Originally Posted by carbons4

Friend of mine was going to buy the company in 1994-5 but the deal broke down at last minute. When FSI was purchased by the Reese family in late 60's for incorperation you need 3 officers. They were Lonnie Reese, Larry Reese, and Harold Reese. Lonnie died in a car crash in early 80's, Harold died in early 90's. Larry I think,(this is my personal opinion), just got tired of it. I understand where he was comming from too. He tried to sell to a friend of mine that was working there at the time but the deal fell thru at last minute. As far as I know Larry has had everything in storage since then. All I know is a craigslist ad apeared on jan 3rd 2013 for model rocket motor machine. Two of the guys from the local club made a deal. I am not involved so I can not tell you much more than that. I have been looking for Larry on and off for last several years. Hopefully I will be able to talk to him a bit. Larry has to be early to mid 70's so I am guessing he just figured he had held on to it long enough. (once again personal opinion) I was very lucky to start working for the Reeses as a machinist in high school. My brother had gone to school with the brothers and my dad had worked with Harold years ago. I worked full and part time for them from 1977 to 1986 and consider them friends, not just a employer.
The world, and model rocketry has changed a great deal since the early/golden days of FSI. I have heard a lot of smack talked about FSI but besides the big BP motors we think of, there are a few things behind the scene that very few people know. We probably would not have had the hobby we have if not for Lonnie as well as Myke Berginski (sorry for spelling) and Vern. In 1978 the DOT was getting ready to change motor classifications from class c to class b. That would have hurt the hobby. They kept it from being changed to a class b and got it listed under a special permit to flamable solids. I remember Lonnie telling me that I would make more from the company that year than he did. Im sure you will see several post soon from the new owners somewhere. I do not truely know their buisness plan so anything I would say is speculation. I do know the facts of what was and how it was done with the "trailer park engineering". Their words not mine. remember this was the 60's , not everyone had cnc or even nc or even a decent machine shop at their disposal. Computer control???? In 77' I bought my first computer........ a KIM-1 that was nothing more than a circuit board. I heard of a couple other guys out in calif. about that time that used trailer park technology to build a computer in their garage. Yea we are 13 years into the new millinium and you can order anything you want, usually made in china, and never have to leave your home. Good luck to the new flight systems. They are going to need it in todays market.