K&B Manufacturing Promotional Video of their Downey, California Model Engine Factory 1980s 

What a time that was....ahh to be young. Thanks for the vid !

What a great video, the era of the high speed plastic bearing cage , and young ladies shy at the thought of a camera in the face.( Never getting back to that , soak it up kids )

I was born and raised in Southern California, most all of the model airplane engine manufacturers were making some engines before WW2, but they all seem to have worked at the aircraft plants or other wartime manufacturing during that time. After the war they developed new engines with the technology learned during the war and over the years some were eliminated or moved on to other things. O&R lasted until the 60's, Fox moved to Arkansas, K&B absorbed the Veco line of engines and lasted until the 2000's. MECOA has bought the rights and hopefully most all the tooling for a great number of engines that are no longer made here and even some that were good engines made overseas, My engines were either Cox, K&B or Enya with a few OS engines thrown in for good measure. If you were a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's you more than likely had a Cox airplane and maybe a Testors or Wen-mac to start with. After school we would gather at an empty lot or school yard and fly, neighbors would often come watch, now I think if you fired up a Cox .049 the cops would be called, you can no longer go to the local park or school yard to fly, and the local empty lot would be posted. I know that model planes kept me out of trouble and led to a career in aviation, wonder where kids are going to find the desire to fly anymore.

What a treat! My first R/C engine was a K&B .40, thanks for putting this up.

An American icon, sadly, no more. Like much of the manufacturing industry.....

I have a K&B 40 that was hand fitted for competition at the factory with handwritten break in notes, I’ve never had the heart to run it.

My first R/C engine was a K&B 40 with the Perry carb with the exhaust baffle controlled by the throttle. It was easy starting and a smooth runner.

Everyone's first engine was a K&B .40!

Beautiful, and made in América ...

I'm delighted that you published this priceless (well, at least I think so) video, which does a great job following the manufacture of miniature engines. The "amateur" level of production (video, not engines) makes it even more precious, like finding old pictures made by your long-grown kids. Hope you find more such gems to put on YT!

I was really glad to find out about this video. I think the end of K&B had to be their Sportster engines. I had two and ran the heck out of them but in a world where ball bearings cost a dollar or two and plain bearing engines throw oil everywhere, going for the bottom of the price market was a mistake.

Ran lots of the K&B 61 with the Perry Carburetor. Once set up they run for ever.

I love this video! I still have a Series 91 K&B .65, the type used in foam drones (made by Carls Goldberg) for military anti-aircraft shooting training.

First RC airplane. Das Ugly Stick with the K&B .40, home assembled ACE radio system, later upgraded to an Airtronics.

I have a KB 45 and it's very strong......Had it on a Nobler line model that would pull me off my feet. I throttled it back a little to make it easier to fly that plane.

I fondly recall K&B!!! I used to put in some of my R/C Planes. Nobody had better customer service and their engines were great! Their power was NOT at the top end, so if you had a .40 size plane, I would use a 60 engine. They would go and go..... Too bad...

i have a .61 R/C and a 3.5CC outboard that are barely broke in with less than an hour runtime.

Old duck was gentle with that engine.

As a kid in the 70's I'd fly .049 line controlled planes that I would build and fly at parks and school yards. We would tie 6' of toilet paper off the tail and do dog fights. I still have a couple of scars on my fingers from the back kicks from the spring start. Good old days.

A gem of a video😬😬😬😬👍👍

I have my K&B hat on while watching this! Yee-yee!

Last K&B I bought was the Screamin 48. Looked cool, still NIB!

I have maybe 5 airplanes or so with old K&B engines. A few I believe Green head race motors. A fly by wire plane from about 1934 and the others are 50s or pre 50s. All with motors and spare motors and parts. That’s if K&B was around back then. I haven’t looked at them for 25yrs or so. The planes are big silver bomber looking military planes and have tiny manikin drivers. You just hold the handle with two wires coming out of it which hooks through the left wing and you tilt the handle to go up or down all in a large circle. I always wondered about selling them but keep putting it off. They are wood with some sort of paper skin not flying worthy anymore due to age.

👍👍🙌🙌🙏🤲😊😊 thank you

Nice video ! I will love to see the OS and YS engine

Nylon is definitely a type of plastic.

I've got a New in Box K&B series 61 .29 racing engine, k&b 5.8, tons of 6.5 motors , 3.5 outboards, McCoy Black case , Dooling, Johnson,Supertigre,Fox 36bb etc....

Hello, does anyone know where I can get parts for my KB outboards?

My 4011 was way too hotrodded, when a smooth engine would have been more flexible and reliable.

I have a k&b 61 ringed ball bearing on an airboat that’ll scream. I also have a back up parts engine. I also have an os max 60 and it’s terrible. Nowhere near the power of the k&b

Ah, the good old days. No PPE, not even gloves. The only guy with ear cups looks to be rockin' .

Why does this awful video look like it was shot on 16mm Ektachrome?