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08-24-2019, 11:57 PM
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Too Many Initiators is Never Enough
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 2,404
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In the early 1990s the new management was feeling the heat from mass-market competitors such as AeroTech.
AeroTech had make strong inroads to the hobby distribution chain and showed a whole new level of model rocketry to the public.
Estes attempted to counter this.
The 1994 Estes catalog featured the 'E15' motor and modified the existing Pro Series kits to use these motors as were the Phoenix and Saturn V models. New kits using the E15 motor were the Maniac, Shadow and Broadsword.
Sales of these new E15 motors went pretty well and production continued.
The follow-on production E15 motors did not fare so well. Higher than normal reports of motor failures were coming in.
Eventually, the NAR pulled the E15 motor certification and Estes told hobby distributors/dealers to destroy the motors and they would receive credit towards other Estes products.
What I exhibit here is an E15 motor with a PVC casing.
I do not know if this was a pre-production concept that didn't work out or a later attempt to resolve the problems the E15 motors were experiencing.
__________________
Bob
S.A.M. # 0014
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