Couple things i wanted to say. The Nike missle base was in Lone Jack not Raytown. Shipping was always done from Raytown. Production moved out there after the fire. And talking about manual vs rotary presses, I personaly would rather have a good operator and a manual press vs a automated rotary press at that time. First I have built enough rotary tables for many aplications and usually they are started and forgot about till they brake. With a rotary you have several stations that can all vary to start with. Back then you did not have the data aq. that you have on todays automated machines. The fewer variables you put into the mix the better. There are as many reasons that a motor can cato as excuses at a meet. I personaly can say the only 2 motors I ever had 100% suceses rate were the F32-10 Thunderbolt and a enerjet F52. And I would guess that part of that is i only ever flew 2 or 3 of each. Did I have F100s and E60s blow up my models? Yup. But I can honestly say that after we started making our own , I never had one personaly blow on me. Did they still ? Yea I still heard a few people complain. Nobody really makes big black powder any more. I remember one time Lonnie told me either Gary Rosenfield or Scott Dixon thought we were crazy for playing with those black powder motors. But I do remember seeing one of those guys walk into the Holiday Inn at PitCon in 77 with a 2" motor with a electric squib stuck in the tailpipe. We thought they were crazy. Everything is relative.

Hey Carbons4, I did a Google earth of the Raytown address and it appears to be in a residential area. Can I assume the actual plant was located someplace else in Raytown? Ahh so the NIKE base was outside Lone Jack MO . Do you have a address for that Lone Jack Mo nike site that may be viewable from google earth?




Also thanks for all of this historical info on FSI. Its really appreciated by all.
terry dean

__________________
"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.

I went to the Lone Jack site on the way back from LDRS in 1990.

It was way, way, way south, past farm country. I remember a "KK Highway" and a long gravel road. The Nike site had quite a few trees. I don't remember any bunkers or anything, just a low tan building.

Harold was there, plus a twenty-something young lady, and a thirty-something guy with a moustache and beard. (Talked with him on the phone, but not in person; just saw him as we were leaving.)

I found both the nike launch site and the nike IFC site just to the south of Lone Jack

http://ed-thelen.org/loc-m.html#KC-30

terry dean

__________________
"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.

I'm not sure there will ever be a LAUNCH mag article on FSI as all of the principles are deceased, but I am attaching a copy of the 1st FSI ad that I am aware of from the 9/10 1966 issue of American Modeler magazine.

also what follows is what G. Harry Stine had to say about FSI in the 2/67 AM :

Industry News: A new model rocket manufacturer, Flight Systems, Inc. (P.O. Box 145, Louisville, Colo. 80027). is a subsidiary of Pyrochem Co., a firm that has been making defense ordnance items and small rocket systems for weather modification, cloud seeding, atmospheric sampling, and high altitude signaling.

FSI is under the direction of George E. Roos, a professional rocket man and chemical engineer whose experience includes manager of propellant development for the USAF Minuteman with Thiokol Chemical Co. in Ogden, Utah.

Their line of high performance engines ranges from Type B through Type D, utilizing a paper casting 21 milli-meters in diameter and 70 mm. long (0.832" x 2.75").

I have flown some of their engines, and I would like to warn you that they have very high performance. They are not for beginners, and they are not for use in small flying areas.

The engines will be very good for flying payloads because of their high thrust (ranging from 3.5 lbs to 7.25 lbs).

I have not tried their kits yet. The engines are presently undergoing qualification tests for NAR certfication.

The FSI engines were demostrated at NARAM-9 held at Mankato,Minn in August 1967. George Roos launched an OSO with a F100-F7 combination. Again thus sayeth G. Harry stine in his description:

"The most spectacular flight of the demonstration was pulled off by George Roos of Flight Systems who launched his OSO kit model with a FSI type F18-0 booster (later to become the F100) and a FSI type F1.3-18 sustainer (later an F7) - a short-duration high-thrust booster coupled to a stop-stage sustainer that burns for 10 seconds; the bird went out of sight with the top stage still under thrust, the trackers locked up at 90-degrees elevation, and the bird must have hit over 8,000 feet. These large engines are very powerful, very expensive, and meant only for the advanced model rocketeer who has plenty of room to fly in, but they are needed be-cause they provide the means to do the
kind of advanced work the older model rocketeers want to do."

The (text in parenthese) above are mine.


terry dean

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.

Two staged Flight Systems OSO ..... I'd like to see a picture of that one!

Did anyone on the forum here attend NARAM-9 to witness the referenced flight? I wonder if the booster stage was just an OSO kit without a payload section with another OSO kit for the sustainer .....

.

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

Wow, 8,000 feet altitude?! I would have love to have seen that!!

__________________
Dave, NAR # 21853 SR.

Just for kicks I used the dimensions from the 1967 catalog for the FSI OSO kit and added a booster stage based with the same fins. Looks like it would be a pretty cool rocket with an F100/F7 and it's also stable with engine mounts for Estes D12/E9 flights .....

I've already built an OSO rocket based on the 1967 catalog dimensions using Semroc LT-125 SLS grade tubing with a Sandman custom hardwood nose cone. It will be flown by proxy at NARAM 50 by member Rocketflyer on an F26-9J for it's first flight.

http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rock...67/67fsi16.html

http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/show...1&postcount=148


******************

Question for carbons4:

During your employment with Flight Systems Inc from 1977 to 1986 did you have access to any of the early FSI rocket models or prototypes produced by George Roos? Fins for the OSO and Voyager appear different in the 1967 catalog than in the 1970 and later catalogs. I was curious to know if the designs were slightly changed in later years from what's shown in the 1967 catalog line drawings.

.

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates

I don't know about that flight, but the MASER section did an air show demo in 1971 where, among other pretty exciting flights, John Langford decided to do a F100-F7 combo. The upper stage was shorter than an OSO,and had fins that were ASP-like (very low aspect ratio) and had thick fillets, to the point that they probably reduced the stabilising efficiency.
The rocket flew well until the second stage separation, where it went completly unstable, skywriting for a couple of seconds until it slowed down beyond the capability of the F7 to keep it going, and it just fell to the ground and burned itself out. We had a couple of other "exciting" flights that day, including John's Cineroc that took a dive due to a D13 cato.
But they boosted the attendance at our booth, where people wanted to see the remains of both the F-F rocket and the Cineroc!

__________________
Roy
nar12605

It's shame that second stage went unstable. It sounds like it would have really punched a hole in the sky! On a calm day it would be really tough not to get at least a mile to 6,000 feet out of that combo, especially with a really streamlined second stage as you described. I'm sure John was a lot more bummed about the Cineroc though.

I loved those long burn F7's in the OSO and Voyager rockets. Every time someone brings up FSI I get excited and remember the fun I had with my arsenal of FSI motors and rockets .....

__________________
Steve Naquin
TRA# 677 L2
NAR# 85518 L2
SAM# 0052

🚀 In Construction: Der Blue Maxx/Minie-Magg 5.5” & Vander-Burn MDRM Clone w/Stickershock23 Custom Decals
🚀 In Paint & Detail: USR Banshee
🚀 In Build Queue: Estes Doorknob w/Vander-Burn Rocketry Upgrade Kit [Sport Decor], Semroc Centurion-F, Semroc Egg Crate
🚀 In Repair: SLS Lil’ Hustler, SLS Aero-Dart 1969 Trim
🚀 Stay Tuned For Fall 2021 Launch Dates