Thanks Bob! I appreciate the clarification.

__________________
Hans "Chris" Michielssen
Old/New NAR # 19086 SR

www.oddlrockets.com
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com
http://www.nar.org/educational-reso...ing-techniques/
Your results may vary
"Nose cones roll, be careful with that."
Every spaceman needs a ray gun.
Look out - I'm the Meister Shyster!

In the middle weeks of 1969, in the midst of that ethereal summer of Apollo 11, the phone rang in G. Harry Stine’s home on Bickford Lane in New Canaan, Connecticut. Model Products Corporation was on the phone and they had a problem.

MPC’s new acquisition of Model Rocket Industries along with principals Myke Bergenske and Ron Day had gone well. Myke and Ron joined Gil Leutz at MPC to create a formidable team which quickly secured a large order from Kmart; at the time a dominant player in the American retail scene. Along with the big order from Kmart came big exposure to a whole variety of characters unfamiliar to the plastic model manufacturer; Fire Marshalls. New stores selling model rockets meant new exposure to the varied opinions expressed by regional Fire Marshalls across the country. MPC needed Stine’s expertise to fight those battles.

As the first summer of Apollo drew into autumn, Stine met with the MPC brass for the first time. Gathered in the board room at MPC, the man at the end of the long table told the assembled that “MPC would have a rocket that cost a dollar” as he gestured to show the size of the future kit’s box.

The small story on page 12 of the October 1969 issue of Model Rocketry magazine headlined “MPC Retains Stine as Consultant”. The story didn’t address the regulatory aspect of Stine’s duties despite their importance. Rather, the announcement focused on his future role “for design and technical advice in the field of model rocketry”. As Stine quietly joined in the regulatory battle being waged behind the scenes, he also got to work on creating rocket designs and innovations still felt in the hobby today.

The same October 1969 issue of Model Rocketry announcing Stine’s employ by MPC also signaled their entry into the model rocket market. The page 25 headline read “MPC Enters Rocket Field”. Absent from these initial rocketry offerings were any of Stine’s design contributions; he was too new to the company. These models were all innovative creations from the fertile imaginations of the MRI crew.

The first MPC kits announced in October were the Redstone Maverick, Moon-Go, Flare Patriot, Lambda Payloader, Theta-Cajun, and the Icarus. Prices ranged from $1.50-$2.00. Their lineage was MRI all the way.

As Stine busied himself designing and creating new set of MPC models in his workshop, yet another Saturn V destined for the moon rolled to Pad 39A. Apollo 12 would leave for Luna on November 14. As Conrad, Gordon, and Bean went about their mission to the Ocean of Storms, Stine attended to his. Planet Earth loomed large in the windows of the Yankee Clipper spacecraft, only one day removed from its Pacific Ocean splashdown, as Stine set his first design onto its pad in Waveny Park (Waveny Park Wiki) , a short distance from his home in New Canaan.

For the first entry into “MPC Week” it seems appropriate to share the rocket from the National Model and Sport Rocketry Collection that was conceived at Stine’s first MPC meeting; the MPC Pioneer 1. The box is 9 3/8 inches long and yes, the kit retailed for a dollar.

Here is the Pioneer 1 as it appeared on hobby shop shelves in the latter days of 1969 (except perhaps vertically).



The first Pioneer 1 as seen in the National Model and Sport Rocketry Collection.

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National Collection Images: G. Harry Stine Collection/The Museum of Flight.

I have a fondness for the old MPC kits, which were among the first I purchsed. A hobby shop in Glen Cove, the next town over, carried them.

I also mail-ordered a metric buttload of them in the mid 70s. I won an AVI contest in 77 or so, and $50 of models at their prices went a long way!

That preserved Pioneer looks beautiful. Kept carefully stored all this time I guess!

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NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

MPC was the first model rocket company to have their products for sale through a mass-market outlet (Kmart). That was a big deal.

It wasn't so much a fire marshal problem as a laws and regulations issue.

Kmart stores were all over the place back in the late 1960s-early 1970s. At that time model rocketry was still not quantified in many fire codes around the country. Some counties/towns/cities had either no regulations concerning model rocketry or lumped them in with fireworks.

This caused massive headaches for Kmart. While the rockets may be legal in one town, the next city over may ban them and fine Kmart for selling the MPC products.

Eventually Kmart gave up and asked MPC to take back all the rocket products and give Kmart a refund.

We were talking about a lot of unsold product. Not pallets but entire tractor-trailer loads of items.

MPC took a bath and decided to get out of the model rocketry business.

According to what I heard, Myke Bergenske was able to buy the remaining MPC product at fire sale prices.

Around 25 years ago some of this original MPC product was discovered and distributed to hobby shops. I managed to pick up model (kits and RTF) along with motors (Don't use them).
But, that's another story.

__________________
Bob
S.A.M. # 0014

Bob,

As usual that is just excellent input, thanks for sharing that insight. Posts like yours demonstrate why YORF is the perfect place for this blog-ish thread.

Thanks to you and all the others for their ongoing input. This is what an online community is supposed to look like.

More MPC tomorrow.

Pat

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National Collection Images: G. Harry Stine Collection/The Museum of Flight.

Which he sold at amazing prices via AVI. You can find old sales brochures on Ninfinger I think.

He also sold MRI back-stock, and repackaged AVI parts to make "new" MRI kits.

I had a $15 balance on a AVI gift certificate when they went under. Man the stuff I could have bought with those $15! Pretty much one of everything that MPC made.

* * *
Another source of MPC stuff was Commonwealth Displays, a Michigan outfit which sold rocketry and fireworks stuff for many years. I recall buying very cheap FSI motors from them, and some of MPC's little-known RTF models.

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NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

The Flat Cat was a favorite boost glider design of G. Harry Stine, designed and developed in the mid 1960’s. Numerous examples were built and successfully flown by his YMCA Space Pioneers NAR Section in 1967 and onward.

Stine’s original Flat Cat plans and photographs remain in the unprocessed portion of his archive so we won't be able to see those for a few years. We hope the current rate of processing changes, but at the current speed it could be a long while. Maybe we can find a way to change that.

In August 1969, Model Rocketry magazine published detailed plans, a building guide, and history of the model in Stine’s monthly “Old Rocketeer” column. That column is still one of the best introductory boost glide construction ever written.

Model Rocketry Magazine, August 1969

At the end of the piece mention is made that Model Rocket Industries would soon be releasing the model as a kit. As it turned out Flat Cat would be released as a kit, but it wouldn’t be by MRI. The MPC buyout of MRI would change all that.

Flat Cat was intended as an easy to build model that a beginning modeler could assemble without need for airfoiling or difficult trimming prior to flight. The model abandoned the earlier V-Tail configuration of Stine’s Unicorn B/G design which could be challenging in the hands of a beginner.

Flat Cat made its first appearance in the Fourth Edition of the Handbook of Model Rocketry. The model pictured here very closely resembles the model shown in the Fourth Edition. Note the "flat cat" cartoon Stine has drawn on the raw balsa looks identical to the 4th Edition kitty.



This second model is the first production MPC Flat Cat from Stine's collection. Note he built it without airfoils or rounded surfaces as 90 percent of the builders likely did also. The wing planform has been also been reversed from the model shown in the 4th Edition (thanks for pointing that out Walt!).



Stine included a hand written tag identifying the significance of the model.



The MPC retail packaging of the Flat Cat kit.



Here's what you got inside the Flat Cat box. What percentage of kids today would be able to do this build?

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National Collection Images: G. Harry Stine Collection/The Museum of Flight.

As Stine's consulting work for MPC progressed he began to leverage the company's expertise in plastics to produce their first scale model offerings; the Titan III, and the Vostok with its R-7 booster.

The models were announced at the Chicago Hobby Show in March of 1970 which was dutifully covered by Model Rocketry magazine in April 1970, the month Apollo 13 flew (too bad Cox didn't release the full Saturn tower instead of just the base).



Harry Stine showed off the MPC Vostok at the Pittsburgh Spring Convention as shown in this image from the June 1970 issue of Model Rocketry.



Despite the secretive nature of the early Soviet space program restrictions were relaxed in 1967 with the exhibition of a Vostok/R7 stack at the 1967 Paris Airshow and a release of scale information for modelers from Novosti Press Agency. Information that would have got you a ticket to Siberia or worse only a few years earlier!



Here's the Stine built MPC Vostok in the National Collection. It appears to be a different model from the one seen in the Pittsburgh Convention photo. The tiny Vostok sphere is visible in the nose.



The obverse of the Vostok with Stine's characteristic "2" in evidence.



The MPC Vostok separated into its post-ejection components.

MPC re-released both the Vostok and Titan III several years ago, so interested modelers should find them fairly easy online.

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National Collection Images: G. Harry Stine Collection/The Museum of Flight.

My MPC Vostok kit (original, not the reissue) had a single 20" thin Mylar parachute.
The instructions showed both the upper and lower sections were to descend on the single chute.

Those clear fins weren't part of the original MPC kit, two sets of white plastic fins were included.
Smaller fins for display, larger fins for stable flight. Both sets of fins snapped into the boosters.

http://modelrocketbuilding.blogspot...el/MPC%20Vostok

__________________
Hans "Chris" Michielssen
Old/New NAR # 19086 SR

www.oddlrockets.com
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com
http://www.nar.org/educational-reso...ing-techniques/
Your results may vary
"Nose cones roll, be careful with that."
Every spaceman needs a ray gun.
Look out - I'm the Meister Shyster!

Chris,

You raise an interesting point regarding the fins. Could this be an earlier prototype with clear plastic fins or did Stine make a modification to a stock kit to boost stability?

Perhaps an enterprising forum member can scan the competition records to see if the model was a Stine entry in a scale or plastic model event.

Pat

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National Collection Images: G. Harry Stine Collection/The Museum of Flight.