Ye Olde Rocket Forum

Go Back   Ye Olde Rocket Forum > Weather-Cocked > Current Kit Talk
User Name
Password
Auctions Register FAQ Members List Calendar Today's Posts Search Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #71  
Old 11-12-2017, 01:06 PM
Astrosaint's Avatar
Astrosaint Astrosaint is offline
Astrosaint
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Astatula, FLA
Posts: 38
Default International Motor Trade

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
That's too bad, as they look like very good composite propellant motors, and their black powder motor-like cases (parallel-wound paper, with nozzles that appear to be ceramic, like those of black powder motors) may be considerably less expensive to produce and load than the plastic cases of other single-use composite motors. This is an instance where knowing a consulate or embassy employee with diplomatic pouch privileges (I know a British model rocketeer who availed himself of this to get Central and Eastern European competition rocket motors) is *very* helpful... :-)



Sadly, the diplomatic pouch and the airline captain's bag may be the big reason model rocket motor trade between nation-states never occurred commercially in the 1960s and 1970s. Both the PRC and the Argentina manufacture rocket motors but we in the US will never see those motors unless a US company like Quest imports them. This is not likely to happen in today's trade and culture climate.
Reply With Quote
  #72  
Old 11-12-2017, 10:19 PM
blackshire's Avatar
blackshire blackshire is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astrosaint
Sadly, the diplomatic pouch and the airline captain's bag may be the big reason model rocket motor trade between nation-states never occurred commercially in the 1960s and 1970s. Both the PRC and the Argentina manufacture rocket motors but we in the US will never see those motors unless a US company like Quest imports them. This is not likely to happen in today's trade and culture climate.
I don't think that stopped it, because it doesn't occur often, and the "legally-illegally-smuggled" quantities of motors are so small. The few people who do this are almost invariably high-level FAI international space modeling contest flyers, and the motors they get (so that they can test their models' performance using them before traveling to the contest-hosting countries) are specialty contest motors which are often hand-made by "cottage industry" folks. Also:

Most of these motors would have little appeal to the majority of non-contest sport fliers (and even non-FAI level competition flyers) because of their frequently highly unusual thrust-time curve/delay time characteristics (plus their often-unusual casing dimensions), and their manufacturers would go broke if they set out to get the certifications and shipping permits (which wouldn't be worthwhile, due to the small customer base for most of these motors). In addition:

While mainland Chinese-made motors would be hard to get into the U.S. market, given their growing adversarial policies and actions (unless a model rocket company like Quest imports them, as they were doing), this problem might not apply--beyond the normal costs of getting certifications and import licensing set up--to Argentinian-made motors. (I even once had Brazilian-made 18 mm x 70 mm motors [to my surprise, two came factory-sealed in a Brazilian kit that I'd traded for with a U.S. kit, from a Brazilian model rocketeer whose article was published in the NAR's magazine in the 1990s], and their manufacturer may still be in business.) As well:

I would love to be able to buy model rocket kits, motors, and accessories made by other nations' companies, and there may be a way to get around the import barriers *legally*. Everything other than the rocket motors and igniters ("starters," if one so wills) is just paper, balsa, plastic, rubber, and wire--nothing that's any more flammable or otherwise dangerous (chemically or biologically) than the materials in countless other products that are shipped and sold around the world every day, and:

The rocket motors, I've read (it might have been Dr. Edward Jones [the Spadroon jet motor fellow] or Jerry who wrote this), can be legally imported into the U.S. far more easily as fireworks, under their different and more-lenient rules regime (they can even be shipped easily within the U.S., as I have personally experienced as a buyer). As well as rocket kits, the companies could offer motor-less "launch sets" with everything *except* motors, while the motors would be imported as fireworks. (The motors could be NAR Certified once here, or the CAR--which has reciprocity with the NAR regarding motor certification--could certify the motors [I'd be pleased as punch to use foreign-made motors with a maple leaf stamp on them!].)
__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:13 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe © 1998-2024