Cox .049 Airplane

I recently ran across a Cox control line airplane from my youth. Though a little battered, it's all there. Unfortunately, the horizontal stabilizer/elevator is broken in such a way that it's no longer air worthy. I showed it to my son and he's hooked; carries it everywhere. I tried to start it, but the glow head is dead.

I remember seeing Cox .049 planes at Toys R Us and WalMart, but I can't find one anywhere. Ebay, of course, has them and they're outrageously priced for some reason. Wiki says Cox basically went out of business, so apparently, NLA means ask crazy money.

Anyone have a Cox plane in your basement you'd sell? Or if you have a box of Cox engines, I'll buy those too. I want to try to make a radial engine.

I was given one when I was about 8. It went up, did maybe one loop and nose dived into oblivion. Pretty sure it was my dad piloting it at the time.

I remember one that Dad brought out when we were kids. I think it ran briefly. I don't recall it ever being flown because our lawn was full of trees. Can't imagine where it is now. Probably buried deep in many decades of accumulation in my parents' basement.

I had no idea these were valuable! I have an 049 Corsair from my youth, including the battery box and a can of fuel. No, you can't have it, but thanks for the memories.

I had a P-40 when I was a youngster. I cannot remember ever getting rid of it, but I'm sure its long gone.

I had the P-51 back in the mid-70s. My uncle, who was flying F-101 Voodoos at the time, decided he was going to show me how to fly it. He made it about 1/2 circuit before plowing it into the ground, breaking the engine mount. My parents had the wreckage up in their attic until just recently. I always wanted the P-40. I finally built and crashed several of the Guillows balsa control line P-40s, as well as a couple of Zeros.

(EDIT) Holy crap! Those balsa kits are 50 bucks, now!

I have an .010 I bought when I worked at a hobby shop around 1990. That's a tiny piston!

I’m looking at one I built as a kid right now which is an element in my makeshift aviation museum (IE: bedroom). The vertical stabilizer is unmistakably 172 but the rest of it looks like a 170 (convention gear and all) so we’ll just call it a 171

The business end of the plane packs a venerable COX 0.49 which is in good condition except that the fuel has turned to lacquer resulting in a fair amount of turning resistance.

If memory serves, I had two store bought COX 0.49 powered control line planes (Folker Wolf DR-1 and a North American P-51) and I built two other planes (a nondescript profile plane and a fabric covered tailless stunt plane). I also was given a very elaborate Mitchell B-25 kit (yes, it called for two COX 0.49’s) but I never got started on the build; Too intimidated to take on without dad’s help and well, you know, ”Cat’s in the Cradle”.

After an action packed day in the sky, I had my COX 0.49 powered control line Sand Rail ready for terrestrial adventure. That Big Jim was one dumb dude and suffered countless pedestrian casualties.

Thank you for the trip down memory lane Apis_Mellifera. Along with my 171, I still have my Sand Rail. I wouldn’t want to part with the plane’s engine as it’s on display but as soon as someone invents a fragrance that’s more intoxicating than two-stroke soaked 1970’s plastic, you can cannibalize the Sand Rail.

I wish I had all the money back I wasted on Cox .049 stuff. I never actually used it.

Ransom wrote: I have an .010 I bought when I worked at a hobby shop around 1990. That's a tiny piston!

Me Too!

.049s were absolute bastards to start.

When I was 10 or 11...I obsessed. OBSESSED. Over the Control Line P40 in the sears catalog. My father had an old Curtis something-or-other in a box in the garage I would look at for...oh...an hour or so every day. I envisioned flying it at the playground at school and how cool it would be.

I suppose just that is worth it all. I got it for Christmas. We got it started...3 or 4 times. Enough to auger it in thoroughly once. It never completed a whole circle.

That said...In college, I built a balsa RC 1/2A job that actually flew a few times. Self-taught landings are hard on egos, props and tree limbs.

Google led me to this: https://mecoa.biz/shopdisplayproducts.asp?catalogid=1692

BTW, anyone remember the COX .049 Nissan?

Appleseed wrote: BTW, anyone remember the COX .049 Nissan?

Yes. From, again, the Sears catalog.

ClemSparks wrote:

Ransom wrote: I have an .010 I bought when I worked at a hobby shop around 1990. That's a tiny piston!

Me Too!

I've got one disassembled in a zip-lock baggie and another NOS one still in the bubble back. I doubt I will ever do anything with them. These days, for small planes, electric is so much better.

In reply to JamesMcD:

Still, though...there's just something about owning the TINIEST internal combustion engine imaginable.

The plane I have is the classic PT-19. It flew really well. Being a trainer, it was made to disintegrate in a crash. I also found a Cox Star Wars X-Wing fighter under the stairs that neither my wife nor I remembered until the PT resurfaced. It's in really good shape probably because, as I recall, it didn't fly very well.

I considered building a balsa plane. My dad and I built a Piper Cub with a Cox Black Widow .049 35 years ago and I still remember it well. I also remember my sister immediately turning it into kindling upon the second flight. My dad glued it back together, but, much like the beloved gyroscope I bought at the Aero-Space Museum during a 6th grade field trip to Washington DC and then slammed in the car door, it was never the same once pieced back together and the bitter taste of disappointment looms to this day. Didn't expect those to be $50!

I wanted to go with Cox, but will settle for any Cox-like plane, but it's looking like gas control line ready-to-fly kits aren't around anymore.

I was into these as a kid, in fact my neighbor and I built a 3 year science fair experiment around them and won our county fair twice. We used the PT-19 control line trainer as a basis, and at one point had constructed a wind tunnel from a piece of pipe and a yard blower.

About 10 years ago they were super cheap, I bought about 12 of them at $15 each for a helicopter kit for a design challenge among engineers at work. When I tried to do the same thing a year ago, they had disappeared, and were going for big money on eBay.

Appleseed wrote: BTW, anyone remember the COX .049 Nissan?

Of course!

http://coxengines.ca/cox-.049-engine-babe-bee.html

also: http://brodak.com/

I had one of those string trainers too, I remember it having a white fuselage and a red wing. It was held together with rubber bands and I don't think it made more than three laps, if that many. It would make me dizzy as hell by the second lap.

I also had one of these:

If you're interested in a control line plane that'll actually fly well, SIG is still making the Deweybird. It's a kit but the wings, fuselage and tailfeathers are all made from sheet balsa so it's really simple to build. They list it at under $20 on their website. The .049 motors are still being made and you can pick one up for under $40.