The original Contender was very commonly-powered with a .61-size engine. The plane is certainly large enough and strong enough to handle it. In the 1970's, the Contender was considered an excellent airplane for many fun-fly meets. It has an excellent speed range, and can fly quite slowly if it's not overweight, but has a good top speed, too.

My first Contender was built from one of the original production-run kits. I powered it with an O.S. Max .61 Goldhead. The current O.S. Max .65 LA would be similar in power, if not slightly more powerful. That would make a very nice performing airplane.

The current kit is engineered differently than the original, but is still very able to take a .61-size engine for power.