old estes stuff

[tfish]

I'm not really sure where to post this. I obtained this stuff a while back. I don't think the rockets are of collectable quality. The paperwork might be the most interesting stuff. I'm just looking for some feed back..as in, hey cool stuff I remember those, nobody would want an Astron Ranger K-6 kit where a mouse chewed on the nose cone...etc.

 

[tfish]

more....




Tony

 

[BEC]

I got my Star Blazer the same way (free kit with a $5 order). That one is one of the few I still have from my first rocketry period in 1968-1975 or so.

Even with the mouse damage, that Ranger nose cone shows the original shape of the BNC-60L that was used there and on the Ranger's sibling, Big Bertha. That's the shape the Semroc sells as BNC-60LV to distinguish it from the shorter later version.

Interesting first plastic-cased version of the Electro-Launch instructions, too. That version was only in the 1966 catalog. From 1967 onwards the two case halves nested and the screws that held it all together were on the bottom, rather than through those four little tabs in the middle of each side of the case.

Neat old stuff. I don't have any blue motor mailing tubes any more (with or without motors in 'em).

 

[K'Tesh]

Please scan all the flat things, along with a ruler with the fin, any decals, and/or patterns. Then post them.

Thanks!

 

[BDB]

What on earth is A Rocketeer's Guide to Avoid Suicide!?

 

[TangoJuliet]

What on earth is A Rocketeer's Guide to Avoid Suicide!?

Having been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder almost 19 years ago, that caught my eye too. I'd love to see it close enough to read.

 

[K'Tesh]

What on earth is A Rocketeer's Guide to Avoid Suicide!?

Having been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder almost 19 years ago, that caught my eye too. I'd love to see it close enough to read.

IINM it's something that talks about how early rocketeers kept killing themselves (or being severely injured) by making their own motors, and how commercial motors are a safe way of enjoying the hobby.

Prime example: the first chapeter in "Rocketry the Hobby of Tomorrow" by Peter Lowry and Field Griffith is titled "Why kill yourself?" and the first few lines go like this:

What can go off like a hand grenade, start six fires in the dead leaves, could blow your hand off, requires bunkers like Cape Kennedy's and soars to an altitude of two feet?"

And... a google search here or there... and without further ado... Let's read:

https://www.accur8.com/junjul63smOffice.pdf

[EDIT] I had totally forgot the term "Basement Bombers" in relationship to the hobby it's been so rare to have someone hurt in the hobby (legitimately) since commercial motors became widely available. Sure we may hear about the occasional kids being hurt doing something that gets blamed as "model rocketry" but then further evidence points to them not really doing anything associated with rocketry.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Thanks K'Tesh.

 

[K'Tesh]

Thanks K'Tesh.

No problem... and in checking it out, I see a name from Portland Oregon (the Moonnick 1 article). I wonder if he's still alive, and in the hobby?

I also found the Sputnik type rocket plans, which reminded me of the .ork file I started and set aside. I wondered if I can make a scale Sputnik sim, but couldn't find any really good dimensional drawings of it.

 

[dhbarr]

Very cool. Any chance of getting measurements on the blue mailer tubes? I keep wanting to make a tube-fin in that livery.

 

[ksaves2]

What on earth is A Rocketeer's Guide to Avoid Suicide!?

You never heard of the Vern Estes inspired tale of the "Basement Bomber"?

It was the case against zinc/sulfur or smashed match heads inside spent CO2 canisters. I remember reading the stuff in the mid-60's when I was a kid and
thought, "Why would I want to do that when engines can be bought for 25 or 50 cents?" Too much trouble. (Plus we could mail order fireworks kits that supposedly
were "safe" and had instructions mind you. Kurt

 

[The_Lone_Beagle]

You never heard of the Vern Estes inspired tale of the "Basement Bomber"?

It was the case against zinc/sulfur or smashed match heads inside spent CO2 canisters. I remember reading the stuff in the mid-60's when I was a kid and
thought, "Why would I want to do that when engines can be bought for 25 or 50 cents?" Too much trouble. (Plus we could mail order fireworks kits that supposedly
were "safe" and had instructions mind you. Kurt

Yeah, I think we forget how much having commercially available motors changed things. It's been a long time since I thought about this stuff.

Reading the newspaper article in the scans by the OP, the one about the one kid seriously injured and the other killed outright, they had taken "16 boxes full of wooden match heads" and crammed it into some sort of metal tube when it exploded.

Yikes!

 

[Woody's Workshop]

Thinking back to my youth, I would never do such things.
But I can think of a couple half wit kids that would.
One use to eat Elmer's Glue! Fools.

Yeah, I think we forget how much having commercially available motors changed things. It's been a long time since I thought about this stuff.

Reading the newspaper article in the scans by the OP, the one about the one kid seriously injured and the other killed outright, they had taken "16 boxes full of wooden match heads" and crammed it into some sort of metal tube when it exploded.

Yikes!