Cox Electric Control line Aeroplanes

I did indeed have one of these. It was one of the neatest toys I owned. For one, it worked and it worked quite well. Having enough money for just fuel back then for me was problematic. This took all that out of the picture and mine worked excellent. I believe mine was a Piper or Cessna. I do remember it had a trike gear. You didn't need a second person to go fly. The plane was turned on by moving the handle and the bellcrank turned on the switch. You placed the plane on a lantern battery. The plane had two holes in which the springs from the battery contacted the metal strips within the plane charging the plane's battery. They were plentiful back then due to most households having them for flashlights. The plane's flytime was a bit short however and battery life wasn't long. Even my father was quite shocked at how well the plane flew. I wasn't really flying any maneuvers back then so I can't comment on that end but I don't think anything outside of a large loop was possible. For me, it was a toy that worked as promised and that alone was a feat back then. This was a time when toy manufacturers were just completely in competition with each other. I think it was Mattel who just came out with the most famous toy of all times, Mattel electronic football which dominated any toy I ever recalled. While I was turning in circles, the majority was glued to this new founded hand held red digital beeping screen. Ken