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  #11  
Old 05-21-2013, 07:31 PM
Chas Russell's Avatar
Chas Russell Chas Russell is offline
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Maybe someone could ask Vern Estes about the early coding system if he attends the National Sports Launch in Pueblo, CO this weekend or at NARAM-55 in Aurora, OH in July.

Just a thought.
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  #12  
Old 05-21-2013, 09:19 PM
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Default Info From Ed Brown--Estes Motor Codes

Received the following response from Estes' very own motor guru Ed Brown:

=============================

Hi Earl,

Thanks for thinking of me. Hopefully Vern's memory will be better than mine on this, but here goes:

I can't remember what the first two letters were other than a production date code of some sort. The last letter in the series was an identity code for the operator who made that motor. My operator code was "V" and Keith Kohler's was "X". I can only remember Keith's as he always liked to claim that "brand X" was better than the competing "brands". And of course I remember my own code. As operators we were very conscious of quality and always checked the returns for the operator code. I'm sure that each of us thought we were the best, but I tracked returns for quite awhile and really couldn't prove that my motors were any better than anyone else's. Not that that changed my mind.

As far as the current date codes, we started in 1976 with "F" as that would be the letter if we started with 1971 being "A".

The above is as accurate as I can remember.

Best wishes,
Ed

==============================


Thought this was interesting info and thanks to Ed for such a fast response. Now, if we can just find out what the first two letters corresponded to date-wise.


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  #13  
Old 05-22-2013, 06:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal Miller
I have some Mid 60's Estes Model Rocket Engines with a three letter date code.
Does anyone know how to translate these codes ? The two engines at the bottom are some of the last pound-second engines made in 1968. the A.8.3 & the B.8.4 engines are from some-where after 1963, ( the mailing tubes had a zip code). note the two different codes on the A.8.3 engines . These Engines are from before my time in Model Rocketry so any help would be appreciated.


Neal-

Based on Ed's information then, it appears your B.08 booster engine is a 'V' code motor made by him, on some undetermined date. Looks like 'mid-60s' would be a good guess though.

Wonder who the 'U' operator code was for? All the ones I have end in U.


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