Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - Enerjet 1340 Kit on Ebay

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghrocketman

Most likely those interested in it frequent this forum; once the true "franken-nature" of the kit emerged, I would not doubt if several bids got pulled.
I was not aware of any kits coming with Enerjet motors packaged within the bag either.
That F52 motor is worth probably $50 to a collector, but would be worth MUCH more if it was one of the original NIB boxed motors.

I could put together a stapled bag of HASHIMOTO conglomeration parts to create a 1340 CLONE with a copy of correct color instructions and that would be no more an original 1340 kit than this was. The ONLY way I would accept that this kit was original would be via certification by the man himself, Lee Piester. Short of that, no way.

Who knows about the other "Enerjet" kits in his box; we did not get any decent views of those.

That F52 in particular with the short delay isn't worth much to me .... now if it had a 14 second delay, I know exactly what I would do with it if acquired at a decent price and it wouldn't be sitting on the shelf collecting dust.

My opinion is this so please take it as just that, an opinion. If a seller is going to move what is believed to be such a rare one of a kind product offering through an auction, the burden of proof is on THE SELLER to validate it's authenticity. The statement by seller just didn't sit well with me: "I think I'm going to wait till someone comes forward with photos or proper documentation that can corroborate the color, size, motor, tube number, diameter, etc, etc".

Contact Lee Piester and determine the history of the kit. Write, Email or visit him at his Hobby Bench store and determine the history of the packaging and parts selection used for this end of production 1340. Don't know of any other kits in the Centuri line up with black pre-colored tubes. Would this be unique to future runs of the 1340? Was the orange colored fin unit with nose cone and coupler mold to be standard for future 1340 releases? Possibly an orange and black scheme same as referenced in the drawings that Gary Rosenfield produced when he had Composite Dynamics that documented the suggested finishes and dimensions of the EnerJet 2250 and 2650 sounding rockets?

Jerry Irvine having purchased and flown original versions of all these sounding rockets when they were in the wild surely doesn't recognize it and I for one don't doubt his first hand knowledge or experience with these kits. Potential buyers are obviously suspicious. Seller doesn't know. Contact Gary Rosenfield to see what he may know. Find names of folks in the old newsletters that attended NARAM-14 when the 1340 model first made it's debut and contact them to see what they know about early and late versions of the 1340. Maybe one of these guys knows where to contact Larry Brown. I really don't know but the burden of proof is not on the bidders.

I hope someone will "come forward" and bring the seller the information he needs ..... let's all just wait and see if that happens ......