Early Model Rocketry History Timeline

[shockwaveriderz]

xyz

[Ltvscout]

Great info. Thanks, Terry!

[shockwaveriderz]

scott: thanks as I gather more data I will add it to this listing..... Right now I am trying to stay below 1962. I cuurently know that the Coaster Corp existed prior to 1962, I just haven't gotten around to putting the info together.

terry dean
aka shockie :)

[shockwaveriderz]

I have updated my Early Model Rocketry History timeline with V2 with new and corected infromation. enjoy

shockie :)

[ScaleNut]

Werner Von Braun was NAR #18

[shockwaveriderz]

scalenut:

thanks for that info. I have updated the timeline accordingly.

shockie :)

[ScaleNut]

let me make sure ... it was mentioned in 'sport rocketry' a little while back..

I'll find it and post the issue#

EDIT* 18 is correct
the first 25 numbers were reserved for people who were important to rocketry and space travel..
It would be interesting to see the list, I can only verify about 8 of those first 25

[SEL]

let me make sure ... it was mentioned in 'sport rocketry' a little while back..

I'll find it and post the issue#

EDIT* 18 is correct
the first 25 numbers were reserved for people who were important to rocketry and space travel..
It would be interesting to see the list, I can only verify about 8 of those first 25

I believe Arthur C. Clark is one of them.

Sean

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Don't forget Elroy Jetson. :eek: :D :rolleyes:

[CPMcGraw]

1/58 "Skip" and Richard.D Keller, G.Harry Stine's Father and Brother-in-laws invest in Model Missiles,Inc...


July 30, 1959 G.Harry Stine loses control of MMI at a board meeting to Richard D. Keller.

So Stine lost control of the company after only eighteen months to his Brother-in-Law...

Strained relations, you think? Or was there some sort of mutual understanding at work?

[WSMR]

Right after going to work at White Sands Missile Range, I bought a Rock-A-Chute kit at the hobby shop on Main Street, Las Cruces, NM, in the Fall of 1958. I built it and launched it only once out in the desert east of Cruces, with three friends as witnesses. I put the model away and launched it half a dozen more times (with some original and some newer Estes engines) in 1978, for my two youngest children. A friend, a member of the NAR, offered to take the model to a Midwest show and give it a place of honor in an exhibit in Ohio, but I declined.

I had met G. Harry Stine in 1970 at the World SF Convention, and then again in 1990 at the NewMexicon SF convention. He told me that he had one model rocket at home, and had given the other to the Smithsonian, where I later saw it on exhibit. I told him that I had one as well, although the worse for wear, along with original engines, parachute and instructions. He said to hold onto it, that it was priceless.*

Later in the '90s, when I was working in Washington, D.C., and again met with Harry there, he told me that he had taken back the model he'd given to the Smithsonian (over a dispute about their WWII display regarding Hiroshima), and that meant he had the only two remaining copies of the model. I reminded him of mine. He joked that the only original model rockets now were in the hands of two old rocket farts.

*Someday after I retire I may put it on E Bay and see just how priceless it is.

--WSMR

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

And you'll be posting a picture WHEN? :cool:

[WSMR]

It is in storage in Albuquerque. Hasn't seen daylight in years. All original except for the thin fins, which were lost in the 1958 launch. Twenty years later I replaced them with thicker balsa wood fins.

Next time I'm back there I will dig out the labeled box and photograph it and post the pic.

(On a more modern note, I also have considerable debris left over from the fiery last landing of the DC-X VTOL rocket at White Sands in the late 90s. Those pictures are not very noteworthy...)

[Rocketaholic]

This is the information I have been looking for. Now is there a website that has all of the historical information available, elctronic copy wise in PDF format etc?? :)

I also recall that in 1998 or 1999, Estes had a serious fire that burned down a lot of its inventory and it was rumored that a lot of their original molds to classic kits went up in smoke as well. Can anyone elaborate on that?