Ok, my question is, I saw 18mm FSI motors for sale at B&B Sales in Snellville, GA in 1989, well before Quest came on the scene. They had the chalky nozzles reminiscent of the MPC motors and early Quest motors. Did FSI have the machine that early?

and is the 13mm machine the one that tore apart?

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Roy
nar12605

At one of the ECRM meets, Doug Pratt pull out his motor box which had all kinds of old motors in it. There were some early FSI 18 mm in it. From the story he told, they tried early on to make 18 mm motor but the all bugled in the middle using the machine they had. I don't know for sure if any of these early 18 mm made it out for sale or not. I have to ask him next time I see him.

Bill and G. Harry were looking for the MPC motor making machines while I was working at Enertek (1987-1988).

I have some FSI 18mm motors dated April 1988. I don't know if they were made on the MPC motor making machine(s). The nozzle chalk is white but kinda lumpy in areas, not smooth like the MPC/Quest motors.

I don't know which one of the MPC motor machines was blown apart.

Bob

I had a bunch of FSI 18mm motors that they made as a test run (1/2A?-3 can't remember the average thrust, but it might have been 6). They all had the same clay and shape as the 21 mm motors - definitely not the powdery white clay of the MPC or AVI motors and not the rounded shape exit found on MPC and early made-in-USA Quest motors.

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-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

My two Cents!
I ran across this thread just today and I read most of the replays and decided to add my two cents, for what it’s worth. First off I have been into rocketry since the late 1960,s, and have been certified Level Two. So that I can fly high power J and K Motors for about 8 years now, and in no way can a child handle a K motor, You have to be 18 to purchase and use High Power motors, anything above a G motor.

Also about 8 years ago will going to LDRS High Power Launch in Colorado I stooped into the Estes factory and talked to one of there executives about a lot of what was talked about in this thread. I was told they could no longer give tours of their factory because of insurance purposes. Put I did get to see what was in their mane headquarters and what was in development at that time. And at that time I asked way they never brought back some of Estes classic rocket like the Mars Lander. At that time I was told that unless they can show high sale volume, they would not re-release an older rocket, so they are only concerned about high Valium sales not low Valium, higher priced items. Estes is into thousands of customers not a couple hundred like the smaller companies like FlisKits. And for this reason is way Estes dropped their North Coast Rocketry, High and mid power may be a high cost Hobby but its low Valium when it comes to sales.
For example my Loc Minie-Magg is a very popular High power rocket but Loc probably sale less than 200 a year.

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Isn't that an oxymoron?



Isn't that redundant?

The first use of plastic in model rockets was by G. Harry Stine and MMI. They had a a PVC plastic nose cone for the Aerobee-Hi in Sept. 1958. And didn't they use a plastic engine mount holder too?

terry dean

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"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.

i had heard it was actually metal. light, ductile metal similar to that used to package individual cigars.

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Roy
nar12605

Roy, i'm pretty sure you are correct; bnut I thought I had read within the pages of the forum that at soem point they either used a plastic or wood motor mount. I may be mistaken

terry dean

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"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.

I think all the Arcons had a small styrene engine mount that served as a thrust ring and engine holder. I do not think it was used on the early Aerobee-Hi kits, but it could have been used on later ones since it was the same size body tube. The aluminum and manila combination was a brilliant design.

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Carl McLawhorn
NAR#4717 L2
semroc.com