it was the P-51 or P-40. Remember how those spring driven props would bite your fingers?

Alas, the .049 is a relic of the past - I understand that everything that is out there is built up from the rapidly diminishing stock of spare parts and scrounged, dismantled motors. Estes-Cox even stopped making the glow plugs several years ago.

Greg

I got my start in control line planes with the Testors P-51, ME-109, Zero, then later the Fokker D.VII, and Sopwith Camel. They were cheaper than the Cox planes and available all over the place. I seem to recall getting them for about 9 bucks in the early 70s - they came in the blister packages, not boxes. The P-51 had a chrome finish that would wear off from the fuel in a few weeks revealing the yellow plastic underneath. Some of these were underpowered: I had a P-51 that flew tail heavy, until I wrecked an ME-109 and switched the engine into the P-51. It flew great after that. We used to fly these on the street sometimes and cars would wait to go by (can you imagine trying that today??). Mostly we went to the schoolyard and parking lots.

We graduated to Cox planes; a friend had the Stuka, which I thought was the coolest plane, and I had a PT-19. My favorite Cox plane was the Super Chipmunk with the foam airfoil wing. A couple of us had those and you could do pretty good loops and inverted flight with them.

My dad of course built balsa control line planes when he was a kid so he was happy to buy these for me, but he was happier to see me working on a Sterling or Guillows stick and tissue kit.

Also loved the Cox cars: the pusher prop Shrike, the dune buggy. The Shrike went around in a circle on a line which you nailed into the ground. Also had a funny car drag racer that went down a line (also nailed in) until a certain point that would cut the engine and pop a parachute. Can't remember the exact mechanism that did that.

Those were the days when any store that sold toys had Testors and Cox gas powered stuff and you could walk into a card store and buy an Estes Starlight or V-2!

Drew

Well, it would be a shame and great lose if COX was no more.

However electric seems the way to go. The modern motors combined with lithium batteries perform fantastic on small to mid range planes and helicopters. And I can fly those behind the house.

__________________
Leo

My rocket fleet and more @ Leo's Leisure Site and on YouTube - My latest project: ALTDuino

I lived in a cul-de-sac that was a perfect radius for flying control line planes. Most everybody parked in their carport, so we didn't have to worry about nicking someone's car door.

__________________
Shrox

Master of the Dark Art of Model Rocketry

www.shrox.com

I think these motors have (virtually) replaced the Cox versions in CL and RC:

NORVEL

I seem to recall them getting started about 20 years ago (or thereabouts...).

__________________
Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
BARCLONE Blogsite -- http://barclone.wordpress.com
BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

That's extremely cool, Craig - I didn't think anyone was making the .049 since Cox stopped. Great find!

Greg

Norvel 1/2A (.049, .061, etc) engines are also now extinct.

However, Brodak still makes some.
http://www.brodak.com/shop.php?CategoryID=206

AP also makes an .061
http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/211280.asp

__________________
https://masa-rocketry.org/

If you fly control line in the UK, do you have to rotate in the opposite direction? Or is that a Southern Hemisphere thing?


Bill

I am back in the States now, and I never even got to drive, let alone fly a C/L in the UK.

__________________
Shrox

Master of the Dark Art of Model Rocketry

www.shrox.com