Kirk G
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- Jan 9, 2012
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I went to my 40th high school reunion, and made a point of connecting with an old friend who first demonstrated Estes rockets CATO to us on the school playground. I've related the tale of the failure before, so I won't do that here. He does not remember the incident, except that yes, he and his father and brother WOULD have "put on a show" for us.
He DOES recall his two favorite models, and tells me he had several over the years. But his absolute favorite was the Trident and second most favorite was the Big Bertha. I remarked that they still made the Big Bertha and he corrected me saying that it was a scaled down version that was being marketed these days. He indicates that they were somewhat larger, on the order of several feet tall, back in the day.
And, he sketched on a napkin the basic design of the "Trident", which says had two body tubes, connected by a trio of soda straw structures that conveyed the escaping gases from the ejection charge up to the top tube to blow off the nosecone. I recall someone, possibly him, drawing this out for me once and explaining it, but I never saw it fly. He says he flew it dozens of times, until once at a playground, some kid beat him to the landed rocket and crushed it while picking it up. (Sad memory.)
He also indicates that there is a PDF file for the "Trident" available on the web for those who wanted to recreate it.
Does anyone know if this is true? Or how long ago the "Trident" went out of production? Does anyoe HAVE the kit? or the model?
He DOES recall his two favorite models, and tells me he had several over the years. But his absolute favorite was the Trident and second most favorite was the Big Bertha. I remarked that they still made the Big Bertha and he corrected me saying that it was a scaled down version that was being marketed these days. He indicates that they were somewhat larger, on the order of several feet tall, back in the day.
And, he sketched on a napkin the basic design of the "Trident", which says had two body tubes, connected by a trio of soda straw structures that conveyed the escaping gases from the ejection charge up to the top tube to blow off the nosecone. I recall someone, possibly him, drawing this out for me once and explaining it, but I never saw it fly. He says he flew it dozens of times, until once at a playground, some kid beat him to the landed rocket and crushed it while picking it up. (Sad memory.)
He also indicates that there is a PDF file for the "Trident" available on the web for those who wanted to recreate it.
Does anyone know if this is true? Or how long ago the "Trident" went out of production? Does anyoe HAVE the kit? or the model?