Liquid fuel rocket

[mack]

Hello,

I just recently started getting back into model rockets after a very long absence. Back in the 60's I had the usual Estes rockets but I also had a liquid fuel rocket. I was hopping maybe one of the older modelers might be able to help me remember something about it.

I was about a foot long and maybe 3/4" to 1" round. The tube was polished aluminum, I think, and it had a nylon nozzle. The nose cone was balsa and the fins were balsa and glued directly to the aluminum body. The fuel came in a can like the old freon cans. It had a metal cap that screwed on with a little lever. The fuel port was a hole in the side of the rocket and you ran a plastic hose from the can to the rocket and pressed the little lever. I never did fly it and I don't have any of it left. I was just curious and hoping that maybe someone else had one too and might remember more about it.

I guess all of my stuff disappeared over the years. I also had the Estes Camroc and never flew it either. Back in those days I had a really hard time getting the rocket engines to fire.

I just started working on my first new rocket and look forward to launching it.

Thanks
Mack

 

[judo]

Cold Power?

 

[mack]

Cold Power?

I can't remember. I don't know if it required a battery or not. I just don't remember the ignition system. I think it probably did require something that I didn't have available at the time or I would have launched it.

mack

 

[luke strawwalker]

Sounds like the old Vashon/Estes cold power kits... Dr. Zooch has a thread on here titled "Cold Power Flyin'" and he has sort of a 'build thread' and experience flying these things... Also, if you go to the ninfinger site, there are old Vashon catalogs posted as well as some stuff in the Estes catalogs after they bought out Vashon's cold power rockets.

From what I've read, the cold power stuff could be 'ignited' either with a pull lanyard which pulled a pin from the nozzle plug, which released the propellant through the nozzle, or electrically, with a small 'melt wire' that replace the lanyard pull pin. These rockets were 'fuelled' with liquid freon, and when the ozone-hole stuff got going and freon (and the free atmospheric release thereof) became anathema, they went the way of the dodo. Dr. Zooch and others have been flying them with airbrush propellant which is more environmentally friendly, and from what I gather there is STILL some interest in these rockets given their ebay pricing...

I'd check out the ninfinger site or search for Dr. Zooch's thread on here if you want to know more or ask more...

Good luck! OL JR

 

[mack]

Sounds like the old Vashon/Estes cold power kits... Dr. Zooch has a thread on here titled "Cold Power Flyin'" and he has sort of a 'build thread' and experience flying these things... Also, if you go to the ninfinger site, there are old Vashon catalogs posted as well as some stuff in the Estes catalogs after they bought out Vashon's cold power rockets.

From what I've read, the cold power stuff could be 'ignited' either with a pull lanyard which pulled a pin from the nozzle plug, which released the propellant through the nozzle, or electrically, with a small 'melt wire' that replace the lanyard pull pin. These rockets were 'fuelled' with liquid freon, and when the ozone-hole stuff got going and freon (and the free atmospheric release thereof) became anathema, they went the way of the dodo. Dr. Zooch and others have been flying them with airbrush propellant which is more environmentally friendly, and from what I gather there is STILL some interest in these rockets given their ebay pricing...

I'd check out the ninfinger site or search for Dr. Zooch's thread on here if you want to know more or ask more...

Good luck! OL JR

I think that is it. The nozzle did have a pin through it and the name Vashon does sound familiar. I will check out the website.

Thanks
Mack