nachman4859

My Feedback: (3)

I love American Engines I have quite a few Fox , Cox , and K & B Glow Engines in the 20, 45 ,40 and the 60 cc sizes They have Always been good and reliable. For higher power the jett engine cant be beat...And, I Also have a Few Desert Aircraft Gas engines, I love those too... For my bigger planes ... Since I buy both Japanese, Italian ,Chek, Russian and German Glo and Gas .. Engines. I can say US Engines are really good and do compare well...Desert Aircraft has the best warranty of all the companies , Ive ever had contact with.... And that says alot..

coriolan

From a Canadian perspective, if I was to fly exclusively "National" it would have to be:
Free flight(no radio made in Canada)
Glider only(no engine made in Canada)
Build out of pine wood (no balsa in Canada)
Glued with fish glue (some cod left in Newfoundland!)
Covered in Kraft paper(to help the forest industry)
For launch................Still thinking about this one[8D]
I did my bit to support US workers: K&B,Fox,Cox etc...

Mr Cox

Well, good news for you then. Cox are now Canadian and they are even making new parts; [link=http://coxengines.ca/]coxengines.ca[/link]

If I were to use local engines they would all be from Arne Hende, could be worse I guess....

bogbeagle

If it's any small consolation to you ... I've just bought my fourth set of Multiplex radio.

coriolan

Arne Hende engines are indeed very nice and everybody's dream! I buy engines which fit my need and care nothing about origine. If a product is good it can stand by itself without protectionist measures. US made engines were great in the 50's and 60's but most of the original manufacturers have died now and mechanical ingenuity has been replaced by "how cheap can we make it?". Know about Coxengines.ca and very happy about it since I am into 1/2A and smaller these days.
http://www.modelenginenews.org/prod/ah.html

blw

My Feedback: (3)

The majority has it. Somebody will wake up and unlock the thread tomorrow morning.

Duayne P

My Feedback: (15)

I have the same K&B 40 that I started with in 1980, and it still has a tone of power. I used to only buy K&B's untill they started making there own carbs and stoped using the Perry carbs. Mine still has the original perry carb. Works like a top. I also have two K&B 48 ducted fan motors, a lot more power then the OS 46 DF.

downunder

Unfortunately Arne died a couple of years ago but at least I've got one of his miniature Dooling 29's and I've seen his full size replica of the Dooling 61 where every part is an interchangeable replica of the original.

My American engines are a plethora of Cox ranging from the Tee Dee .020 up to a Tee Dee .15 Special Mk2 (all of them given to me), a K&B Torpedo 35, Series 70 K&B Torpedo 40, two of the Schneurle ported K&B .15's (Mk 2's with one NIB), Fox 35 (2), Fox 74 and a Dooling 29. However the last time I used any of these was back in the 70's. Currently the only American engines I'd consider are the Jett or Nelson PA but they're way out of my price range although I'm waiting for an Enya 61RE to arrive that I've bought from an American supplier so I guess you can say I'm supporting the American hobby business...if for no other reason than that Enya have run out of stock .

50+AirYears

FWIW, since 1948, I've collected 189 useable engines, including some CO2 and Jetex. Of those, 137 are American made. They are for FF, CL, and RC. 100 are non-throttle, 2 are Diesel, and 66 are Throttle equipped.
Of the American made engines:
14, including my 1st, an .099, are O. K. Cub.
18, including a .15 under the RJL label, are Cox.
2 are Wen-Macs.
8 are older K&B.
9 are McCoy.
1 is a Forster .29
59 are Fox, including an .049, a short shaft glow .59, and my largest engine, a .78 rc.
1 is an Atwood Triumph .49
2 are Veco .35s.

Over the years, I have either crashed, worn out, sold, given away, lost, or just scrapped something from almost all those mfgs, plus a few others, including a Coby .12, O. K. Cub CO2, Merco .29, HB .15, and an Arden .099
You might notice that the largest mfg represented in my mess is Fox. That's because when I was a pre-teen, I shed more than a bit of blood trying to start most of the other brands, until I got my first Stunt .35, followed by several Rocket .15s. No more sore bloody fingers. First RC engine was a 1961 Fox .19 with a rotary valve in the exhaust stack, no carb, which had an idle and throttle response nearly aas good as many of today's engines.

Then later, at Toledo trying to find parts for some of my engines, I got the following responses.
O. S. - Why would you want to repair? Just replace.
K&B - Parts for control line engines? Why? Nobody is dumb enough to fly CL anymore.
Enya - LOL. Who ever heard of repairing an engine.
Cox - What do you need? If it's in stock, you can supply it, except for a few older engines. Or we'll soon be restocking.
Fox - Well, if you don't have the parts list for the engine, and we can't be sure of the model over the phone, just send it to us. We'll try to identify it, and probably do have the parts in stock. We'll call you with the price, or if the cost is more than 1/2 the original price, we'll replace the engine with the nearest equivalent for the repair price. In fact, I had two of the old cross-scavanged Fox .25s that suffered failed crankshafts at the port. (14,500 +RPM with 9-4 props, 10% fuel). First time, they took my CC #, sent me the replacement shaft within a week. Second time, I told them that it was the second engine, they again took my CC #, sent me the crankshaft within a week, but the cost never showed up on my monthly statement.
And in 1966, while overseas with the USAF, I had a new Johnson .35C come apart on me during break-in with FAI fuel (80-20). After sending the engine in, found out they'd gone out of business. Less than a month later, got a box with the repaired engine, a new engine, and a hand written letter of apology from IIRC, Hi Johnson himself.

Overall, the American engines I've bought had nearly as much power as their overseas competition, sometimes more, sometimes less, often were available to me for less cost, were often easier to handle, lasted longer, and had better customer service.

In fact, I once had a plan built plane that showed a Veco .19 for power. I tried it with first an O. S. .30, then an FP .35, with quite a bit of frustration. In fact the .30 slightly outdid the .35. Then I bolted in a 1970s era Fox baffle .36. The plane not only flew better, I could hand launch by just holding it with nose up and engine at full throttle and letting go.

I don't worry about buying all-castor fuel for my Foxes (and older lapped iron/steel engines). I just buy Omega or similar oil blend fuel locally, I think it's something like 16-18% oil with about 50% castor, and add about 5 ot 6 ounces castor to it. I have some Fox engines I've been running for over 35 years, and have only worn one Fox out. And a number of these engines were flown on a big beach/salt flat, the Southern Mediterranean shore.

Kweasel

My Feedback: (29)

I remember my K&B 6550 being an excellent engine with its factory 2 needle carb as well as my K&B 40 with an Irvine carb. They put their best effort into boat racing and left the sport flier behind. The 82 and 100 aero were actually international quality engines but they were too late to market and too expensive.