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Old 04-24-2013, 06:00 PM
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Royatl Royatl is offline
SPEV/Orion wrangler
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K'Tesh
Does anybody know of a resource that shows the changes of Estes' parachutes over time. I've looked, and I can't find anything that could be used to date a rocket by its 'chute (except for a comment to try flowers and taking it to a nice restaurant... Didn't work... I tried).

I'm looking for pattern changes, and when did they shift from red to white shroud lines.

Thanks
Jim
.


Estes used red plastic for their chutes for the first few years (maybe an inventory holdover from Model Missiles?, or at least the same supplier). Don't know when they started with printed parachutes, but the basic checkered design stayed into 1971, when they switched to the orange/white with black logo-ed center.

There were slight variations on that through the next three decades. First there were reddish oranges, flourescent oranges, etc. Then there was either white material, or white printed on clear material. Then they changed the orange to something else (green, purple, etc.) based on size.

There were special purpose chutes during this time as well (solar sailer, the drag chute inspired chutes for various purposes).

In 1997 or so the basic design changed to three or four types that seemed to be inspired by R/C car artists.

Finally four years ago or so, Estes started using a nostalgic design based on their first printed chutes, but simplified by using a white material base, and they color coded them based on size.
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