Written by JS (11/2009); Formatted by JS (01/2010)
John Perry was born in Rhode Island in 1920. He moved away from home as a youth of 15 to New York. By age 17, he already owned his own machine shop.
John’s business began with developing a completely new type of door lock. Four years later, he was picking up defense contracts for the war effort in Europe.
It was not until after World War II that he began a line of Control Line products. He used the name Perrycraft for this new business venture. However, he did not make as much money on this idea as some of his others (such as an archery bow used to set a world record, which made him very wealthy.)
John moved to California by 1950, and worked on early Radio Control airplanes with a mechanism to control the rudder, elevator, and throttle. He also made automotive parts to supplement the income from his hobby products business, called Perry Automotive. This later changed to Perry Aeromotive.
In 1969, he developed the Perry Carburetor, which provided better idling power than other carburetors on the market. His hobby business was soaring after introducing this to his product line, selling more than 2 million! He also introduced other modeling products including the Perry Pump, the Perry Pump Carburetor, and Perry Directional Porting (DPD) for cross-flow scavenged engines. When it was time for him to retire, he sold his carburetor business to Bob Versane of Versane Products.
John’s manufacturing work was diversified; modeling was only a small of it. He was intrigued by anything that he thought could be improved. He worked on Radio Control boat parts, ultralight aircraft, horseshoes, windscreens for motorcycles, and an earthquake warning machine. In all, he obtained 27 patents. His impetus for mechanical design and structure improvement was remarkable.
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