John,
I agree with you about the conquest being the last and best and I appologize about leaving it out. The original subject was Tee Dee. I didn't intend to get into a contest here.

However, you are about half wet about the older engines. It must have been before your time? But 35 - 45 years later it makes little difference, does it? The name Cox didn't come into the picture until along about 1955. However they could have owned the company all along but they didn't go by that name? What in the world do you think the name Tee Dee or TD came from (it was Thimble Drone)? It certainly didn't mean Touch Down or Too Dirty, or Tom Dixon, Top Dog, or Timothy David Cox?

After the Babe Bee .049 came out, it was followed two or 3 years later by the Pee Wee .020 which looked like a small Babe Bee.

I had one of each of the .15 size engines. The .15's started coming out about 1960 for the reed valve version (It was called the Olympic .15, it looked like a giant Space Hopper and I had one in a class 'A' Spacer.) They wanted to be competitive in 'A' 2.5cc free flight. I know it ran circles around my K&B 15. But it was so tempermental, it wasn't worth having. The Tee Dee types, which ran real nice, didn't start to come out until a couple years later. The .09's came out about that time as well as the .010's, .020's, .049's, .074's, and .051's under the TD label. I had a Medalion 15 (cheaper version of the TD on a Nobler Junior along about 1969. The Medallions just didn't quite make it. They were the OS LA series of the market at that time. (A well intentioned idea that didn't work so well in real life.) I think they dropped the .15's along about 1970? During the late 60's and early 70's there were a lot of variations of the Babe Bee style engine. Some had more power, some had bigger tanks, and some had no tanks.

The space hopper (It cost about 4 times as much as a Babe Bee)had most of the competitive free flight market that the Atwood Hornet didn't have. But Cox completely captured the .049 sport market with the Babe Bee at $3.49 along about 1955. They did it with simpler manufacturing techniques and automation. They put everyone else out of business with it. It truely did run better than the OK brand and the others. Cox was the most innovative and progressive model company at that time.

I understand that their demize was due to a heavy investment into slot cars in which that market suddenly fell by the wayside in the 70's? Estes came along and cut the offerings to the bone in order to survive. I didn't keep up with them after that.

I may have missed a time frame here or there so anyone is welcome to jump into action.

Enjoy,

Jim