Well, since everyone seems to be giving their two cents worth, let me express my penny thought......

Apparently the National Air and Space Museum doesn't appreciate the contributions that our hobby has made to air and space history. Don't give them anything...no rockets, no money, no donated time. NOTHING!

Now, what other venues or available? Make our own? I think we'd be better served taking advantage of using an already established museum and their organization, not to mention letting them worry about maintaining the buildings, utilities, insurance and so forth (who wants to collect dues from other rocketeers to help mainatin a museum).

With that said, what organizations should be used? Well, several have been mentioned. I would prefer to see one at the Air and Space Museum in Huntsville, for a starter. Several NAR sections exisist there and may already have a relationship established. Again, I say as a starter. Later, duplicate displays could be established at other museums like White Sands.

What to display? I think that the displays should be simple and represent the various phases of the hobby. Start with...the first model rocket. The first parachute recovery. The first boost glider. The first Rocket glider. Development of launch equipment. Scale rockets. Gee, it gets bigger the more I think about it....

Who should organize? Before presenting any idea to a museum, I think there should be an organized plan for the display (what, when, where, how) and that it can't be limited to just the NAR. Tripoli needs to be involved also. Unless you don't want to include HPR in the museum.

Well, anyway....my penny thought.

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Don
NAR 53455
"Carpe Diem"

I seriously doubt that is the case. As was stated by someone else earlier in this thread, the Smithsonian displays only a small fraction of the artifacts in their collections. This is true of most large museums.

What gets displayed comes down to priorities and finances. The Udvar-Hazey center (the "Dulles Facility" mentioned in the post above) is only a few years old. We were there a couple years ago and it was practically empty, even though there were a huge number of exhibits in it (that is, the place is HUGE and not even close to having its potential filled).

So as they fill it, they need to prioritize. What would people rather see, the Space Shuttle Enterprise, or a model rocket collection? Heck I'm a BAR and I'd choose the Shuttle hands-down. It's not that they hate model rocketry, it's just that it hasn't bubbled to the surface yet.

And until the Udvar-Hazey center opened, they were insanely space restricted on the national mall. Other exhibits can tell a better story of the space race than model rockets can.

As noted, there are plans for a model rocketry exhibit at the Udvar-Hazey center. If you'd like to see those plans advanced, perhaps a large donation would coax it from the drawing boards and into fruition...

-Tim

I stopped and saw Bill Stine at the old Quest facilities back in 2000.

I saw the boxes of stuff his Dad had saved (I did not get to see in any of the boxes ).

Bill told me at that time that Bob Craddock had recently visited for several days to help organize and sort all of Harry's stuff at the Quest plant.

Bob

Thank you for the clarification.

Robert

Its kind of interesting: Model Rocketry did so much in the early days; things like: educating people about rockets, an easy way to 'boiler plate' concepts and ideas, used in engineering and aeronautical schools/programs... yet it is barely a blip on the radar screens of museums.

Last museum I was in had scores of plastic model jet kits, yet no model rockets. I think the perception of model rockets as , 'iconic toys of the 60s/70s', holds true even today.

We know that isn't the case. A model rocket can be as simple as a Guillows rubber powered profile plane, and as complicated as a .40 sized pattern plane when you start looking at FAI and national scale rocket competition. I believe that model rocketry's interest has directly paralleled the Manned Space Program as when interest in Moon flights wained, so did interest in model rockets.

A museum is only going to display things that bring the public into their gift shops. And as was pointed out a couple of posts prior too this one, a BAR is more likely to want to the Enterprise display instead of a model rocket display.

I say there needs to be a dedicated model rocketry museum that does nothing but display model rockets. Its doable but it would be a full-time job for who ever takes on the task. It would also be costly.

Robert

Ironically enough, my Astrocam 110 (may it rest in pieces) was purchased on a vacation, at none other than the Air and Space Museum's gift shop. This was circa 1983...

-Tim

I have received a rather lengthy email from Bob Craddock about "stand alone" model rocket museums and his book.

When I get back on the 27th, I will post it, very interesting stuff.

You should ask Bob to stop on over here and join the forum!

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Scott D. Hansen
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe - Your One Stop BAR Shoppe!
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WOOSH NAR Section #558

Well, this thread got me to dig out some old pics I have

first two are circa 1984 ?, and show the long-time Model Rocket display in the center 'island' display, this was still there last time I visited, but been 6-7 years now, I need to drop in again .... note the Cineroc, Enerjet engine and other cool goodies like the ? FSI Javellin .

of note, however are the RARE photos of the Model Rocket display in the side wing, April 1982 (as printed on photo front when processed ).
this was a large ,near circular ring with rockets - all part of the G H Stine collection, including original Model Missiles, Czech contest birds, other assorted items, including the original Schultz Space-Plane style glider, and an RDC Honeybee sounding rocket.
Unfortunately, I either did not get pics of all the birds, or some have been lost, but here's a minor glimpse back into time....

~ AL

ps: sorry for the small pics, still not 100% up to speed on my scanner, if anyone wants these larger, lmk and I can retry.

Attached Thumbnails

       

Cool. In that fourth photo, toward the right edge, is a built Czech Astra rocket, a kit of which is still sitting just to my left to be scanned in.

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Roy
nar12605