Estes Cold Propellant Rockets?!

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ArthurAstroCam

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Had never heard of these before, until getting a hold yesterday of Damon era 1972 and 1973 catalogs. By then, they charged a quarter for them. This was the era electronics started showing up- I think they called them Rocketronics?

But amazingly, they had a whole section devoted to cold propellant rockets, accessories, and consumables. Curious, was this just a fad? Were they decent systems? I am guessing they didn't do well, as of course, they are no longer in the catalog today. But, I had never, ever seen them.
 
Had never heard of these before, until getting a hold yesterday of Damon era 1972 and 1973 catalogs. By then, they charged a quarter for them. This was the era electronics started showing up- I think they called them Rocketronics?

But amazingly, they had a whole section devoted to cold propellant rockets, accessories, and consumables. Curious, was this just a fad? Were they decent systems? I am guessing they didn't do well, as of course, they are no longer in the catalog today. But, I had never, ever seen them.
The propellant for them was Freon hence part of the reason they are not still around, and iirc the rockets themselves were originally a Vashon Rocketry product.
 
The propellant for them was Freon hence part of the reason they are not still around, and iirc the rockets themselves were originally a Vashon Rocketry product.
A few were mentioned as "convertible". Are there any cold propellants today?
 
My first model rocket was a Vashon Valkyrie, it was really cool because it make a nice "whoosh" sound and left a vapor trail and a little cloud on the ground when it launched. It was the only model rocket you could launch in CA without jumping through regulatory hoops, I used to toss it and the launcher in my bookbag and ride my bike out to the local school to launch it. Estes bought them a few years later and repackaged them as alternative motors for a few of their rockets, it was the Damon era so of course they totally screwed it up and basically killed the brand. You can still find them occasionally on eBay for ridiculous prices, you can launch them with "canned air".
 
If I’m remembering it correctly Damon, Estes parent company, acquired Vashon along with Centuri. To make things even more confusing, when Damon combined Estes and Centuri the primary name was Centuri - due to some legal mumbo jumbo about taxes in Centuri’s state of Arizona. Acquisitions, mergers, consolidations - the “toy” world of the early 70s through late 80s was a real “wild, wild west” 😎
 
If I’m remembering it correctly Damon, Estes parent company, acquired Vashon along with Centuri. To make things even more confusing, when Damon combined Estes and Centuri the primary name was Centuri - due to some legal mumbo jumbo about taxes in Centuri’s state of Arizona. Acquisitions, mergers, consolidations - the “toy” world of the early 70s through late 80s was a real “wild, wild west” 😎
The 72 and 73 Estes catalogs I just got are the first anything I have seen with the Damon co-branding on them. And, the first ones I have seen where they had a cover price of .25 cents. Kind of a ripoff in 1972/73. I am sure that was Damon's influence.
 
I have one Estes cold power rocket. Back in the day, I was at club launch that got rained out. So I prepped it, stuck my arm out the car window and lauched it. It worked fine, but I got wet recovering it. Tis fun.
 
Tom Beach is still into cold power. IIRC, he is a NAR officer and should be easy to contact. He modified the motors to operate on R242, so they're not an environmental hazard.
R242 is classified as a Class II ozone depleting substance... difluoroethane (R-152, "canned air") is a better choice, environmental-wise. It's not an ozone depleter, but it is a greenhouse gas, as are most fluorocarbons.
 
The 72 and 73 Estes catalogs I just got are the first anything I have seen with the Damon co-branding on them. And, the first ones I have seen where they had a cover price of .25 cents. Kind of a ripoff in 1972/73. I am sure that was Damon's influence.
I don't think they generally charged for the catalogs, but by assigning a price to them, they could write that cost off against earnings, reducing taxable profit. Same reason products regularly sell for less than MSRP, a ploy to generate paper losses.
 
The 72 and 73 Estes catalogs I just got are the first anything I have seen with the Damon co-branding on them. And, the first ones I have seen where they had a cover price of .25 cents. Kind of a ripoff in 1972/73. I am sure that was Damon's influence.
No, they always asked 25 cents for a catalog. You can find lots of Estes and Centuri ads from the 60's on the web where it says "send 25 cents for a catalog". Bill Stine explained at the Estes tour at last year's NARCON how the ladies in the order receiving room would separate the catalog requests and the quarters from the regular orders with cash, checks, and money orders (which were my preferred way of payment), before sending the orders off to be filled.
 
I had a large foam glider that you would fill up the internal tank, fill it with the gas, then hold your finger over the small exhaust outlet…..then throw it. It flew pretty far if I remember. When I ran out of the gas refill I could not find replacements….hence a short lived toy.
 
The 72 and 73 Estes catalogs I just got are the first anything I have seen with the Damon co-branding on them. And, the first ones I have seen where they had a cover price of .25 cents. Kind of a ripoff in 1972/73. I am sure that was Damon's influence.

When I was working with Lee Piester at Enertek he made sure there was '1.00' listed on the cover of the catalog.
Lee said that was done to give the catalog a sense of value so people, even if they received the catalog for free, would not just throw it away.
 
When I was working with Lee Piester at Enertek he made sure there was '1.00' listed on the cover of the catalog.
Lee said that was done to give the catalog a sense of value so people, even if they received the catalog for free, would not just throw it away.
eRockets has some recent catalogs from past years. Oddly, they are charging a penny each.
 
Still have a cold power honest john. Not sure if it will hold pressure.
 
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