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Old 12-18-2011, 12:08 AM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
Too Many Initiators is Never Enough
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 2,394
Default The Year is 1992, The Place is AeroTech

The year 1992 was a pivotal time for hobby rocketry.

How so, you ask?

Welcome to another installment of "Bob's Wacky History of Model Rocketry".

Let me go back one year.

1991 had started out rough for AeroTech/ISP but the year ended very positive, financially, for the company.

To celebrate, the company had a paid dinner for the staff at a fancy restaurant in Las Vegas. It was during this dinner that something I had said months earlier would come back to haunt me.

For several months, I had been pushing for the the development of new rocket kits. When we had pitched the AeroTech product line to distributors back at the 1990 Chicago RCHTA Show, we had been told that we needed to have a least twelve rocket kits before any distributor would pick up the product line. However, the response to the AeroTech product line had been so strong, the distributors had purchased the line with the understanding that additional kits would be released 'soon'.

I had developed some ideas for new kits but had been stymied by a lack of interest and $$$ for product creation. The Reloadable Motor System (RMS) was now available in 18mm, 24mm and 29mm sizes along with HPR versions. Sales were good.

AeroTech would be exibiting at the Los Angeles RCHTA Show in the Spring of 1992. The LA RCHTA Show was considered a low key affair with the Chicago RCHTA Show held in October being the location for new product announcements.

AeroTech was about to think outside the box, again.

As the AeroTech staff enjoyed their expensive, free meal, Gary Rosenfield and Paul Hans were having a quiet discussion. Paul was a old-time NAR member from the early 1960s who had been 'B' Divison NAR National Champion and flew the first movie camera in a 'model' rocket (See the 7th Edition of "The Handbook of Model Rocketry", pages 238-239). Paul had been a major investor in Enertek and when that company folded, he had bought up that company's assets at auction and transferred them to AeroTech/ISP for interest in that company.

At a point during the meal, Gary and Paul wanted to talk with me. I was asked if I had any ideas for some new rocket kits. I told them I had several concepts in mind.

Then the bombshell dropped.

"Could you have prototypes ready for photography in two weeks?"

(To be continued)
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