Most history books attribute Jim Walker as the farther of Control Line Flying. However, according Charles Mackey's research, Oba St. Clair has documented and flown his four-line system as early as 1937. His system of controlling the model airplane was shown to Jim Walker in the later part of the 1930's. In the early 40's, Jim Walker developed and patented the basic two-wire control system to control a model airplane. He eventually perfected his idea and and established the innovative American-Junior Aircraft Co. which produced the A-J Fireball, which was the first C/L model, complete with control handle and flying lines. The later produced Firebaby, was the first Control Line RTF "Ready to Fly" model.
He would demonstrate his incredible flying ability by flying 3 models at a time, two of them in each hand and one on his head using a special beanie with a control handle attached to the top. With the development of the glow engine, the hobby of "Control Line" or "U-Control" was born. The 50's was know as the "Golden Age" of modeling. Innovative model designs such as the "Nobler" along with improve engine performance allowed the model to do aerobatic maneuvers. Speed records were broken as technology improved.
The Speed competition is based on building and flying an airplane as fast as it can possibly go, given the limitations of fuel, engine displacement and model design and line specifications. The designs are usually small, streamlined, with long, thin wings. Several classes are flown, based on engine displacement.
Racing events involve the flying of two or more airplanes together in the same circle. The idea, of course, is to complete a given number of laps before ones' opponents do so. Racing events usuall involves a minimum number of pit stops, where the planes are landed, refueled, restarted and relaunched by a second team member. Racing type competition takes many forms. Some require that a given amount of fuel is carried, and some require a mandatory number of fueling stops. The international event, F2C is known as called "Team Racing". In F2C, 2.5 cc size engine are used
