I was reading the classified advertising section in my November 1957 Flying Models mag and the ad states:

Rocket Kit.

Simple, inexpensive: flies out of site; two dollars.

Model Rocket Society, Dept. A, Deerwood, Minnesota.

A few thoughts and questions floated on by.
Why would I want to spend my hard earned allowance on something I might never see again.
I don't know what the going rate of allowance was back then, but $ 0.10 cents a week sounds about right, maybe?
It would take 20 weeks(5 months) to save up for two dollars, plus postage.

What do you use for a motor? It doesn't mention that in the kit. (Estes was just getting started back then, right?)

Does it come with a parachute, streamer, or what?

Two dollars is equivalent to $17.12 in today's money, I looked it up!

I find this stuff interesting.

__________________
If it flies, I can crash it!

Costs were higher but incomes were way higher after the war. The Federal income tax was installed to kill growth!!

BTW it is still working. Opposite the war on poverty. Oops!

I hate when that happens. :-)

-- Roger

That ad would not have appealed to me. Unless it had pictures and was just totally awesome.

I seem to recall my dad giving me 50 cents a week in the early 60s. Once I started mowing the lawn, he upped it to a dollar. That was close to the time I got started in rockets, around 1964. I also had several lawn mowing jobs, so I could afford the cheaper kits, buying a reasonable number of motors, and still have 37 cents left for McDonalds occasionally. (A burger was 15 cents, fries were 12 cents, and a small coke was 10 cents.)

What always seemed out of reach for me were the big kits like Saturns, Mars Landers, etc.

__________________
Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

The ad you quote does not say you will never see it again.

It simply says it will fly out of site. If you watch it fly and see where it goes outside of the site, you will never lose sight of it. Then just walk or drive out of or off of your site (while maintaining a sight line) and go get your rocket.

if you are worried about flying out of site, simply launch at a larger site.

I wonder if that magazine and ad are available to view online? If so, it would be great if someone could cite the site.

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-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

Estes also promises "out of site" flights for the Jetliner.

http://www.estesrockets.com/rockets...stes-jetlinertm

- Roger

http://shamenun.com/

__________________
-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

Using the word 'site' is an advertising gimmick...it certainly does not refer to "sight".
I don't know of ANY rocket other than the Mosquito or one similarly-sized that flies out-of-SIGHT on an A10-3T.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !

Gee, ghrocketman,

I don't recall posting a motor size in my original post. In fact, I posted it DID NOT say anything about a motor included!

REALLY!

__________________
If it flies, I can crash it!

GH apparently lost sight very early in the thread.

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President