(Vanity) The end of an era, The Cox model engine

Wikipedia ^ | Wiki

[mowowie]

So i'm supposed to suprise my 7 yr old nephew next thursday and meet him for lunch at school for some kind of whatever thing... Anyways i thought i'd bring him a cool gift of one of those Cox .049 engine tethered race cars only to find that they they don't make them anymore? I looked it up on wiki since amazon seemed to be down. Production stopped around 4 years ago. Aparrently wiki is barred from FR so i can't post the thread but i had no idea of all the variants of this motor, wow......anyways.. JEEEEEZZZZZZ.....i grew up with those things, the planes, the helicopter, the cars, the stupid things i built with those engines attached..... Really makes me sad. There's still E-bay i guess and all but still. It seems that there is almost nothing left....

[intenseracer]

Oh man! I haven’t thought about those in forever! Had those silly things by the box in my youth. I remember the pee-wee which was .020, and then the larger tee-dee which was .049 to the even larger .090 good times!, my ears still ring when I think of one of those silly motors dialed in just right!

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

The old tether planes died because RC is so cheap now.

I meant to add that control-line flying is still alive and well and as popular as ever, even with the advent of R/C. So is free-flight.

The only real difference is that there are a lot more people participating in the hobby because the advancing technology has allowed everyone to pursue whatever aspect of model aviation that they find interesting.

[central_va]

the thing had 3 moving parts. Amazing.

[cuban leaf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19LumXm4z4s

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Put stick and tissue planes together and found out the dangers of “sniffing glue” by accident. Made sure I was in well vented room after getting up from the table and “WOW”.

They don't call it 'dope' for nothing, eh? (heh heh heh...)

[Little Ray]

Yep. Another wonderful thing from my childhood disappears.

[mowowie]

what i meant by “It seems that there is almost nothing left”
is it seems nothing left from my youth.
Here in MA i can’t even buy my nephew a cap gun..or even just caps for that matter let alone snakes or sparklers....

it’s amazing i’m still alive.

[pabianice]

The sound of the Cox .049 Glow-plug engine was the background music of my childhood! It was a great day when I discovered you could buy a spring-starter and thus save hundreds of lacerated index fingers. The smell of the castor-oil fuel burning, the high buzzing of the engine, the smell and feel of the grass you were knelling in in your brown corderoy pants, the taste of the smoke, the U-control lines waiting to pick-up the load as you whirled in a left-handed circle, trying not to crash your still tacky wet red-and-white painted "American Boy" balsa model, the sounds of the kids in the playground as a backdrop... THAT was a rare part of childhood that was bright and shiny and wonderful and all yours for an hour or so. Kind of like the TZ episode, "Walking Distance."

With the Cox .049, flying became my life's work and passion.

[mowowie]

your comment is cracking me up.
I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic or not.
LOL

[Slump Tester]

Was there ever a crummier .35 made than a McCoy? I had a 2 or 3 McCoys when I was a kid, and they were all junk. Hard to start, no power, etc..

My OS Stallion, Enya, and Super Tigres were all great though. I'll bet they'd even still run if I dug them out.

[mowowie]

From what i gathered from the wiki article was that Estes, The model rocket manufacturer is also out of business..........Damn.

[Charles Martel]

Yep, I remember the city park near home had a circular concrete runway with a round concrete pad in the center, where you stood spinning in a circle. The entire area was surrounded by hedges over 20 feet tall. Very cool.

Unfortunately, interest in control-line models waned in the '70s and '80s and that flight area was torn up and became part of a golf driving range.

BTW, that "American Boy" model is available at the link in #3 above. Looks like a total of $100 or so for the kit, engine and all the bits and pieces. Seems pretty inexpensive for a glimpse back into childhood.

[Joe Brower]

Looks like Estes is still in business.

My brother, friends and I build, broke, burned and rebuilt so many of their rockets, I think NORAD had a dish dedicated just to tracking our flights.

We were big on all the Cox cars and planes, too. Most of my allowance and lawn-mowing money went up in smoke on those.

[NCjim]

Fox super fuel - castor oil and nitro - I can still smell it!

I remember the first few times getting dizzy until I got used to turning around for a few minutes. :-)

[mowowie]

Cox-powered dragsters sounds like it was a fun idea. i wish i had gotten into it...

[mowowie]

thanks for the link. i’m def gonna buy something......prob for myself. lol

[Charles Martel]

Fox is still around - and still makes Super Fuel:

They still have "Duke's Fuel" on the website, too.

Alas, no more "Missile Mist".

[FatherofFive]

I still have a scar from prop starting one of those devil engines

Those were great times. Life before the Nanny State was so much fun for kids. I used money from my paper route to buy my first bike, Hardy Boy books, MAD magazine and my first gun. Among other things.

A paper route is a remarkable way to teach a child business principles, responsibility, independence, customer service and planning.

[19th LA Inf]

Had one of the things, never did get it to run.

I think the worst of the non-runners was the "GHQ". It must have been about a .60 displacement, die-cast, coil, battery & spark ignition. These apparently were even made during WW2. Shortly after the war, a friend unloaded one on me for $5. I never could get it running until, around 1948, Glo-plugs came out. I had the engine mounted on a bench with a new glo-plug and the tank filled with glow fuel. A couple of flips of the prop, the thing ran all-out for a couple of minutes and evidently wore itself out. That was the first and last engine I ever owned. I stuck to rubber power after that.

[Syntyr]

We have grown up and play with toys like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4RezmEpqM

RC SR-71 with jet engines... Okay I WISH I had enough money to play with these but they are cool nonetheless.