They were vinyl. Estes also used (or specified) them in the Dirty Bird III plans, which also called for a "Bastille-style" firework missile plastic fin unit. Another early model rocket plan used a "spin-fin" plastic fin unit with rhombic fins, which Estes carried in their very early catalogs (being from the fireworks industry, Vern had a lot of components like that on hand and/or knew where to get them). Regarding plastic nose cones, I was thinking in terms of the injection-molded or blow-molded ones that were as we know them today.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

isn't vinyl a plastic? They were sold as "plastic" node cones....the engine mount was also "plastic".....

http://www.whatisvinyl.com/

How do you know that these vinyl plastic nose cones weren't either injection-molded or blown-mold? I'm sure both techniques were well known in 1958. I never heard anything from GHS on how the vinyl nosecones were made.

That plastic fin unit for the Dirty Bird was from a fireworks piece. Early catalogs show it being sold in either Estes or Centuri or both catalogs of the period.

Terry Dean

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

The vinyl nose cones were (irrespective of the casting method used to make them) more like hard rubber and were somewhat flexible, unlike the rigid injection-molded styrene and blow-molded (polyethylene, I believe they're made of) nose cones of today.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR