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  #11  
Old 10-15-2005, 08:56 PM
WSMR WSMR is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Texas
Posts: 2
Cool

Right after going to work at White Sands Missile Range, I bought a Rock-A-Chute kit at the hobby shop on Main Street, Las Cruces, NM, in the Fall of 1958. I built it and launched it only once out in the desert east of Cruces, with three friends as witnesses. I put the model away and launched it half a dozen more times (with some original and some newer Estes engines) in 1978, for my two youngest children. A friend, a member of the NAR, offered to take the model to a Midwest show and give it a place of honor in an exhibit in Ohio, but I declined.

I had met G. Harry Stine in 1970 at the World SF Convention, and then again in 1990 at the NewMexicon SF convention. He told me that he had one model rocket at home, and had given the other to the Smithsonian, where I later saw it on exhibit. I told him that I had one as well, although the worse for wear, along with original engines, parachute and instructions. He said to hold onto it, that it was priceless.*

Later in the '90s, when I was working in Washington, D.C., and again met with Harry there, he told me that he had taken back the model he'd given to the Smithsonian (over a dispute about their WWII display regarding Hiroshima), and that meant he had the only two remaining copies of the model. I reminded him of mine. He joked that the only original model rockets now were in the hands of two old rocket farts.

*Someday after I retire I may put it on E Bay and see just how priceless it is.

--WSMR
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  #12  
Old 10-15-2005, 09:28 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Ft. Thomas, KY
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And you'll be posting a picture WHEN?
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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Gee'Hod, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Snake Jumper
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  #13  
Old 10-16-2005, 01:25 AM
WSMR WSMR is offline
WSMR
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Texas
Posts: 2
Cool

It is in storage in Albuquerque. Hasn't seen daylight in years. All original except for the thin fins, which were lost in the 1958 launch. Twenty years later I replaced them with thicker balsa wood fins.

Next time I'm back there I will dig out the labeled box and photograph it and post the pic.

(On a more modern note, I also have considerable debris left over from the fiery last landing of the DC-X VTOL rocket at White Sands in the late 90s. Those pictures are not very noteworthy...)
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  #14  
Old 01-04-2006, 08:15 AM
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Rocketaholic Rocketaholic is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Washington
Posts: 149
Question Great information

This is the information I have been looking for. Now is there a website that has all of the historical information available, elctronic copy wise in PDF format etc??

I also recall that in 1998 or 1999, Estes had a serious fire that burned down a lot of its inventory and it was rumored that a lot of their original molds to classic kits went up in smoke as well. Can anyone elaborate on that?
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