The address listed on the catalog for Flight systems is a residential area. The production operations were very close by. There are two Nike missle bases in the Lone jack area that were decomissioned in the late 60's. The base we were located at was owened by a local rancher. The winery at lone Jack used one of the silos to keep his stock in. Flight systems had most of the above ground buildings for engine production, machine shop, storage, offices, packaging, and testing. I do have some early George Roos stuff. I have a model of a cloud seeding rocket that used several original parts, a few motors, early motor box packaging with Louisville,Co. address. Misc stuff.

It used to be at the end of county maintance on KK, the road turned from chip and seal to gravel right after the driveway. If you look at a aerial view, what looks like a huge parking lot is the 3 silos. To the side of it is a building with a huge burm around it was the warhead assy. building. This is where motor production was. As you come up the driveway just before you get to the burms is the power substation and generator building. This was the machine shop. The first building you come to as you enter the complex of of KK was originaly crew qts. This was the main offices. You have to remember , this was not Estes. It was not backed by a corperation. It was family buisness of a bunch of really good people that did it out of the love of the hobby more than anything.

Steve As long as I worked there the only change made on the oso that i can remember was it was the first of the old kits to get new packageing. Before 1977 im not sure. Might get ahold of Doug Pratt, he might remember.

Sounds good. Some of my models including my OSO would have been purchased prior to 1977 and back then I wasn't concerned with documenting fin patterns and such, I just flew em and didn't think much of it .....

Do you remember a large dealer in the New Orleans (Metairie, Louisiana) area called Model Car Raceways? They stocked a lot of FSI, motors and kits. I bought early kits and motors from them many years before I purchased FSI through the mail order. I don't know of any other hobby stores in the New Orleans area other than Model Car Raceways that stocked FSI kits and motors .....

Any way you could post some details or perhaps a pic of that early George Roos cloud seeding rocket?
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__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

I think I do remember that name. Cant be for sure. I personaly handled the hobby store in south Kansas city. Panorama Hobbies and gifts in robandee shoping center. Supper supper nice people. I have to say for the most part , most of the hobby stores we delt with directly were great ! I usually did not do much with shipping unless we were caught up with production. Which we almost never were.

Will try to look for it if i get a chance. Most of my stuff is buried away somewhere. About the only things that are setting out right now are a motorcycle rocket from the movie Megaforce, a box of .903 tubing i brought from my dads a few months back and a huge rocket i had originally built for the Starship design contest that Lonnie and Larry took to the International Modelers show in 1978 at Long Beach i think. It hangs over the bed in my wifes sewing room. Yea shes happy. If I get a chance in next month or so i will try. The Cloud seeding rocket was about 27" long I think. Lower part is all motor. 1.125 phenolic tubing, bare, witha special plastic fin unit glued to it. Upper section fiberglass tubing with four fins and a tail cone that held the silver iodine, i think.

I could be wrong here, but didn't a nice toy/hobby shop at Cortana Mall in Baton Rouge also
carry FSI products? If I remember correctly, I think I bought a few kits there in several of
my visits in the early 1980's. I do recall this hobby shop had tons of (soon to be OOP) kits
from Estes, Centuri and other manufacturers in those days, and I bought what I could afford
while I had the chance.

__________________
Dave, NAR # 21853 SR.

Wow! I'd forgotten all about that movie. And the SOUNDTRACK! The two guys I rode to school with back then just loved it, but I couldn't stand it. I eventually threatened them with bodily harm if they played it if I was in the car.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

That sounds like a really cool rocket! I know you mentioned a special plastic fin unit glued to it. I wondered if it could have been one of the fin units used on the EnerJet 1340 sounding rockets like in the attached images. Those would have slip fit on that phenolic tubing if the od was approx. 1.34" and the originals for the 1340 would have been molded in red plastic. The fin cans in the images below are mounted on 1.25 id Semroc airframes.

I know you're bombarded with requests and interest since your first post here but should you ever run across that model I'm sure many on the forum including myself would absolutely love to see what that model looked like .....



The time frame I was buying from Model Car Raceways would have been early to mid 70's and I wasn't driving yet so I wasn't aware of any hobby shops in the Baton Rouge area, although I seem to remember you mentioned the shop in Cortana Mall before and I wish I had known about it so I could have paid it a visit in later years. During my senior year in high school 1979 I just found it easier to purchase FSI through the mail order. I don't remember exactly when Model Car Raceways went out of business but they had a really good selection of FSI motors and kits. I remember going with my dad and being drawn to the Centuri and Estes stuff in the color packages and my dad looked over a few of the FSI kits. He told me you really need to try these and showed me the plywood fins and figured a pretty sturdy model could be built with the FSI kits. When I inquired with the owner about it he said he had motors for them too and when I saw the motor selections I was pretty much hooked for a while with building and flying FSI.

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Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

This is a great thread. I have learned a ton. I use to fly FSI stuff in California for years. After getting back into the hobby, I always wondered what happened to FSI. You mentioned you work there until the mid 80's? How long did FSI stay in business? Why did they go away? I sure would fly those F100 today if I could, and I can't tell you how many Echo 1 I lost flying a E- E combo! Any chance of those motors coming back? Who owns the rights to FSI and is there any possibility of a future?

With all the retro look of rocketry, I can't think of a better company to "reappear". I know Semroc has done a awesome job of bringing back some of the old models, and most can be scratched built, but maybe we can fly those nice black powder D-F motors again!!!

Thanks so much for sharing, this has been just great.

Bob