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  #31  
Old 08-08-2017, 05:01 PM
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Mike Hellmund would be someone who might know, as he was with Estes from 1991-?? Matt Steele was there from around 93-97. I think the slimmer cones started a bit later than 1990. I'm thinking 94 or so.
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  #32  
Old 08-08-2017, 09:46 PM
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That's about right - whenever the Alpha first appeared packaged as part of the "Beta series". These first appeared in the 1993 catalog. All the Beta series Alpha examples I have acquired have the slimmer nose cone - first made in the US, then later (beginning 2000) made in China.

This is also when the Alpha got the motor hook with the finger tab - in the initial Beta series version.

Initially these had the red/blue livery in waterslide but that transitioned to stickers in the late 1990s. This was before first the parachutes and then the whole kits went to China.

We need someone who was at Estes in 1988 or so - who was involved in the 1989 catalog production perhaps - where this whole notion of different colors of nose cones first appeared - to tell us what drove them to do the Alpha III nose cones for a time. I asked Bill Simon about it, but he'd been gone from Estes for some time by then.
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  #33  
Old 11-25-2020, 01:10 AM
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Default The blue ones were real!

I have to revive this thread because I have, just tonight, received images of an Alpha with a blue Alpha III nose cone in the bag. It came in response to a side remark I made in a current thread about other molded plastic parts/models (https://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=19023) and some info from Matt Steele about a warehouse fire at Estes Industries some time in the 1990s that damaged some molds. I tossed off a remark about how the time frame was wrong for the transition from PNC-50KA (the first verision) through the purported red/white/blue option to the narrower later PNC-50KA. I remarked that I thought the blue ones were mythical and never really existed.

And 5x7 popped in and said “I have one”. I asked him to please please take pictures (actually, I asked if he’d sell it - he won’t) and this evening he sent me pictures.

This model has the blue/red decal and the single centering ring motor mount, so fully consistent with most of the examples I’ve gotten with this face card and the revision G instructions.

Also, I had a long conversation with Mary Roberts in August of 2017 and she recalled that somehow (she didn’t know how) the original PNC-50KA mold was damaged and that led to a bit of a scramble. This was the driver for the rev. G instructions and the red/white/blue nose cone option. That squares with what tbzep suggested earlier in this thread.

I’ll fill in a bit more about the progression of nose cones as I’ve learned since last this thread was active in another post.
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  #34  
Old 11-25-2020, 01:14 AM
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I have learned, for example, that the conclusion I drew two posts above that the current shape first appeared in the Beta series, is incorrect. Actually, there was a variant between the one pictured just above and the first Beta that had the rev. G instructions and the original style motor hook (in the single-ring motor mount) yet had the new narrower true ogive shape. Perhaps later I can post a picture of that one.

I’ve posted this picture in other places, but it’s germaine here (except that it doesn’t show the blue/red Alpha III cones other than as a footnote).
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Last edited by BEC : 11-25-2020 at 01:39 AM.
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