Cox: From U/C to R/C to Now!
You probably know the Cox name even if you've never owned a Cox product. For over 60 years, the Cox name was everywhere. On Babe Bee engines and the quarter-sized Tee Dee .010. On Thimble Drome props and fuel cans. On small C/L airplanes and fast tether cars, too. And everywhere the Cox name appeared, fun was right around the corner.
The company was founded by L.M. "Leroy" Cox in 1945. And from the start, the company's success was due as much to high product quality as his genius for offering innovative, practical products at entry-level prices. His standards were strict, and required the development of one-of-a-kind testing and manufacturing equipment. Legend has it that a piston/sleeve just 25 millionths of an inch out of tolerance was considered unacceptable.
One of his first products was the '47 Thimble Drome Champion, the car that started the tether car craze. And by 1953, Cox had also introduced: the first glow-powered racer priced under $100 ($19.95); developed and marketed Thimble Drome fuel; introduced the Space Bug, the company's first U/C engine (complete with a Cox-designed glow coil) and marketed their 10-ounce, Thimble Drome TD-1 — its first U/C airplane. Cox continued to innovate in the years that followed, moving into slot cars, rockets free-flight models, boats and more. In the 1970's, Cox entered the R/C era with the release of the glow-powered, 1-channel Interceptor and later, by patenting the design for an electric R/C airplane in 1978. By the time the 1979-80 issue of the Tower Hobbies® Catalog was released, the Cox line also included four ready-to-fly R/C airplanes: the glow-powered Cub Trainer and Cessna Centurion and both glow- and electric-powered versions of the Sportavia.
Hobbico purchased Cox in 2010, through its acquisition of Estes® Rockets. Hobbico's goal for the brand is simple: to bring back the fun and excitement that the Cox name and products have always inspired. And the feeling is that the best way to do that is to do things the way L.M. would have done them.
The Cox name has always meant innovation and value, and fun as well as affordability — and the Cox Sky Ranger® and Extra 300 are no exception. Instead of glow power, they offer the performance of clean, quiet electric power. In place of balsa and building, there's a prebuilt airframe of tough, bendable FlightFlex™ foam. And the proportional radios that were state-of-the-art have been replaced, too, by today's best in radio technology: interference-free 2.4GHz systems.
You'll find both on the pages that follow — and see more of Cox in the future. Enjoy!
For more on the Cox company, history and products, visit:
http://mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/cox_frameset.htm 
