Yep, that's an old COLD POWER rocket kit... these were first produced by Vashon Industries (Vashon, Washington) back in the 70's... then they got bought out by Estes. The motors worked by being fuelled with pressurized liquid freon from a special filler valve affixed to a standard can of freon (which Estes sold their own "rebranded" Freon called "RP-100 rocket propellant", but basically ANY "house brand" freon available from any hardware or auto parts store in the 70's and early 80's for less than a buck would work).
This was LONG before the "ozone hole" baloney came about and they outlawed freon R-12, and limited sales of it to refrigerant-licensed technicians and then phased it out entirely and replaced it with freon R-134A. It's against federal law to vent freon to the atmosphere nowdays (not that it doens't happen a thousand times a day anyway (every car wreck that punctures the AC system components, people hauling off old cars or old appliances where the junkyards won't take them with the refrigerant system intact (must cut the hose or remove the coils-- which are aluminum and you get more money for them ripping them out and selling them as aluminum anyway, and then of course there's halon, which is basically a souped-up version of R-12 used as a fire extinguishing chemical in aircraft and industrial settings). One of the biggest contributors to freon released into the atmosphere was halon in aircraft, in fact, and freon was regularly used to clean and purge rocket propellant tanks and lines (ESPECIALLY LOX tanks, since even a stray fingerprint in a line or tank could cause a fire or explosion, as the LOX could ignite from contact even with traces of fingerprint oils...) Massive amounts of freon were used to clean and purge the tanks, washing away and boiling off any stray oils or materials in/on the metals in the tanks and propellant lines). Of course, the most VISIBLE "source" was automotive AC systems, which is where the regulations landed...
The cold propellant motors can in fact still be flown. Back when they came out, they were introduced to allow model rocketry in areas where it was prohibited as "fireworks". Since the boiling freon didn't in fact burn, this circumvented to restrictive regulations (regulations which took DECADES and TONS of hard work by the likes of G. Harry Stine and others to overturn and change). Of course nowdays, to be within the letter of the law, you cannot fly them on "freon" (nor would you want to, given the exhorbitant prices they get for a can of R-134A nowdays, and you can't get R-12 at all, of course). However, you CAN fly them using "airbrush propellant" (the release of which isn't restricted). The performance isn't quite as good, but it works. The problem with the liquid cold propellant motors is, they work via the principle of latent heat of evaporation-- IE, using a liquid who's boiling point is below ambient temperature, which can only be maintained as a liquid when contained under pressure. Basically, a "low cryogenic" fluid like freon or airbrush propellant or "canned air" used to blow off keyboards (and pressurize spray paint cans and stuff like that). The liquid must be kept under pressure-- if the pressure is removed or lowered (allowed to spray out) the liquid begins to boil until it raises the pressure back above its boiling point. Of course, the outside temperature has a lot to do with how well this process works... IOW, how much heat is available for boiling the propellant (which takes heat away as it does, producing the 'refrigeration effect'. That's why freon gets cold when it boils in your air conditioner, drawing heat out of the evaporator core, which then draws heat out of the air blown through it by the fan.) As the temperature drops, the motor is less and less effective until at about -20 or so (IIRC going from memory), a cold propellant motor wouldn't work at all-- it would just dribble liquid propellant out the back like leaking water!
The cold propellant motors were fascinating engineering... a small aluminum tank build similarly to an aerosol can, with a nozzle at the bottom. This nozzle was plugged by a small rubber and metallic plug, which would seal off the nozzle, retained by either a pull-pin pushed through the nozzle and it, holding it in place, or a burn wire consisting of a piece of bare nichrome wire (which was commonly used as ignitor wire in solid propellant rockets (regular model rockets) at the time). The motor was typically "fuelled" either by a small tube connecting the filler valve and propellant can to either the nozzle (filled through the nozzle plug) or through a special "needle valve" virtually identical to a basketball air valve located on the side of the propellant tank, into which a "needle" much like that used to fill basketballs with air was inserted, connected to a tube connected to the filler can valve. The valve on the can was opened and freon would flow through the small hose or tube into the rocket motor tank, until it was full. Then the valve was closed and the needle withdrawn from the filler valve, which sealed itself off automatically (like a basketball air valve). The rocket would then be launched in one of two ways... the "pull pin" on the nozzle would be pulled out via a lanyard or string, or the burn wire would be burned in two electrically by a regular model rocket launch controller similar to that used for launching solid propellant rocket motors. When the burn wire burned in two, the plug would be ejected by the pressure of the liquid freon in the tank, which would then squirt out the back, boiling instantly due to the pressure drop across the orifice in the nozzle, which would create thrust and cause the rocket to lift off. As the pressure in the tank dropped, the freon would begin to boil in the tank, creating more pressure to keep pushing the remaing freon out of the tank, through the nozzle, until all the freon had squirted out the nozzle and boiled off, at which point the remaining gas pressure of the freon gas in the tank would vent through the nozzle, and the rocket would begin to coast.
Now, the time delay and parachute ejection functions were the most interesting engineering design and challenge. This was a very elegant solution-- The delay time was set by installing a number of small paper disks in a threaded fitting at the front end of the tank... the more paper disks, the longer the time delay. The paper disks were between the freon tank itself, and a small bellows located above them, connected to linkages which had gripping pads attached to the ends of the, which fit up inside the upper body tube of the rocket. The parachute was packed normally (so it could slide out very easily!) and placed up inside the tube, and then the upper body tube slid over the arms, usually against a spring which pushed the upper section off. Then the rocket was fuelled, and the freon gas at the top of the tank, under pressure, would leak through the paper disks and fill the bellows, extending them, pushing the gripper arms out against the body tube, holding it in place. The rocket would be fully fueled and then launched. After all the freon in the tank had been expended out the nozzle, the pressure inside the motor tank dropped to "zero" (ambient pressure, depending on altitude) and the freon gas pressurizing the bellows would begin to leak out through the paper disks back into the motor tank, and vent out the nozzle. When the pressure in the bellows leaked down to "zero" (ambient pressure), the clamps would relax and retract, and the spring would push off the upper body tube of the rocket, allowing the parachute to fall out and deploy.
There were also booster motors for multistaged cold propellant motors which worked in a similar fashion, just releasing as soon as the freon in the first stage motor was gone, allowing the upper stage to be unclamped and blow itself off the plug, which let the freon in the upper stage tank start thrusting out the nozzle.
Because the energy propelling the rocket was derived strictly from the boiling of a pressurized liquid into gas, it was not particularly energetic-- meaning it needed a lot of propellant for not much power... basically the highest they went was considered a "C" motor. Because the propellant boiling is greatly affected by the ambient conditions, the motor's performance was DIRECTLY CORRELATED to the climatic conditions at launch... On a hot, Texas (or Florida) summer afternoon, the motor had LOTS of heat to absorb and the propellant liquid would be very warm as it flowed into the tank, and thus it would boil at a higher pressure, and produce more thrust. On a cool, dreary late fall or early spring day, the same motor might be more like an "A" or small "B" motor... On a cold winter day, the motor might barely have enough power to get off the pad...
There are ways to improve the performanc of cold propellant rockets, however... aside from launching in the middle of summer... One thing is to INCREASE THE HEAT CONTENT of the propellant, which increases the latent heat of evaporation, and thus the motor's performance. Heating the can of freon (or airbrush propellant nowdays) by setting the can in a bowl of hot water (not boiling of course-- hot tap water) for about 20 minutes would allow a LOT of heat from the water to soak into the propellant can and the liquid propellant, heat which is stored in the now-warm liquid, raising its pressure (which is why warming your spray paint cans in hot water is a good idea-- it lowers the paint viscosity and increases the propellant liquid's vapor pressure and latent heat of evaporation at the same time, increasing the spray pressure from the can, hence better atomization of the paint). When the liquid propellant goes into the motor, the first dab of propellant into the tank boils off nearly instantly to pressurize the tank and bellows, and this boiling removes heat from the tank and "cools" (refrigerates) it and the propellant. Usually the tanks were silver unpainted aluminum, but painting the tank black to absorb the heat of the sun would increase the heat available in the tank structure itself (the aluminum) and that heat would then also soak into the cooler propellants, since the pressure changes the propellant experiences during fueling as it flows through the can valve, the hose, and the fueling needle tend to allow the propellant to 'expand' and thus refrigerate itself somewhat as it flows through the components into the tank. Allowing the rocket to sit a couple minutes or so to absorb some solar heat after fuelling (when it's fully fueled and sitting on the pad, the freon is no longer boiling and giving it time to absorb heat from the black-painted aluminum tank will increase the heat in the refrigerant, and raise the pressure in the tank, and thus the motor's perfomance... Just don't let it sit in direct sunlight TOO long until the motor blew the plug out on it's own from overpressurization-- probably a couple minutes in full sun would be enough to gently warm the propellant back up from the cooling effects of fuelling the rocket).
Dr. Zooch has a cool video on his website flying one of his "Mark II" rockets equipped with a cold propellant motor fueled with airbrush propellant... including a static test!
Later! OL JR