Suggestions wanted
 

I don't want this to start a lengthy discussion, but, I am looking for suggestions for what Estes should do in the future.

Remember, no finger pointing, just, concrete suggestions, what you would like to see and any positive as well as constructive criticism. No finger pointing and no personal attacks please.

Keeping in mind it's the 50th anniversary of our great hobby.

Thanks,

RD

My number 1 suggestion would be for a wider selection of engines (motors, whatever you prefer ;) ) I would like to see the old C5-3 again.

My number 2 suggestion would be a lot less plastic and a lot more balsa.

Support competition flyers by making special runs of mini-motors.

Make a line of "skill builder" kits suited for the NARTREK program; it could also be sold to home schooling market. Most of these can be re-releases of OLD kits.

All good suggestions. All the data from the defunct estes forum is lost now, deleted. I'm trying to come up with a list of requests, and, see what happens from there.

No offense, but what's the point?

Doc,
I'd like to see a wider selection, sure, but I'd really like to see all those discontinued kits rereleased. Well, not all, necessarily, but certainly some. They seem to have gotten away from just about any 'scale' rockets. Forget about level 4 or 5 units as well. I must give them kudos for rereleasing the Interceptor and its new larger brother; I don't really care how long it took them, I'm just glad they did! You can see what success they had with that release. The upcoming releases shown elsewhere on this forum will be great (the Shrox designs), and this shows Estes' ability to reach out to some quite accomplished designers for some help. I realize the need to get new rocketeers into the hobby, but there was little else out there at Estes for these folks to move 'upwards' in the hobby (please, no pun!).
Why not release some advanced rockets, like the old Maxi-Brutes? Maybe even some of the old NCR rockets that were so popular and Estes owned a piece of? They could enter into some marketing agreement with Aerotech to supply the larger engines needed for the larger rockets, perhaps. Of course, it would be great if Estes made some large motors, but I think that would be an inordinately large kettle of fish. Estes does need something along the larger E or low F engines. The E9 barely flies most of their larger rockets.
Also, the Estes catalogue used to be filled with rocketry supplies, charts, and testimonials. Lets bring that back, too. 'Less plastic and more Balsa' has merit, but the plastic cones work well for the novices; they provide good finish platforms, where balsa does not unless you know how to seal and sand, etc.
Estes seems to have become a lot less user friendly than in the past. With the exception of the infamous Christine in customer service, little customer service remains.
Hope this helps!
Allen

I agree with DaveR. Eliminate as much plastic as possible, and use more balsa.

Bring back as many of the OOP kits as they can, especially the "Futuristic" kits. (I'm a big fan!) :D

Perhaps team up with EMRR for a "Design this Spaceship" contest, or, hold a similar contest themselves. There is plenty of inspiration out there.

This will probably never happen, but maybe team up with Apogee and help with the development and improvements of Rocksim and RS-Pro.

Longer shock cords, made of elastic instead of rubber bands.

More through the wall fins, because I suck at lining up surface-mount fins.


And to echo another poster's question, what is the point of this?

In no particular order

1) Fin alignment guide (preferably the metal version)
2) More motor choices (C5 and B8 especially)
3) More 'exotic' kits (although the Shrox stuff for 2008 is a good start) My cloned NASA Pegasus is one of my favorites.
4) Scale kits. Although Semroc, Zooch, and others have some great stuff out there, they don't have the distribution that Estes has.
5) More A and B motors and fewer C's at Walmart and Target
6) Bring back some of the classic older kits. Although most are not hard to clone, make it easy for someone to grab a bag off the shelf of their LHS.
7) Bring back Model Rocket News, even if an e-mail only edition, along with a design of the month.

I don't mind the existence of the E2X and heavily plastic level one kits - they're OK for beginners to get started with. And hopefully get them hooked :-)

1. Create two separate and distinct kit production lines within the greater Estes:

A. One line dedicated to "the needs of the many", meaning the Wal Mart/Target/K-Mart/Sears audience. This line would deal with all of the RTF, ARF, and Skill Level 0 kits (simplified assembly compared to traditional Skill Level 1, with plastic fins and cones, pre-wrapped tubes, vinyl stickers, etc) for those with absolutely no kit building experience. Since much of the current Estes is already geared to this format, very little would need to be done. Call this series of products "Freshman Club", or "Apprentice School", or something similar.

B. A new line dedicated to "the needs of the few...or the one", meaning hobbyist builder-flyers such as ourselves. Such a line could be operated much as the "cottage industry" producers in our hobby already are. The volume of kits from this line would never reach that of the first line, but the quality of the designs and the complexity of the builds would not be limited to a "mass market" audience. An investment in one or two CNC mills and flatbeds might be all this line needs to produce batches of 20K for each design. One advantage of this line would be the very short "time to production", since nothing produced here would require overseas manufacturing (no toolings, no dies...). A design could be introduced into production and released to shipping each month. This line would emphasize balsa, paper, and personal progression through a series of skill levels. Call this line "Master's Series".

2. Greater variety and local availability of motors. It matters not what Estes may have listed in the catalog if no one can find them or purchase them. While we may know where to order them from through the internet, most of the "mass market" purchasers will not.

3. Actively seeking new designs from hobbyist-builders is the only way Estes will keep the catalog line-up fresh and interesting. The DOM competition was one way to achieve this, but setting up a program for contracting out design work to individuals would be another possibility.


For the most part, these ideas are the same as what is coming from everyone else. Estes really has a two-tiered market to deal with -- the mass market, and the hobbyist market -- and the needs of both cannot be filled by one standard production philosophy. It requires a two-tiered approach, meaning two separate groups within the company, each working on products to satisfy their respective markets.