Ye Olde Rocket Forum

Go Back   Ye Olde Rocket Forum > The Golden Age of Model Rocketry > Model Rocket History
User Name
Password
Auctions Register FAQ Members List Calendar Today's Posts Search Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #21  
Old 06-27-2008, 12:19 PM
carbons4 carbons4 is offline
Craftsman
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 311
Default FSI in Germany

Yea we were all pretty proud we had become a "global manufacturer".
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 06-27-2008, 12:27 PM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
rocket dinosaur
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: My Old Kentucky Home
Posts: 1,184
Default

What I find interseting about Birns Flat,Ok is that back then it was the Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base which was closed in 1969. George Ros seemed to have a very good habit of locating his motor making failities on ex-military properties which makes perfectly good sense to me.

Today this Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base as the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark, also known as the Oklahoma Spaceport.


As early as August 1969 George Roos was already trying to sell FSI, this after being in business only 2-3 years. Evidently sometime in the early 1970's , say 72-74, he sold the company to the Reese Brothers. FSI of course was originally located in Louisville Colorado, so I'm not sure how or why the FSI motor making plant got moved from Colorado to Burn Flat,OK. Also its evident that for a while George Roos continued to make motors for FSI after he sold the company to the Reese Brothers. Later it appears the FSI motor making facilities were located at the old NIKE base Raytown Missouri site.

I had always suspected that the FSI motors were manually made with hydraulic gang presses. It makes perfect sense, as thats the way the original Coasters,mini-Maxes etc were made. The downside of using such an arrangement is that its can eb very difficult to get the same pressure on each motor being made. This explains why F100 or F7's from exactly the same batch could be cato-rrific while others from the same batch were perfectly good.

Lee Piester found thsi out in his manufacturing of his min-max Bp motors, as related in a RMR post from maybe 5 years ago by Mark Johnson, where he related a similar story.

terry dean
__________________
"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 06-27-2008, 12:35 PM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
rocket dinosaur
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: My Old Kentucky Home
Posts: 1,184
Default

carbons4:

Did you have any "personal" conversations with the Reese Brothers during the time you worked at FSI? By personal, I mean, did they every discuss with you what they di prior to owning FSI? What were their backgriounds, in terms of education, work, military service,etc?
where they married? had any children? What were their approx. ages during the 77-86 time frame? any ideas on this?

terry dean
__________________
"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 06-27-2008, 12:36 PM
carbons4 carbons4 is offline
Craftsman
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 311
Default Thread title

I wanted to thank Gus for the complement. Like I said I was one of the founding members of the Spacemodeling Society of Kansas City. Doug Pratt lived here at the time and convinced us that we could put on a NARAM here. Sure sounds easy. NOT! Not going to go into that but we kinda bit off more than we could chew but hey hide sight is 20/20. The SSKC kind of fell apart within a yr after hosting the NARAM. A few of us hard core people formed our own "splinter cell" called the association of spacemodeling snobs. A.S.S. I must say with all fairness that I am glad today looking back that Doug convinced us that we WERE ready to host a NARAM. Maybe its from a selfish standpoint but I met a lot of good people there and will have those memorys for a lifetime.
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 06-27-2008, 12:52 PM
carbons4 carbons4 is offline
Craftsman
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 311
Default Reeses

I knew the Reeses real well. Like I said my father had worked with Harold yrs before. My brother had graduated with Jerry, the youngest brother and Brians dad. I had known them personally for yrs. Lonnie and Larry used to race outboard hydroplanes and runabouts. I used to go to the races with them and help out pit crew. Lonnie and Larry were both quite smart and were not afraid to try new things. You could write a book about these guys and it would make the best sellers list. Few people know this but Lonnie played guitar and sang. He was on his way back from blue springs , i think he was performing at a amature night if memory serves me correctly when he had his accident. Yea I knew these guys.
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 06-27-2008, 01:11 PM
carbons4 carbons4 is offline
Craftsman
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 311
Default FSI History

First of all George wanted to keep the motor buisness. He was just tired of the hobby side. Thats what Lonnie and Larry bought. I never went to Burns flat but I know we made improvements on our motors from Georges. Pressure was monitered via hydrolic pressure as well as load cells on the blocks . A lot of the problem was George did not replace spindles nearly enough and mix and grain size varied. A black powder propelant as well as the fireclay used for the nozel are both abrasive. The steel spindles used to form the core /throat would erode and get smaller. There are quite a few variables to making a black powder motor. Temp and humidity on componets and during assy. can lead to variances too. Lonnie and Larry could not get motors or had bad ones when we recieved them. Thats when took the reigns to build their own motors.
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 06-27-2008, 01:26 PM
Leo's Avatar
Leo Leo is offline
German Model Rocket Builder
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 1,313
Default

Well, I finally found what I was looking for. I got to much stuff lying around



It's an E5-6 dated June 1982

You by any chance pack the baby 'Insert Carbons4's real name here' ?
__________________
Leo

My rocket fleet and more @ Leo's Leisure Site and on YouTube - My latest project: ALTDuino
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 06-27-2008, 01:39 PM
carbons4 carbons4 is offline
Craftsman
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 311
Default June E-5

That is kinda in the break over period. Didnt start producing motors in missouri till after they moved to Lone Jack. 82 is probably a Larry Reese made in OK motor. I know that that was one of the first things Larry did was replace spindles down there. They were all worn bad. Its a colored stamp and looks like a new one. If you notice all older FSI engines are black ink and old style stamp.
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 06-27-2008, 01:44 PM
Leo's Avatar
Leo Leo is offline
German Model Rocket Builder
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 1,313
Default

Nice

I won't be using this one
__________________
Leo

My rocket fleet and more @ Leo's Leisure Site and on YouTube - My latest project: ALTDuino
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 06-27-2008, 02:19 PM
carbons4 carbons4 is offline
Craftsman
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 311
Default FSI engines

Few people know it but FSI had a big fire in summer of 1980. Wont go in to the details but a guy working nights , NOT ME, got a hot tool into the propellant of a Mach 1 thruster and it went off. Had a pretty serious fire and Lonnie and Larry were really wondering if they were going to call it quits. I helped clean up for the rest of the summer and went to work at another job. In this time is when they decided to press on and moved production to Lone Jack, Mo. Shipping was always out of Raytown. After basicly the family moved the equipment to Lone Jack is when I started working again for them. Leo that motor you have is probably ok but i would worry more about the age as if the grain has been cracked over 26 yrs.
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 08:05 AM.


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