Walter, if you are making it electric there is no servo needed for throttle, the ESC plugs directly into the reciever, no timer needed either. When you get your 2.4 radio it will outline which recepticle the ESC plugs into. For this application what batteries are you planning, a 3S or 4S pack? some ESC the circuits wont like the 4S although with no servos, the current on the regulator power output would be minimal so its likely that you would be ok without a seperate BEC device....
as to programming the ESC, typically on an RC ( or your application) the exc will come programmed from the factory in a suitable mode