CoosBayLumber

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OK Cub History


Was there ever a OK Cub glow engine, made by Herkimer, that was made with radio control in mind?

I don't find any advertised in my old magazines. All I can remember is they were hard starting.

Wm.

burtcs

CBL:

I'ver never seen one. They seem to be for CL or FF.

regards - Steve B.

Jim Messer

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All of the old O.K. cubs that I remember were .049 displacement and were used as cheap engines for plastic U-control models. Also there were O.K. .60 engines used for free flight. None of them were exceptional engines, but they were inexpensive, so a lot of them were sold. I never knew of them making one for R/C, and I have been in R/C since the 50's.

CoosBayLumber

My Feedback: (1)

Jim...

Your memory matches mine.

Had been told of the OK radio glow engines about one week ago. Turns out they were actually ignition engines made to run in more modern events (S.A.M.?) via variable timing and carburetors. The Herkimer Co. never built them such. What Herkimer referred to as "R/C" was actually a standard motor running full speed. Any of them.

Thus wasn't any R/C Cubs until recently.


Wm.

jcw111

No Herkimer did not make an RC engine as such in the 049 size OK 049 engines were made for CL and FF. I was building and flying RC in the early 50's in the DeBolt Live Wire trainer. The 049. would fly it but was marginal. Got lots of flights with them but OK started offering the 014 engine and flying the Live Wire was much better. They would wear out quite fast and had to be replaced. I had two or three worn out ones in my flight box and when they quit running well would swap pistons from the old ones till I got a bit more compression and flew a while longer before buying a new one. They were not to difficult to start if you primed them properly. Boy oh Boy those were the fun days. If you got a succesful flight or two in a days outing it was fantastic. Still flying RC after 55 years and love every minuite of it.

Jim Whitney

jcw111

Sorry guys. OK came out with a .14 engine not a .014---Senior moment!!!

Jim Whitney

mapnet

OK also made CUBS in .074,.099 glow and .049,.075 Diesel. None were R/C.

Maurice

Hueydriver

Very slightly off the subject.....I have several new Cub 049As but haven't pulled them out of deep storage. Do they use a normal short plug? Other than the tank and beam mounting lugs, is the A different from the B?

Kirk

CoosBayLumber

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Jim....

My memoryof Cub engines was that you began sorting out the problems of starting them, at home. Then quickly went to flying site and hoped it would start up again. Then you got that one or two flights in.

Most of my worst flying was from a field near to the freeway. It was relatively calm, but did not know then about what a C.B. radio could do.


Wm.

Jim Messer

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Mapnet is right about the other size O.K. Cub engines. When the .049's arrived on the scene they were first used in 1/2A free flight, but were quickly replaced the the Cox Tee-Dee .049 that out-ran them - there was just no comparison. Thus, the production of those O.K. engines were relegated to the small u-control's where performance didn't matter. All the engine had to do is to fly the airplane, and if I remember correctly, they were the first to offer a spring recoil starter.

I flew the big .60 O.K. engine in free flight back in the 40's, but soon learned that they were no match to the Ohlsson .60, and a little later on, the Madewell .49, which on glow could out-perform any .60 on ignition.

Only those of us that were there - and done that - can truly appreciate how far this hobby has progressed since the AMA was founded in 1936.

jcw111

Jim

I must correct an error re the cub engines that flew my Live Wire Trainer. We originally flew it with the Cub .09. Then the .14 came out and everything improved and it flew quite well for the those early days. I really did not have that many problems starting them. As I mentioned in my post they had to be sloppy primed to get them going. The early 50's did not have much interference as I recall. I well remember the ham guys with the 53 hz rigs that flew with us. The Tx antenna looked like a clothes line when set up. One of my buddies who flew with me was Chet Lanzo. Thats a story in itself. I have some old movies of this early flying and it was something to behold.

We really have it made today !!

Jim Whitney

michpittsman

My Feedback: (11)

Herkimer also made an .074 and an .099 with no tanks. I had an OK .024; it was a reed valve I believe, and didn't start any easier than the bigger ones. My first R/C was a TF Schoolmaster (love Ken Willard's airplanes) that would make powered landings with the .074 and mild fuel. The .099 flew it nicely. (1963-escapements, of course, and super-regen radios on 27 band.) JIM

mapnet

I had a CUB.09 in a1957 Live Wire Trainer ,regen 2 tube RX,compound escapement.
Not enough power to fly well. Changed to a FOX 15 with a Rotovalve exhaust throttle and "Quick Blip"motor control via escapement.
Solved the problem.

Maurice

GWILLIE

Herkimer has a web site, just google it up with Herkimer or OK Engines. Herkimer sold engines as OK engines. OK originally made igintion engines in .29, .49, .60 and a 1.2 twin. In 1949 they introduced the OK Cub, the first .049 in the USA. (K&B made the .020 and Anderson an .045, and Larson in Canada a low production .049). There followed an OK .074, an .099, an .039, a .14, a .19, a .29, a .35, an .024, and finally an .060. They also had an .049 diesel, an .075 diesel, and a CO2 engine. There were variatins in a lot of these, especailly the .049s.

In the 50s, Comet used their engines in their RTF plastic control line planes. Coment switched to Fox .07s in the early 60s, then after some kind of a dispute with Fox, went back to using OK .060s.

There were marine versions of the OKs made with flywheels and pull cord starters.

But OK they never got around to an RC engine!

LesUyeda

Stop it you guys. The nostalgia is bringing a tear to my eye!!!!

Les

pd1

Just in case somebody wanted to see some OK adds.