> C/L Racing - When Did It Srart?

When did control line racing start?

Control line racing was made popular national sport in the U.S. in the late 1940's by the F.A.S.T. (First All Speed Team) club in Los Angeles California. It also seems that the members of this club invented the idea of control line racing.

The racing idea was tried out in Los Angeles in 1948, a few years after the end of WWII. The idea spread rapidly. I remember we had a team racing contest in Omaha, Nebraska in the spring of 1949. And. believe me, that was NOT the most forward-looking part of the US.

The link in big print on to the right "Roots of TR" is a copy of an article that appeared in MAN which to my knowledge is an account of the first contest that we today would call "Team Racing".

I went back to my old MAN's to get the date that the races were mentioned. It was in the column that was first called "West Coast Tips" and later renamed to "Report From The West" that MAN had at the time. MAN was published in New York City and, naturally, east coast and eastern US activity and modelers dominated the content. MAN management realized something important was happening in the west and started this column

For me that WAS the beginning. I never thought a lot about it, however going back over an old MAN to see when Reginald Denny Industries stopped advertising and Righter Manufacturing took over the distribution of Walter Righter's "Dennymite" engine, I found an American Junior Aircraft (Jim Walker) advertisement on the inside cover of the September, 1940 issue. This is the FIRST ad for control line. It was contemporaneous with his display of control line aircraft at the AMA National Championships.The clip from 'fireball history' below explains what happened at the nats. The ad suggests that "Racing An Entirely New Sport" is now possible.

Look at the scan of the ad here:

"Racing" Ad

Is there any connective material from this issue until the late 1948 FAST team races?.

Look at the text below. It seems that it refers to what we would simply call "speed" today. The word "racing" is at least used but that was not out of the ordinary; notice that the first FAST club races were called "team speed" events.

Below is text from the site that you can see at this link: Walker

..... in the summer of 1940 ... A man by the name of Jim Walker stunned the modeling world with the introduction of U-Control. In his usual dramatic manner, Jim disrupted the National Model Airplane meet in Chicago by flying his new Fireball (with U-Control) powered by a new Ohlsson .23 engine. Officials of the meet were anything but pleased with what they considered a rude disruption of the event. On the other hand, contestants and spectators quickly gathered around to watch this fantastic flight demonstration of a gas powered model airplane flying on long lines in a big circle. The crowd was awe struck, and Jim was delighted.

See the MAN account of what is likely the first race. 1948: ROOTS OF TR

Perhaps a SCAR contest this fall could be the FAST 57th anniversary

The first team race rules published

1949: Keith Conrad's Article - Text and plans for a Team Racer.

Drawing of the Chatrerbox

Chatterbox Photos