For Jim Thomerson:

There were variations of manufacture. I've witnessed some great spirited arguments in QC about this or that.... I'm going back far into my memory. I am not aware of all the mfg methods Roy used. You are likely to be correct. I can only speak for what I witnessed during my tenure. I was NOT on the design/engineering team so I can't speak to other mfg methods that may have been used that I wasn't aware of. I was friends with one of the engineers. Otherwise, it was restricted space and our badges were color coded. Most folks, myself included were not allowed in engineering regularly.

The pistons that were made during my tenure were a copper alloy base, which were then plated, which then went into heat-treat (on-site), which were then put into large vibrating tumblers and polished. Then the connecting rods were attached and pressed into place. I ran this machine for a part of my tour for both .049/51 and .020 engines. Then the piston assemblies went into stock. The cylinders were fabricated to finish tolerances in the honing room. It was temperature controlled. A machine then put the pistons and cylinders together and measured the leakage pneumatically, rejects were taken apart by hand and the cylinders and pistons returned to their hoppers by hand for mating with a different part under the hopes that the mfg differences would produce a winning set.

At this time, Cox was located off of Warner ave in Santa Ana. Don was the Customer service mgr, Kit was the customer service engine tech, and I split my time between the engine salvage department (which I started and setup), the new engine assembly line, customer service hot line, and various machines on the main floor that were misbehaving and needed some TLC.

During this time period (some more trivia) Cox hosted a quarter midget race. I can't recall if it was covered by Model aviation, or this was a write up in the companies journal......We "Entered" one of our foam Cessna's in the race as a deliberate PR stunt. On the nose end was a V-12 that I had fabricated from old scabbed engine parts. The prop was a 12x8 Wood. The exhaust stacks were pinched from the old string drag racer (car). It sure looked real. heavy as a rock, long...... Non-running obviously. There was a photo and a caption that stated "...A ringer was disqualified."

It was humorous how many folks thought it ran! It was so heavy, I had to attach the nose wheel from the Cessna to about the middle of the engine, otherwise the aircraft would fall on it's nose end. About the only thing it was good for was for looks. It sure got plenty that day!



Dave