Yep, I knew about that one. Still cheesy looking! 
BTW: Mine had delta wings.
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That’s gorgeous! My grandfather used to build RC models; he was not so good at flying them. He once borrowed either a shotgun or archery set (I’ve heard it both ways; might’ve happened more than once) so he could dislodge the model from a tree & at least salvage the engine.
I didn’t know (but I’m not surprised) they’d moved on from glow-plugs to electric engines (I had a Cox tethered Spitfire that ran off a charge from a lantern battery, but that’s different… and shorter-ranged)
Over the holidays we were trying to figure out who wound up with his model of a Scaled Composites Long-EZ. I have a Cessna-like model coming to me whenever I manage to haul it up from my parents’.
ETA:
Not quite as cheap, but there were balsa models (Guillows?) that went together like RC planes, but at smaller scale (1:36? or so). I built an A-35 Vengeance and started (but gave up on) a Piper Cub. They had rubber-band motors but I wasn’t about to risk destroying the one I’d built. I believe there were engines, but not control servos, small/light enough to go in these but I’m not sure how one flew them (tethers, I guess).
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Me too! Dad wouldn’t let me fly his “Lil’ Satan”, the Cox E-Z (never figured out the “ee-zed” thing) was a more manageable plane.
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Had one. Glow plug engine with some sort of kerosene or diesel like fuel you bought from the hobby store.
I also had one of these, same engine but instead of a string the wheels locked in one direction so it ran in a circle.
The dune buggy had a pull cord but you needed a battery hooked to the glow plug to start it. The airplane started with a battery and hand cranking the prop.
I had completely forgotten about those, thanks.
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My dad was, um, frugal, and we were on the poorer side too, so I never got the brand name stuff, always the knock-offs. He got me this tethered flying model airplane that was electric, but the batteries and motor were in the handle that you hold. IIRC, the tether had a cable inside which spins to transfer the power to the plane. There were no controls to it, you just turn it on, take off, then spin around and get dizzy. It was easy to fly, though, because… no controls.
At the time, I didn’t appreciate always getting the second rate stuff. But now, looking back, it was good of him to at least try. We had other big problems in the family which he always had to tend to, couldn’t be that dad-you-saw-on-tv. But who is, though, right?
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And as some of us may recall, Cox also issued an interesting line of model rockets, all ready-made plastic in construction (unlike the usual Estes/Centuri/etc. DIY balsa-and-cardboard approach). Their Saturn V was quite impressive, but the favorite of my youth was the Honest John.
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I first learned these kind of planes were a thing from an old Chip & Dale cartoon so apparently they’ve been around since at least the early 1950s.
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I put a Cox .010 gas engine in a Guillow model (high wing monoplane, quite large, with a mechanism to pull the rudder after a time. Start it up and watch it go. Low quality balsa doomed it 
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If you put mineral oil on the rubber, or talc, you could get a lot more energy into the rubber band. And get Italian rubber bands, too. (Pirelli 
)
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One of my favorite Jean Shepherd broadcasts was about control line model airplanes.
Enjoy
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Shep and Schwartz had good taste. The Megow’s Flying Quaker:
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I am reminded of these wacky videos on YouTube showing otherwise normal looking adults spinning around together in a lump engaged in tethered flight competitions.
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