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  #1  
Old 04-10-2021, 09:06 PM
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Default The Model Rocket Industry and Hobby Rocketry Loses a Pioneer and Icon

The Model Rocket Industry and Hobby Rocketry Loses a Pioneer and Icon

Paul C. Hans passed away early Friday morning, April 9th, 2021 at the age of 74. Paul, along with Don Scott, were the first rocketeers to launch an 8mm movie camera in a model rocket in 1962 in Port Washington, NY. Later that year, they did it again at NARAM-4 at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, where they also made the very first egg loft flight with their movie camera rocket.

Paul became a behind-the-scenes icon in the model rocket industry and hobby rocketry with his investment in Enertek™ in 1987, which together with co-owners Lee Piester and Gary Rosenfield, created the first full-line mid-power rocket company since the demise of Enerjet™ in 1974. At the 1987 HIA Trade Show in St. Louis, MO, Enertek experienced instant success and demand for its exciting mid-power hobby rocket line, supported by beautiful packaging and aerospace-grade engineering and composite propellant technology. Unfortunately, due to the inability to raise additional capital to meet the initial demand, Enertek was forced into a voluntary liquidation. Paul acquired the physical and intellectual assets of Enertek, and along with additional personal funding rolled them into an investment in Industrial Solid Propulsion™ (ISP™), Inc., owned by Gary Rosenfield and Dan Meyer. Gary Rosenfield’s AeroTech proprietorship was converted to a corporation and simultaneously became a subsidiary of ISP. Up to that point AeroTech had only been involved in composite propellant motor production, but Paul’s significant financial spark allowed Gary and Dan to accelerate AeroTech’s growth and prominence in hobby rocketry, thanks to the acquisition of the Enertek assets and Paul’s other contributions.

Paul was a co-inventor on the Copperhead™ igniter, Fin-Lok™ plastic fin assembly, Labyrinth™ ejection system and RMS™ (Reloadable Motor System) reloadable motor patents. He also designed the Copperhead™ igniter clip, Interlock™ launch controller, Wart-Hog™ mid-power rocket kit, and wrote most of the original instructions for AeroTech’s rocket kits and ground support equipment. He became a major influence in the strategic direction and legal and regulatory matters of the business. Paul sold his ownership in ISP to the RocketAdventure partnership in 1999, but continued his involvement with the company as a trusted and experienced advisor and consultant over the years, literally until his last day.

Paul attended Brown University in RI and earned an MBA from the Wharton Business School in PA. He spent many years in the field of mergers and acquisitions, which included runs with General Dynamics and Fairchild Industries. He became an expert in aerospace industry business management, strategic planning and financial analysis. Even with the demands of his job, which included extensive travel both domestically and abroad, he raised 3 incredibly talented, worldly and successful children who have told us first hand that, “Dad was always there to support us in everything we did growing up, which continued into adulthood as our most valued advisor.” All three children have precious memories of their model rocketry experiences with Paul as a young father.

Paul had been battling a severe cancer for about two years and was surrounded by his loving family, longtime girlfriend and close friends when he passed. Gary Rosenfield, Karl Baumann and Dane Boles were honored to be with Paul on Thursday and Friday to thank him for all he had done and to say goodbye.

The management team and employees at AeroTech/Quest/RCS were blessed and honored to have enjoyed Paul’s years of hands-on support, counsel, guidance and advice. We will continue to move forward with Paul’s favorite saying in mind, “Steady as she goes!”.



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AeroTech Consumer Aerospace
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Last edited by AeroTech : 04-11-2021 at 09:09 AM.
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Old 04-10-2021, 09:36 PM
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A beautiful and heart-felt tribute Gary. My condolences to his family...including all of you under the Aerotech ‘umbrella’.

I remember seeing that early photo of Paul preparing the original movie camera rocket in an early version of Stine’s Handbook. That has been well over 40 years ago now.

I lost an aunt today also...just not been a good day. Blessings and prayers to all.

Earl
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Old 04-10-2021, 11:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Earl
A beautiful and heart-felt tribute Gary. My condolences to his family...including all of you under the Aerotech ‘umbrella’.

I remember seeing that early photo of Paul preparing the original movie camera rocket in an early version of Stine’s Handbook. That has been well over 40 years ago now.

I lost an aunt today also...just not been a good day. Blessings and prayers to all.

Earl

My condolences to you and your family, Earl.
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For warranty questions & issues please contact Karl at warranty@aerotech-rocketry.com
For customer service questions & issues please contact Jenn at customerservice@aerotech-rocketry.com

AeroTech Consumer Aerospace
Division of RCS Rocket Motor Components, Inc.
2113 W 850 N
Cedar City, UT 84721
435-865-7100 (Ph)
435-865-7120 (Fax)
http://www.aerotech-quest.com
http://www.rocketmotorparts.com.com
http://www.specificimpulse.com
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  #4  
Old 04-11-2021, 01:52 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AeroTech
The Model Rocket Industry and Hobby Rocketry Loses a Pioneer and Icon

Paul C. Hans passed away early Friday morning, April 9th, 2021 at the age of 74. Paul, along with Don Scott, were the first rocketeers to launch an 8mm movie camera in a model rocket in 1962 in Port Washington, NY. Later that year, they did it again at NARAM-4 at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, where they also made the very first egg loft flight with their movie camera rocket.



Oh no! I'm so sorry, yet so glad I got to meet and talk with him at NARAM-60. He's one of the first touchstones of the hobby to me. Soon after I found out about model rocketry, I checked out a copy of The Handbook at the library. Inside was that photo of him, his father, and his movie camera rocket. So there I was meeting him, and he had the actual camera he had flown in that rocket with him! So very cool.

I knew he was financially involved with Aerotech, but had no idea he was behind so many of the iconic early products of Enertek/AeroTech.

A tremendous loss, but a monumental body of work he leaves for us.
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  #5  
Old 04-11-2021, 07:27 AM
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Gary, thanks for a lovely tribute. Condolences to you and his family.
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  #6  
Old 04-11-2021, 09:40 AM
stefanj stefanj is offline
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Thanks, Gary. I remember that photo in the Handbook, but had no idea that Paul was still involved with the hobby and responsible for so many innovations.

Condolences to family, friends, and colleagues.

RIP
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  #7  
Old 04-11-2021, 11:50 AM
shockwaveriderz shockwaveriderz is offline
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I contacted Paul Hans in 2007 to ask him about his early 1960's Aeolus. This BG appeared between the Estes Space plane and the Centuri Aero-bat. I also think Paul was the designer behind the Centuri Acro-Bat BG. I got photos somewhere.

Here's Paul describing his Aeolus BG:

So, shaking off the cobwebs
of my memory I'll try to give you the background on my B/G designs.

My designs were competition driven. As you may or may not know, I was
NAR Reserve National Champion in 1961 (or was it 1962). Lost the
championship by 1 point. The B/G competition was based on duration.
Lift off to landing. Stay aloft the longest and you win. There is a
tradeoff between gaining altitude and sink-rate. An airplane like B/G
has great glide characteristics but has high aero loads and a
tendency to loop during boost. I can't tell you how many early B/Gs
shed their wings at launch or made large powered loops. A moderate
breeze made matters worse. But an airplane B/G is a graceful flier.
But in competition B/G style points don't matter. So I decided to opt
for altitude by using a design that had rocket aerodynamics during
ascent and converted to flight mode at apogee. The delta wing/canard
approach was used to keep the center of pressure far enough to the
rear to compensate for the weight of the motor. A canard vehicle must
be flight-trimmed very carefully. Too much down canard will cause the
B/G to pitch up, stall, then go into a steep dive before aerodynamic
forces will put the B/G into another pitch-stall-dive cycle. A delta/
canard B/G has a higher sink rate than a plane-like B/G but it gets
much better altitude and can take a more powerful motor. Plus, it
really looks fantastic in flight when properly trimmed. I scaled up
the Estes powered delta/canard B/G to use Centuri motors. I don't
know if you've ever seen a Centuri motor fly, but it practically
explodes into the air. Centuri motors had big cores that gave them
very high acceleration. Today's composite motors are much more
benign. Anyway, Centuri bought my design and it became the Acro-Bat.

Now to the Aeolus. It was another study in the tradeoff of altitude
and sink-rate. But, it this design I dropped the canard and
positioned the motor way forward so I could use three very large
fins, two of which flaps. It flew high and actually quite well when
trimmed properly. I tried all kinds of goofy designs. I made a
version of the delta/canard B/G that was powered by three motors
firing sequentially. The roots of the delta wings were tracks into
which I loaded the motors. When the first motor burned out and
ignited the second above it, it was ejected down the track and out.
The same with the second motor. There was some thrust degradation due
to interference between the exhaust plume and the wing root track,
but it sure was spectacular to fly. Of course dropping motor casings
wasn't exactly the proper thing to do, but ...
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Old 04-11-2021, 12:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shockwaveriderz
I contacted Paul Hans in 2007 to ask him about his early 1960's Aeolus. This BG appeared between the Estes Space plane and the Centuri Aero-bat. I also think Paul was the designer behind the Centuri Acro-Bat BG. I got photos somewhere.

Here's Paul describing his Aeolus BG:

So, shaking off the cobwebs
of my memory I'll try to give you the background on my B/G designs.

My designs were competition driven. As you may or may not know, I was
NAR Reserve National Champion in 1961 (or was it 1962). Lost the
championship by 1 point. The B/G competition was based on duration.


At NARAM-60, I had my first edition copy of the Handbook. I also have my fourth edition that I collect autographs in, but since this was the Rocketeers Reunion, I thought some would be special enough to sign this first edition, and one of those was Paul, and I wanted him to sign by the picture of the camera rocket. But he said let me sign this other photo (the one of the B/G), because it deserves some love.
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  #9  
Old 04-11-2021, 01:37 PM
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I see NOTHING wrong with a B/G ejecting motor casings in the 60's nor do I now.
They are BIODEGRADABLE CARDBOARD. EJECT AND FORGET.
Don't like it ? Don't do it.
Don't like me doing it ? You can pick up and have my ejected motors for free.
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  #10  
Old 04-11-2021, 02:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
I see NOTHING wrong with a B/G ejecting motor casings in the 60's nor do I now.
They are BIODEGRADABLE CARDBOARD. EJECT AND FORGET.
Don't like it ? Don't do it.
Don't like me doing it ? You can pick up and have my ejected motors for free.


That's how I knew I wasn't the only one flying rockets when I first started back in 1968. My first time out at the elementary school yard (that I hadn't been to in over a year since I'd been in Jr. High), I found a handful of flattened or unrolled casings embedded in the soil!
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