A friend and I dropped by the plant in 1990, after attending LDRS.

We had a personal tour guide who showed us various operation rooms, including the silk screen shop, which was pretty cool. They had screens for decals going way back.

I recall a room where a bunch of ladies were assembling simple kits for some kind of give-away program.

There was a kind of launch platform made of a pile of "pavers" set in a sort of spiral. Our host set a yellow tripod on top. My friend Victor got to keep the RTF rocket she demo-flew.

Wild proposal:

A local club could approach Estes to offer their services as tour guides, and maybe to set up a visitors' center. Just a small building, maybe a converted trailer, set up with displays and video monitors to show the history of the plant and company. It would end, as all exhibits should, in a gift shop!

The tour could include a visit to a couple of select parts of the actual plant . . . assuming there's anything of interest to see! Perhaps John Boren's office and work space could be moved to a plexiglass dome, where people could shuffle past and see the master at work.

There might be a few quick flight demos at the end of the tour, weather permitting. A standard model, a glider, maybe a two-stager.

But seriously: The intent would be to make the Estes plant into a "field trip" destination for local schools, and for tourists.

If I win the lottery, I'll gladly fund the effort!

Stefan