Perusing my1962 American Modeler Annual (well, what else would I be doing?) there is an article about Roy Cox and his small engine empire. The article reports that Cox was turning out 4,650 engines PER DAY during the peak Sept through December period, and that HALF of those went into RTF plastic airplanes. That's about 2,300 RTFs per DAY being cranked out. Assuming a 5-day work week that results in about 140,000 RTF models per peak season. The article does not say anything about production rates the rest of the year, but astute businessman (and non-modeler) Cox presumably ran production all year. Cox invested heavily in modern tooling and reduced the manhours to 12 minutes per motor. Cox was also a pioneer in injection plastic molding. So, it seems reasonable to assume Cox was producing at least 200,000 RTFs per year in the heyday of these planes, every one an unflyable piece of junk if I recall right. And lots of others were producing 1/2A RTFs too. Pactra/Jim Walker has a big ad for the Firebaby, and OK-Herkimer had its own line. How do these numbers compare to today's CL ARFs?

Hi Mike,

My guess is that Your Cox #s are spot on. IMHO they set modeling back decades. Not only were their planes terrible but "IF" you got the eng. started, and "IF" you could get the turkey in the air, then the strrrrrretchy lines would make the already marginal plane uncontrollable! They probably had less than a 1/100th of 1% success rate!

Not only did Cox put out a gazillion CL ARFs but Jim Walkers company put out over 230 MILLION models from the 1940s to the early 1960s. He was a huge fan of ARFs and wisely felt that they were the only way to bring modeling to the masses. It is ironic that the same BOM fanatics of today still hold the trophy named after him as the holy grail of CLPA. I'll bet this irony makes Jim's spirit sad.

Here is a link to the Jim Walker site:   

http://www.americanjuniorclassics.com/Jim%20Walker/jimwalkerindex.htm

BTW: thanks again for all your help with the Score Take-apart. :-)

Regards, 

I disagree, I taught my kids to fly with a Cox PT-19.  Crash, replace the rubber bands and go again.  The one Cox airplane that really worked!

   My history goes back into the Fire Baby era so I didn't have to learn to fly on the plastics ready to fly stuff, but as a rabid modeler, every christmas I and my sons would tour the parks, school yards and store parking lots looking for and helping new potential modelers to "get that first successful flight".  I NEVER saw a Cox brand of plastic ready to fly model that would not fly ----at least some what reaslistically.  I did see many of the Wen ?Mac types that wouldn't though. Of all the Cox plastics, the PT-19 was (is) the best in my opinion.
  My sons and I still often drive around on Christmas day, and the following weekend  trying to find and if necessary, help some new modelers.

  Bigiron
  Ps added by edit--  We ALWAYS carried extra glow plugs,  props and fuel along with other support stuff and NEVER charged for a replacement plug or prop.
  I don't know if we ever got any of the youngsters and their dads into modeling, but personally, it was (is) a wonderful experience .

My first successful C/L flight was on a Cox F-15.  I for one am glad Cox existed.  I still think they had some cool stuff......

Wen Mac P-63, ran and flew well with Cox fuel and a Cox 6x3 gray. Flew it all through grade school until it rotted the fuel tank out.
 PT-19, flew it from age 6 until, well, it still is flyable!
Chris...

When i was a kid i would be down at the school yard with one of my little brothers most of the summer getting him to launch my fast combats (circa 1973)
and every now and then some kid and dad would show up with a COX plastic of some type and ask for help and the only one i couldn't get to fly right was the little pitts special.
I taught severall kids to fly on them especially the PT-19's they were definitelly the best. The testers stuff was definitelly junk in my opinion.
I dont agree that COX was the downfall of anything I think just the oposite. The Hobby shop i worked in when i was a kid (jr. high age)sold a lot of those things and they helped keep the doors open for the rest of us to buy what we needed. and some of those same customers would come back and get a goldberg kit to put the engine on next. after the cox wore out.
the biggest problem was most people tried to teach themselves with no help and frankly most people would crash anything doing it that way. at least the COX's bounced and were usually repairable with rubber bands.
I'd say COX was The best thing That happened to modelling in generall at that time.
Still to this Day if people ask what controlline is i tell them its kind of like the old COX airplanes but bigger and better. they usually know what i am talking about.
we had a tether car ford lemans f-40 and a dune buggy also
Dave jr.

I started my CL life with a Wenmac King Cobra complete with firing Rockets via a 3rd line, It arrived courtesy of my father second hand as a gummed up mess, We took it all to bits and (No knowing what we were doing) cleaned it and put it all back together, must have spent about 2 weeks in the garage trying to get it started, eventually it was allowed into the kitchen as my mom decided it would never start. About a week later it started up, The cat which was asleep under the kitchen table was not seen for several days. I remember it went surprisingly well. I was so impressed I progressed??? onto a Keil Kraft Hurricane which again was the cause of many a happy hour in the school yard. Then I discovered balsa wood and a whole new world opened up, but I'll always credit the King Cobra with teaching me how to at least understand what did what and why.

I seem to remember a certain Wenamack powered Dauntless dive bomber that was actually supose to drop a bomb; I lusted over this airplane like a dog in heat. After many, many yards mowed it was mine. Never got it in the air!!! A moderatly fast taxie was the best I could do. Thank goodness I discovered a Yak-9 with a Mcoy Red Head .35 in 1963. God bless Stirling.

It could be your lucky day.  There is one for sale on Ebay. Bomb is missing though. 
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110474013663&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

It says it a cox but surely they would not have made 2.....
Go on you know you want to.......

TTFN
John.

I had a WenMac Bonanza and a Cox P40, neither of which I could learn to fly on before they were destroyed. The Cox .049 from the P40 did survive, however, and we learned to fly on a cobbled homemade ship without balsa, made from delaminated sheets from soaked orange crates. From there we went to "wings", e.g. Little Omega, and finally had the luxury of a Scientific Stuntmaster. (The "wings" flew better..)

BTW, the Cox P40 was larger and better than the newer version. Don't know where Cox got the idea you could make wicked little 1/2A plastic models better by making them smaller and more wicked..

L.

"I'm not dumb, I just have a command of thoroughly useless information." -Calvin and Hobbes