G. Harry Steine
Compost Dynamite
Based on the insistence that C.A.T.O. is equally correct as catastrophic failure I guess it would be totally useless to point out that those two examples from the first message are mis-spelled. "Language and accuracy is fluid" , or some nonsense like that.
Anyway, It's G . Harry Stine. Not Steine.
Composite Dynamics was the first rocket company that Gary Rosenfield created. At NARAM-16 in 1974, they displayed engines, but did not produce them until few years later. By 1978 they had a nice E composite, the E20, size of a D12. Used plaster-like nozzles in fiberglass cases. To keep the plaster from eroding too much, there was a small metal washer in the throat, drilled to the correct diameter for the throat. I loved those motors, they had a nicer thrust curve than any other composite motor at the time ( All the other companies I can recall that made composite motors in the 1970's were progressive thrust, low thrust at ignition, high thrust near burnout, which was a very bad thrust curve).
There were occasional Catos. The company was sometimes referred to as Compost Dynamite because of catos (I must say I never had any fail). Another example of Idiocracy and C.A.T.O. over cato, that the real name of the company was not mentioned , and the insulting nickname was used as though that really was the actual name of the company.
Sometime between 1979 and 1982 or so, Composite Dynamics went away and Aerotech was born.
The chain of events regarding AVI goes back two companies, before fast-forwarding to Quest. Mike Bergenske created Model Rocket Industries (MRI) in the 1960's. General Mills wanted to get into rockets, for their MPC brand. So they worked out a deal with Mike Bergenske, so MRI sort of phased over into MPC and Bergenske made great use of that money from General Mills to make engine machines reportedly better than Estes had, and to design injection molded parts which up to then no rocket company had done (and none ever has done to that extent). This explains why some of the later MPC kits were copies of the old MRI Kits (like the Zenith Two Payloader, I have an unopened MRI Zenith Two kit). When General Mills/MPC dropped rockets like a hot potato in 1972 or so, Bergenske and a few others banded together as AVI to buy up what was left, including the engine making machines that GM/MPC had paid for (I'm a bit hazy on this. There may have been some contracts that allowed Bergenske part ownership in light of however the MRI merger had been done).
G Harry Stine had worked on some of the MPC kits, and was part of the AVI group. But something fell through along the way, G. Harry and others were no longer involved, so it was Bergenske & his family. By 1975 AVI finally came out with many interesting engines, some from about 5/16" diameter, up to an F engine that fit into a BT-55. The best of those engines were the 18mm D6.1 engine (like a C6 burning for 3.5 seconds), and the 24mm E11.8 (like a D12 burning for 3.5 seconds). There was also the incredible AVI "encyclog" catalog, which was not only big and impressive (hey, they listed parts for dollhouses!), but 99.9% vaporware. About the only things AVI delivered on were the engines, and tons of leftover old MPC kits for sale at good prices. Well , there was an all-20mm rocket called Lineas Gigantus, made up of many 20mm tubes and 19mm couplers, about 6 feet tall or more. It was quite notable in that it popped the nose cone off and glided down backwards. I do not recall any "new" post-MPC kits that AVI had other than that one (maybe there were a few but if so that was the only notable one).
By 1978, things started going downhill, and in 1979 they were bankrupt.
When Quest finally got going (which is a complicated story in itself, which Bob S. could write tons about), they had the old MPC/AVI engine making machines, and those were used for the Quest engines until there was a fatal fire in their plant in Northern Mexico. Yes, Northern Mexico, just across the border from Arizona. Lots of the Quest kits used, and many still use, nose cones, fin units, and other parts made from the original MPC injection molds.
There is a LOT of stuff to fill in between the lines there. And people who have previously related far better details for some of the things above, than I have.
- George Gassaway
