I ordered six for my customers, should be here next week. I showed it to John Lyngdal and he said "nose cone isn't scale".....sigh....Wondered, were you limited to a particular fin shape as opposed to a more Aerobee fin shape? I assume there was some avoidance of using the aerobee hi name etc....Just curious.
Frank
Okay.
First off, the kit is not meant to be in any way/shape/form a scale kit.
The idea for the kit started with a fin.
The Barracuda kit was not a big seller and there were quite a few boxes of fins for that kit at the shop.
I decided to design a new kit using the Barracuda fin as a starting point.
I looked at making another 1.9" diameter kit using the Barracuda fin but none of the ideas I had interested me.
So I decided to use a 2.6" diameter body tube.
Three fins for lower kit part costs.
In addition, I didn't want the kit to be mostly white in color.
White is a great color, every other color works with it.
Nope, this new kit had to have as little or no white color as possible.
A year or two before I started working on this new kit, Peter Alway had published his original 'Rockets or the Word' book (Spiral bound).
As I tried to come up with ideas for the kit I would thumb through my copy of RotW.
My eyes feel upon the Aerobee Hi sounding rocket.
Hmm...The Barracuda fins aren't real close in shape but they could work.
Orange and silver/aluminum with two white and one black fin.
What about those conduits running up the side above each fin...
Ah ha! I could use the conduits from the Wart-Hog kit!
Now, what to call the model.
I didn't want to call it 'Aerobee' as it wasn't one.
I recalled the past conversation when we were deciding what to call the three fin, yellow and black payload rocket a few years before.
Of course, the new kit should use 'Arreaux' in the name.
The name was too good a 'joke' not to use it again.
So the name "Arreauxbee-Hi" was born.
(As an aside, I spoke with a contact at Aerojet a year ago and he informed me that the name 'Aerobee' is now in the public domain).
Before I could build a prototype I was let go by AeroTech.
Even so, I still wanted to build this model and fly it.
I gathered the parts and built the model which was flown at NARAM-35.
A picture of the Arreauxbee-Hi launching was part of the NARAM-35 coverage in American Spacemodeling magazine.
Fast-forward 22 years.
At NARAM-57 I met up with Charlie Savoie.
The last time I saw Charlie he was 11-12 years old.
Charlie was now the General Manager of RCS/AeroTech/Quest.
As we talked he asked if I had any ideas for new kits.
Funny he should ask...
I told Charlie about the Arreauxbee-Hi kit design.
Charlie was interested and we communicated over the course of several months working out the final design of the kit.
The biggest issue we had was the decals.
The 'Aerobee' font was a custom design from the AeroJet art department. There was no-one with the company anymore who knew about it.
I turned to Gordy/Sandman and asked him if he could re-create the font but with 'Arreauxbee-Hi' instead.
He worked at it for weeks but he pulled it off.
The 'AeroTech General' might have been his idea too.
Now with artwork in hand all that was left was packaging and instructions.
Charlie handled the packaging and changed the usual background used with other kits.
The two of us worked for weeks to get the instructions completed.
I also supplied Charlie with a press release sheet for the kit which he used with some alterations.
So, the Arreauxbee-Hi was a kit idea that took 24 years to come to fruition.
It's just a fun sport model that has a scale-like appearance.
I hope folks have fun building and flying the kit.
I also hope AeroTech sells a bunch of them. :wink: