I concur with Carl.

Technically all you would have to do to compete with Estes is enter their distribution channel successfully. I suspect the traditional hobby distributors would likely pick you up, then shortly afterward overwhelm your production capacity. Having actually sold through that channel myself, one can make it work with a markup of "only" 7:1, but 10:1 buys apartments all over the world.

I share your dinner offer and throw in a week at a lakefront mountain resort in California. Barry seems to have an affinity for travel.

The biggest single problem on model rocketry retail merchandising is inventory control. If there was a way to compel rapid restocking and shelf count increase of the most popular SKU's, gross sales would rise substantially.

Just Jerry