Old Aerotech 24mm Reloads
 

I got a bunch of Aerotech 24 mm E18 reloads from a hobby shop closing down. I believe they are from the mid-1990s. They are packaged one per pack although Aerotech now sells them in three packs. There are no date codes and I think per NFPA at some point motors were required to have a code in the package. If you look at the price I think they were priced at the three pack price back then. In order to narrow down a date, does anyone know:

1) When the Aerotech E18 was first released?
2) When the 3 packs were released?

Thanks

Those are really old.
I don't recall them ever being sold in single packs, and that price most certainly is for a 3-pak.
I have paks from the late 90's and they are 3-paks.

The reload in post 1 is not the oldest, they originally came with instructions to put the grain at the fwd end of the motor. This made it nearly impossible to insert an igniter if there was a misfire and required disassembling the motor to place a new igniter. So if anyone knows when the change in instructions happened it could further narrow down the date.

I bought my first 24mm reloads in the early 90s. They were single packaged, and went to 3-packs around 1994, as I recall. I bought a bunch of them cheap on a great sale by a vendor from Utah that came to Colorado launches. But I didn’t use them up, and a few years ago I tossed what I had remaining . Some swelled, bulging at ends, or narrowing, or closing off, of the slot. Even the normal looking ones became almost impossible to light. Or if they lit, they might sputter until they really got going. Just not worth trying to use up. I have made my own igniters that burn very hot with tons of sparks, and still found older reloads just would not light. The other issue is delay elements. They can be unreliable with age. You can buy new delay kits, but I’ve found it’s just not worth the hassle.

I only buy reloads now in quantities that I think I’ll use in a couple years.

The E18s I have are nearly completely swelled so you can just tell where the slot was and that's it. I was going to put them in a burn pile but have found I can remove the grain from the liner with a 3/4 inch dowel, and then open the slot with a saw just enough to get the igniter in. With some Magnelite on the grain, I have been able to get all of them to light but only have put them in saucers and lately an Applewhite monocopter. They light after a few to many chuffs (see video) and were well worth saving for me, but I can clearly see most folks would not go through that.

https://youtu.be/3AB8NHYHNJc