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Old 04-12-2009, 10:47 AM
Jerry Irvine's Avatar
Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
Freeform rocketry advocate.
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Claremont, CA "The intellectual capitol of the world."-WSJ
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Most of these motor companies are one or two man operations. There have been a ton of them over the years. I started hosting launches at Lucerne in a moment in history to give three of them a venue for people to see what they have and fly rockets with them. That eventually gave rise to over a dozen different motor companies from that launch alone including AeroTech, Ace, Hypertek, CD#2, CD#3, Plasmajet, USR, IBCo, Kosdon, CompDist, and many others.

There were also motor company hotspots surrounding Ohio, Florida and Texas.

The companies which survived had high prices, some sort of distribution or discharge network and favorable press.

I formed a magazine before HPR was formalized by NAR and TRA to bootstrap the trade and get the maximal number of vendors out there. There was a huge initial blast-back by NAR and Estes. Once they realized we had good intentions and the will to continue our already 15 year old legacy of safety and fun, they switched to public acceptance and leveraging their considerable clout within regulatory bodies. That legacy of over-regulation to spite us has survived to this day.

We need to self-de-regulate rocketry in sensible ways to bring the groundwork for growth back in.

There is no reason other than self imposed rules and traditions why we could not have DOZENS of boutique motor makers today. That would be righteous!

Jerry
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