i think estes should....

[luke strawwalker]

Rocketflite made 38mm BP motors. They were great!

That's good to know... learn something new every day!

How expensive were they, and how reliable... how much power did they have?? What was the casing material??

Later! OL JR

 

[JAL3]

That's good to know... learn something new every day!

How expensive were they, and how reliable... how much power did they have?? What was the casing material??

Later! OL JR

I've only burned one myself. It was an H but I know they made Gs and I think there were Is as well. The case was like a big Estes case. I don't know the price originally. The one I burned came from a friends stash. He gave it to me for a demo launch. I've seen him burn others. My price was letting him share the motel room.

I've still got the case around here someplace. God only knows where. I'll see if I can find it and UL a pic.

 

[SteveA]

Leave scale kits like the Mercury Redstone, Saturn V and V-2 in stock and not let them go OOP for years at a time.

Add more scale kits, especially significantly historical scale kits such as, Jupiter C, Saturn 1B (1/100th) scale, Mercury Atlas, Gemini Titan, Little Joe I & II, Space Shuttle (full stack).

Add to that, the Honest John (full size) the Pershing, Sidewinder, and Phoenix. But to name a few.

 

[Initiator001]

Leave scale kits like the Mercury Redstone, Saturn V and V-2 in stock and not let them go OOP for years at a time.

Add more scale kits, especially significantly historical scale kits such as, Jupiter C, Saturn 1B (1/100th) scale, Mercury Atlas, Gemini Titan, Little Joe I & II, Space Shuttle (full stack).

If scale models could sell enough units they would stay available.

It's a fact that scale models sell less units than 'sport' model designs.

As Lee Piester (Founder, Centuri Engineering) told me years ago, "I love scale models. Too bad they don't sell very well".

 

[Initiator001]

I would like to see a 1.8 boat tail ARCAS in the Pro Series (29MM), W/plastic fins & fin can like the DRT. I am anal when it comes to scale detail, but sanding the ARCAS fin profile is way beyond my skill level.

Check out the AeroTech HV Arcas kit.

Molded plastic fins with details.

29mm motor mount.

2.6" diameter.

 

[Gus]

I'd like to see Estes make the best 10.5 mm motors in the world.

 

[StefanJ]

That's good to know... learn something new every day!

How expensive were they, and how reliable... how much power did they have?? What was the casing material?? )

Early Rocketflite motors had all-paper cases, and were not terribly reliable. The F101 had a lot of catos. A friend once videotaped a launch on Long Island where one, maybe both, motors in a two F101 cluster blew up, sending burning fuel fragments all over a field of dry grass. Most of the footage is of desperate LIARS stomping, sloshing, and extinguishing a half-dozen small fires. I THINK these were Silver Streak motors, which included metal filings which produced a beautiful spray of silvery sparks.

Later, Rocketflite switched to aluminum casings (very light duty) with a spiral paper wrap, maybe 1/8" thick. They were longer (7" or so) than the FSI F motors, which were still in production at the time.

Reliability went way up. The F101 was reclassified as a F50. I had an awesome flight of my NCR Quasar II on a F101-0 to F101SS-7. It was just approaching dusk when it flew; the Silver Streak staging a hundred or so feet up as the model lumbered upwards was just great.

They also introduced the 38mm motors. These were pretty awesome, and as I recall fairly affordable. I burned a dozen or more.

Toward the end, there were reliabilithy problems. You took your chances with the last few batches. Failure mode was a front-end blowout. One of these cracked the body tube on my PML Io (Eos?).

Pictures of a G160 and a H220 attached. Claimed total impulse was 160ns and 220 ns respectively.

 

[BABAR]

Add cute models holding the rockets in the online catalog.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Early Rocketflite motors had all-paper cases, and were not terribly reliable. The F101 had a lot of catos. A friend once videotaped a launch on Long Island where one, maybe both, motors in a two F101 cluster blew up, sending burning fuel fragments all over a field of dry grass. Most of the footage is of desperate LIARS stomping, sloshing, and extinguishing a half-dozen small fires. I THINK these were Silver Streak motors, which included metal filings which produced a beautiful spray of silvery sparks.
.

< facepalm >

PLEASE tell me that yall have better sense now than to fly sparky motors in a field of dry grass, let alone CLUSTERS of them...

This is precisely why I DO NOT permit sparky motors of ANY type or kind or power range to be flown on my farms by the clubs that fly here... EVER.

IF we ever have an incident from someone flying a sparky motor, the clubs will be looking for new launch fields, because these will be permanently closed...

Later! OL JR

 

[CarVac]

< facepalm >

PLEASE tell me that yall have better sense now than to fly sparky motors in a field of dry grass, let alone CLUSTERS of them...

This is precisely why I DO NOT permit sparky motors of ANY type or kind or power range to be flown on my farms by the clubs that fly here... EVER.

IF we ever have an incident from someone flying a sparky motor, the clubs will be looking for new launch fields, because these will be permanently closed...

Later! OL JR

Man, west-coast dry lakebeds are great...

 

[StefanJ]

That fire, and other "silver streak" incidents, changed the rules for LIARS. We had no desire to lose our hard-won field!

Sparky motors are tightly regulated by Oregon Rocketry. They are outright banned for many launches.

 

[sodmeister]

Add to that, the Honest John (full size) the Pershing, Sidewinder, and Phoenix. But to name a few.

I totally agree ,but as mentioned ,folks seem to like the other stuff better and scale rockets (except for the saturn V and 1B)just don`t sell all that well.

Thankfully ,others (TLP) fill the void ,but it would be nice if Estes ,with their quality way of doing things ,would do a few !

Of course Estes has been doing some very nice things as of late ,and I can see more of the same down the road.

Unfortunately I got back into rockery a little too late to get the Merc.Atlas ,Titan and Space Shuttle ,as I would dearly have loved to have those

Paul T

 

[Fishhead]

That fire, and other "silver streak" incidents, changed the rules for LIARS. We had no desire to lose our hard-won field!

Sparky motors are tightly regulated by Oregon Rocketry. They are outright banned for many launches.

I've seen three fires from them, and the fourth one was the major factor in us losing VOA in 2010. One of the fires even started after the local fire department hosed down the area around the launch pad. Not worth the potential liability.

 

[luke strawwalker]

That fire, and other "silver streak" incidents, changed the rules for LIARS. We had no desire to lose our hard-won field!

Sparky motors are tightly regulated by Oregon Rocketry. They are outright banned for many launches.

Good to hear... glad that yall are being proactive about it...

Later! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Unfortunately I got back into rockery a little too late to get the Merc.Atlas ,Titan and Space Shuttle ,as I would dearly have loved to have those

Paul T

There's always Dr. Zooch Rockets...

Later! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

I've seen three fires from them, and the fourth one was the major factor in us losing VOA in 2010. One of the fires even started after the local fire department hosed down the area around the launch pad. Not worth the potential liability.

Yep, got that club in N. Texas kicked off the field they'd been using for decades... they had a "no sparky motor" rule, but somebody felt sorry for some twits that decided they just HAD to use a sparky motor for their SLI NASA competition entry, (against their advisor's advice) and they drove several hours to launch there, and it was the last launch opportunity before the deadline or something-- burned off a bunch of the pasture they were launching in, and came within feet of burning off a huge field of dry wheat ready for combining across the fence. Neighbors put the pressure on the landowner, and so he ran them off...

Those fireworks motors just ain't worth it IMHO...

Later! OL JR

 

[RWmarlow]

That's good to know... learn something new every day!

How expensive were they, and how reliable... how much power did they have?? What was the casing material??

Later! OL JR

Here is an Image of a couple

 

[shrox]

Bring back this cool Centuri launcher with a new base and battery compartment where the lantern battery used to be. Perhaps a compartment fill-able with water for the weight.

 

[FastCargo]

Bring back this cool Centuri launcher with a new base and battery compartment where the lantern battery used to be. Perhaps a compartment fill-able with water for the weight.

Could use four D batteries instead like the old Big Foot.

We did a mini club launch yesterday and I keep wondering how to shorten setup and take down time. I keep thinking of something like that Centuri launcher with fold out legs and the launch system wire would be on a fishing line type spool. Pretty much fold out the legs, secure the rod, and unroll the launch controller and you're done. It doesn't sound like it would be much faster, but with our launch system, all the parts go into their own bags to keep track of all the bits and pieces. It takes a while relatively speaking.

FC

 

[shrox]

Could use four D batteries instead like the old Big Foot.

We did a mini club launch yesterday and I keep wondering how to shorten setup and take down time. I keep thinking of something like that Centuri launcher with fold out legs and the launch system wire would be on a fishing line type spool. Pretty much fold out the legs, secure the rod, and unroll the launch controller and you're done. It doesn't sound like it would be much faster, but with our launch system, all the parts go into their own bags to keep track of all the bits and pieces. It takes a while relatively speaking.

FC

I have a design for a batteryless system.

 

[Fred22]

(k)...hire me.

that would be a good choice

 

[Fred22]

I totally agree ,but as mentioned ,folks seem to like the other stuff better and scale rockets (except for the saturn V and 1B)just don`t sell all that well.

Thankfully ,others (TLP) fill the void ,but it would be nice if Estes ,with their quality way of doing things ,would do a few !

Of course Estes has been doing some very nice things as of late ,and I can see more of the same down the road.

Unfortunately I got back into rockery a little too late to get the Merc.Atlas ,Titan and Space Shuttle ,as I would dearly have loved to have those

Paul T

You are bang on paul

 

[Fred22]

There's always Dr. Zooch Rockets...

Later! OL JR

Yup they are a good product. Estes though is brining back some great products I think as well.

 

[Gary Byrum]

I have a design for a batteryless system.

Well, that technology is already here :wink:

 

[chadrog]

I was thinking more along the lines of this:

 

[Gary Byrum]

I was thinking more along the lines of this:
View attachment 116641

:headbang::headbang::headbang: POTATO POWER!

 

[chadrog]

I have to think that's a Shrox approved power source, not that the other one isn't!

 

[Zonie]

Yeah, the B14's and C5's. Those would be nice.

As for the store, it was a money loser for them. Too much overhead to ship a few low dollar items at a time. I recall reading a thread about this. they hardly got any orders anyway. I get this. Every time someone orders a $5 part from us, it cost's about $15 to process it with all the labor, etc...

As for MFG in the US, the body tubes are made here. The Chinese cannot or will not make them as well.
I'd be willing to pay a dollar or two more for US packed kits, but most people would not.

Estes has been doing things better, bringing out older kits, and the tubing cutter tool thingy is great. If you don't already have one, get one.

 

[Zonie]

Bring back this cool Centuri launcher with a new base and battery compartment where the lantern battery used to be. Perhaps a compartment fill-able with water for the weight.

View attachment 116599

Gahh! I was gonna post that. You beat me to it.

I cut an old lantern battery open with a can opener, and replaced the innards with rechargeable batteries out of a cheap harbor freight 12V drill. I made a 30 ft cord with very thin wire and have a relay launch circuit in it. Just charge it up and go.


The powr pad was the best launchpad ever....

 

[shrox]

One just like this was my first rocket set. I was 10 or 11, and my mom decided I was too old for an Easter basket, so she got me this!