Sounds like a nice brother! Mine wasn't in to rocketry either, but it must bring out the good in people- he climbed on to the roof of the school to retrieve my Big Bertha for me. Only kind thing he ever did for me!

Yes, they might have had the engines, but I checked their catalogs and couldn't find anything that fit the description of the rocket.

I can't say that it WASN'T a Nike-Smoke...........it was that general shape and size. But I know there was no mention of smoke in the instructions nor powder with the kit (we definitely would have done the smoke thing if there had been). Are you certain that that nose cone was pliable? And did it have a black section on the tip? The mystery rocket did not. Also, I'm sure it wasn't an Enerjet engine since those were composites (right?)...........different ignition procedure and not likely to CATO. Could have been a Mini Max.

Joe

You had to modify the nose cone to cut a slit toward the base to allow the talc powder to escape and cut the tip of the nose cone off and install a small piece of ST-5 (?) to allow ram air in to force the powder out. I do not know if the Enerjet kit was sold without these parts, but I doubt it.
My Centuri Nike Smoke is so old, (how old is it?), that instead of a blow-moulded nose cone it is actually made of two vacuum-formed pieces. I started the kit back in '68 or '69 when it came out and it still isn't finished. First experience with vacuum formed parts.

Chas

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Charles Russell, MSgt,USAF (ret.)
NAR 9790, Lvl 1
SAM "Balls Three"

Could it have been Ace Rocket Co.? They were part of Aerotech for a little while.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

Were they around in 1970?

I have an original Enerjet Nike Smoke opened kit. The nose cone is not vinyl nor rubber. It is molded and one piece.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !

I also have one of those white vinyl rubber cones with the clear red plastic base. I was told it was an MMI nose cone for the Aerobee kit. Estes or Centuri ended up with a pile of MMI inventory when MMI went OOB. A bunch of them ended up in Matt Steele's junk box, and I obtained one during a club swap meet during the late 70's.

I also have a red rubber bullet shaped nose cone, hollow, with rolled up instruction sheet inside.

Both cones look like they fit 0.75" ID tubing.

-Wolf

When I lived in New Jersey, there was an Edmunds Scientific store down the way. If it could be construed to be "science," they were likely to have it. They had stuff from major manufacturers to "one-offs" from somebody/place you never heard of and never would again. Even antique and collectable instruments from the wars (pick one), like astrolabes, geiger counters, meters, gauges, etc. Fossils, bones, rocks to robots—you name it. It didn't have to be new. If it was scientific in nature, they had it.

If the rocket came from an Edmunds store—it could have come from anywhere (based on my limited experience).

With all that, I did have a '69 Centuri rocket with a soft(ish), two-part, vinyl nose cone. It's the only one I've run across, but it was not in the size range you mentioned. It was much like the red one astronwolf described above.

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Retro-grouch

Are you sure it wasn't one of these?

http://www.scientificsonline.com/water-rocket.html

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If it flies, I can crash it!