franzcars

found this in my Grandpas basement and we think its from the 70's-80's

madmorgan

My Feedback: (2)

i bet finless bob over on helifreaks would

franzcars

thx, posted it there

charlie111

've seen that type of Heli.It uses the downdraft for that 0.49 to turn the rotor blades?

UH34D

My Feedback: (3)

That is a COX whirlybird. Made in the 60's and early 70's. I don't know how that free flight thing worked out. Maybe someone who owned one will chime in.
[8D]Jim

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Yup, Cox made that, it flew up and autorotated down. Eh sorta

charlie111

Yes they were popular in the 80s they use the downdraft of the gas engine to turn the Rotor Blade counter weights at end provide some upward collective pressure.They did'nt work well unles conditions were perfect hand launched!

a70eliminator

Amazing it's still in one piece! Bet there's not too many specimens left of that vintage.

MajorTomski

Actuall the TORQUE from the 049 rotated the main blades in the opposite direction from the rotation of the small prop. Both the engine and the rotor did the lifting.

The oddest feature of these is that you had to start them, then HOLD IT IN YOUR HANDS untill the main rotor got itself spun up to speed, this gave both positive lift and positive gyroscopic stability.

When the engine quit the blades would change pitch to a negative angle and it would autorotate to the ground.

For its day it was a pretty impressive piece of "different" form of free flight flying. Remember when these came out, the WORLDS RECORD for RC helicopter flight was 35 SECONDS! So by that standard these were fairly successfull.

jackeylewis

well, it is so cool, i have no idea about that, maybe you can ask these RC helis collectors, perhaps they will have the same model.

Solman

I wish I can remember what size motor it had, but it wasn't a .049. It was the next size smaller. My brother had one when we were kids. We lived behind a school with a huge field. We would take off in one corner depending on wind direction and launch it. I think it would go 3-400 feet before running out of gas and then auto rotate down. My brother and myself flew a lot of Cox airplanes growing up.

a70eliminator

I used to have a .019 little tiny red anodized tank, could this have been what your thinking of?
Anyhow yea as a kid growing up flew control line stuntmasters and it really helped me with my first RC flight.

Solman

.019 sounds right. Thx, I was trying to look up engine sizes and couldn't find a list.

charlie111

Yes I ounce owned one.They are Free Flight Models.They used the 0.49 prop airflow to turn the Blades.Depending on the wind They would Crash or Fly off Never to be seen again? I have a Friend that lost one.Good thing they were cheap to Buy (No Controls)

Barrymartin

yup these are the very old whirlybird and Cox made it, these are very popular in 70s and early 80s and  are the rarer ones, I have seen this model after a long time.

hellbringer120

Wow. I had one of these when i was a kid. Flew it once and never saw it again. Hell maybe thats mine give it back.