Quest Online Model Rocket Museum Update

[shockwaveriderz]

Bill Stine has posted the letters exchnaged between Orv Carlisle and G. Harry Stine.

terry dean

[Phred]

Do you have a link for that? I am not sure where this is....

Thanks!!
Phred

[Leo]

Hey Phred,

stop surf'in the internet and read your emails (orders) instead or I'll have to get me a printer and make my own decals :p

[Phred]

Shhh.... Don't tell anyone Leo..... I am at a meeting at work (phone conference), and it is mind bendingly numb!! What better to cure boredom than to cruise YORF? :cool:

Ph

[shockwaveriderz]

Do you have a link for that? I am not sure where this is....

Thanks!!
Phred


oops sorry phred. I just assumed everybody knew where it is.

http://www.questaerospace.com/museum.asp

terry dean

[moonzero2]

Does anyone have the plans for that launch tower?
What was it made of?
Can it be easily cloned?
Looks cool.

[Shreadvector]

Does anyone have the plans for that launch tower?
What was it made of?
Can it be easily cloned?
Looks cool.

Most were metal and were huge and contained in LARGE wooden transport boxes. One was left behind at MIT when I left in 1980. It may have been from Gordon Mandell who brought it from North Shore Section on Long Island or it may have come from someone else. Maybe one of the NAR S&T folks knows what happened to it? Ping them if interested.

[shockwaveriderz]

THere's 3-4 pics of it in the inaugral sept/oct 2006 issue of Launch magazine. Also page 60 may/june Launch mag.

The G.Hary Stine artcile shoot your own rockets april 1958 Mechanix Illustrated availble at Ye Old Rocket Shoppe

2 color phots page 13 july/Aug 2007 Lauch and an old issue of Model Rocketry mag which I can't find right now..


I have inquiries out for photos, drawings,instructions,etc

well see.


terry dean

[marslndr]

Does anyone have the plans for that launch tower?
What was it made of?
Can it be easily cloned?
Looks cool.

You mean this tower? It's on display just south of Seattle, at the museum of flight at Boeing field. It's part of the Stine collection on display that was donated last year. If anyone gets to the Seattle area it's well worth a visit.

The tower looks to be made from sheet metal sections that were punched out and riveted together. It does not look like it would be difficult just tedious.

Mark

[Phred]

Is that a C-rail?

Ph

[moonzero2]

You mean this tower? It's on display just south of Seattle, at the museum of flight at Boeing field. It's part of the Stine collection on display that was donated last year. If anyone gets to the Seattle area it's well worth a visit.

The tower looks to be made from sheet metal sections that were punched out and riveted together. It does not look like it would be difficult just tedious.

Mark

Yes, that's the tower. I see it often in old rocketry magazines. I've also seen pictures of some that look like they are made from wood dowels. I think it is the earlier Stine one that might have come with a rocket kit. Does anyone have the old instructions or plans for the older wooden tower? I would like to clone it.

[marslndr]

You know I'm not sure. Sorry, I just looked at the full photo on my computer and it looks like it might be a channel. I hope to get back to the museum next week, if so I'll make a point to look.

[MarkB.]

I'd like to know how it works too. And I'd like to clone it if possible. That would be great for my bottom-less BT-50 Aerobees.

[K.M.Knox]

I just got done reading the G. Harry Stine Personal Memoirs on rocketry from 1957-1962 and had to start work on my Semroc Aerobee-Hi kit... Talk about a neat feeling putting the fins on the rocket and sanding down the strakes after just having read Mr. Stine's memoir on the whole origin of MMI and their first model kit. Very cool.

Sure is nice to have Quest (Bill Stine) sharing their heritage and personal items with us. :) I think it brings a even deeper appreciation for the hobby.

[billspad]

Most were metal and were huge and contained in LARGE wooden transport boxes. One was left behind at MIT when I left in 1980. It may have been from Gordon Mandell who brought it from North Shore Section on Long Island or it may have come from someone else. Maybe one of the NAR S&T folks knows what happened to it? Ping them if interested.


The tower that was in the wooden box at MIT was huge but it wasn't a MMI tower. I have one and it's just like the one in the photo posted in this thread. It was held together by nuts and bolts. There were spacers that adjusted the rails for two body tube sizes (BT-30 and BT-50?) and it was very inconvenient to make the change. I attached a photo showing some detail.

The tower at MIT looked like an upscale of the MMI tower. We looked in the box and there was a rocket in the tower. I think it was 2 or 3 inches in diameter. The building that it was in has been torn down and replaced with another building. I think Jack Kane knows what happened to the tower.

[billspad]

The first thing that comes to mind during that time period would be erector set pieces?

Very similar. It assembled the same way.

Erector sets were my favorite toys before I got into rockets.

[shockwaveriderz]

Bill:

According to Richard Keller, that was exactly the thinking behind the Tower launcher.
G. Harry Stine's thinking, of course.

We sometimes forget that G. Harry did most of the marketing/advertising for MMI plus he designed the boxes, the instruction sheets,the models, the pacakaging, testing of all models and components, etc... These were G. Harry's main job while at MMI, according to Richard Keller.


It was Richard Keller and family though, that didn't particularly like the 001A Deluxe kit box because it was too long resulting in additional postal fees(costs); too heavy; got damaged too easy in transit of the day, etc.

This was the main reason G. Harry Stine's father-in-Law, Willard L. Kauth (NAR #5), sold off his stake in MMI when the Kellers, where brought into MMI.
As soon as posible afterward kit 001B, with the two piece lauich rod came out.

This was the idea of Richard Keller who originally wanted to use a telescoping launch rod like the telescoping antenna's of the day, that were on cars!.

So now you know the rest of the "rocket story".......



If anybody is wondering what Richard Keller is doing today, he's consulting free of charge and setting up a HD TV network...at age 80!.


terry dean

[billspad]

Bill:

According to Richard Keller, that was exactly the thinking behind the Tower launcher.
G. Harry Stine's thinking, of course.

terry dean

I don't remember what I paid for the tower because it was over forty years ago but it always impressed me as something that should cost more than it did. Given the amount of people in the hobby at the time it couldn't have been a huge production run and it had several custom metal parts that had to be cut and drilled..

[shockwaveriderz]

The Quest Virtual Model Rocket Museum has been updated with numerous photos :

http://www.questaerospace.com/museumgallery.asp


terry dean

[Ez2cDave]

Does anyone have the plans for that launch tower?
What was it made of?
Can it be easily cloned?
Looks cool.

ENJOY . . . ! ! !

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/mmi-model-missiles-inc-tower.150654/

Dave F.

[ghrocketman]

Love your Avatar on TRF, Dave F.
An all-time favorite rocket.

[Ez2cDave]

Love your Avatar on TRF, Dave F.
An all-time favorite rocket.

Thanks !

I just made it my avatar here, too .

Dave F.