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-   -   MPC History (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=16731)

tbzep 07-20-2017 05:09 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by mwtoelle
Probably the old CMR (Competition Model Rockets) body tubes. All you needed for a smooth finish was some sandpaper and little elbow grease to deal with the spiral. Some of the BTCs may know which company produced those body tubes.

I don't know if Euclid made them or not, but they were capable of doing it. You could order up just about anything from them.

Gus 07-20-2017 05:17 PM

3 Attachment(s)
Speaking of MPC and G. Harry's involvement, I thought you guys might enjoy seeing this. I picked it up a LONG time ago. The box and shrink wrap are in perfect condition and someone very wisely thought to have Harry sign it. I'm pretty sure it was in pre-Sharpie days because Harry signed on a piece of masking tape affixed to the back of the kit.

"G. Harry Stine NAR-2 Designer"

stefanj 07-20-2017 06:09 PM

More tid-bits:

Circa 1970-71, the small hobby shop in Glen Cove, LI carried MPC parts. They came in bags with headers. I recall buying plastic fin units for the 25mm tube. They must have had tubes and cones as well.

The shop had some MPC kits in bags, which seems unusual now. I remember looking at the peculiar "fried egg' foam saucers of the Martin Patrol through the plastic bag. Is it possible that this was a later type of packaging, made for hobby shop distribution?

The same shop had a copy of the Model Rocket Manual by Stine. It had a black cover with a red or white line drawing of a rocket. The book (which I still have, minus the cover and some front and back pages) was a sort of cut-down version of the Handbook of Model Rocketry, with some of the same illustrations. It was very MPC-centric, with mentions of MPC kits and pictures of them as well!

The same shop carried MPC's "ready to fly" models. They came in glossy display boxes with cellophane "windows," more like a toy than rocketry packaging at the time.

I bought one in the late 80s from Commonwealth Displays; it was heavy and kind of clunky. I recall one had used the clipped delta T-25 fin unit. They had a T-20 interior tube that was advertised as a replaceable liner; a sliding red plastic plug was use in lieu of wadding. I never flew or took the kit out of the box; before moving to California I sold it for a good mark-up.

John Brohm 07-20-2017 07:01 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanj
...

The same shop had a copy of the Model Rocket Manual by Stine. It had a black cover with a red or white line drawing of a rocket. The book (which I still have, minus the cover and some front and back pages) was a sort of cut-down version of the Handbook of Model Rocketry, with some of the same illustrations. It was very MPC-centric, with mentions of MPC kits and pictures of them as well!

...


This is the later ARCO published version of the book you mention. It is indeed MPC focused.

stefanj 07-20-2017 08:19 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Brohm
This is the later ARCO published version of the book you mention. It is indeed MPC focused.

It is possible that Arco published the version I described. I will have to dig it out of storage!

I saw another version, with a color cover, at Powell's about ten years ago. I really, really should have bought it!

blackshire 07-21-2017 12:23 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gus
Speaking of MPC and G. Harry's involvement, I thought you guys might enjoy seeing this. I picked it up a LONG time ago. The box and shrink wrap are in perfect condition and someone very wisely thought to have Harry sign it. I'm pretty sure it was in pre-Sharpie days because Harry signed on a piece of masking tape affixed to the back of the kit.

"G. Harry Stine NAR-2 Designer"
That *is* quite an artifact! Did he get its name from the alien pet called a flat cat (a pie slice-shaped furry creature that buzzed when happy, rather like a cat purring [perhaps the inspiration for the tribbles in "Star Trek?"]) in E. E. "Doc" Smith's science fiction stories? Being a science fiction writer himself, Stine very likely read Smith's stories.

blackshire 07-21-2017 12:41 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanj
The instructions for the Nike-Patriot I'm building refer, in the step where the plastic launch lug is glued on, to the tube covering as "plastic."

I think the tube core is just really high quality paper. Dense, completely wrapped. No gaps.

Least-favorite tube has a brown inner layer that isn't complete; held together by the outer layer.

I wonder if Myke Bergenske would remember these details, or if Bill Stine could help.

* * *
Other oddments for this thread:

* AVI produced its own motors for a short time. Same as the MPC motors, but with funky 1970s labeling.
* At least one MPC kit had, on the instruction sheet's suggested motor list, what appear to be FSI motors! D4, D6, etc. Were these really FSI motors, or vaporware MPC motors?
* Who designed and build the MRI / MPC / AVI motor making machine?
* What became of the 13 mm motor making machine? Or was were those motors made on the bigger machine with some kind of alternate tooling set?
You may have solved this mystery with that one word ("plastic")--you jogged my memory of the scanned Nike-Patriot instructions on the Ninfinger Productions website. A high-quality spiral-wound kraft paper tube with a thin plastic overwrap (which might also have "soaked" into the upper layer of the paper, if the plastic was applied in a dissolved liquid [or molten] form) could also have the same physical characteristics as the MPC tubes, especially if the cured (or cooled & solidified) plastic was stiff (had a low elastic modulus). It would also--depending on its composition--be perfect for making strong plastic-to-plastic bonds (with the MPC styrene plastic launch lugs, for example), using ordinary plastic cement (if I recall correctly, the instructions called for using tube-type plastic cement).

DeanHFox 07-21-2017 01:24 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
That *is* quite an artifact! Did he get its name from the alien pet called a flat cat (a pie slice-shaped furry creature that buzzed when happy, rather like a cat purring [perhaps the inspiration for the tribbles in "Star Trek?"]) in E. E. "Doc" Smith's science fiction stories? Being a science fiction writer himself, Stine very likely read Smith's stories.
The "Flat Cats" also appeared in Robert Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones" --- the youngest Stone called his "Fuzzy Britches". :)

Joe Wooten 07-21-2017 02:28 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
That *is* quite an artifact! Did he get its name from the alien pet called a flat cat (a pie slice-shaped furry creature that buzzed when happy, rather like a cat purring [perhaps the inspiration for the tribbles in "Star Trek?"]) in E. E. "Doc" Smith's science fiction stories? Being a science fiction writer himself, Stine very likely read Smith's stories.


I thought Heinlein used those first in "The Rolling Stones".......

I guess I should have read all the posts first...... :rolleyes:

pterodactyl 07-21-2017 02:39 PM

Stine was very close to Heinlein, so the Flat Cat name has an obvious explanation of which I was unaware until now. I thought it was a Grumman aircraft reference; they named all their aircraft after types of 'Cat'.


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