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Is *This* Where the Term "Cato" Originated?
Cato on Ebay
I've been wondering about the etymology of the term for a while and suddenly it became clear... |
#2
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The term cato has been around a whole lot longer than the Estes rocket. It roughly stands for a catastrophic motor failure, though others will give slightly different definitions. The Estes rocket was named after the term. |
#3
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Ah. Thank you for the clarification. That makes the rocket model kind of ghoulish, though. It'd be kind of like selling Traffic-Accident-Barbie. |
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Doug .
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YORF member #11 |
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I once had an idea for "Blair Witch Barbie"...just an empty box. It was around the time that I had the "Butcher Me Elmo" idea....
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J. Stuart Powley NAR 29573 "Gravity is a harsh mistress." |
#6
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Spontaneous Combustion Barbie...she's full of black powder and has igniter wires in her hair. Other attachment points for the electrical ignition system are left to the imagination of those depraved enough to want other attachment points.
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Part of the apocrypha of rocketry is that when flight records or cards were first established, they used some shorthand to describe the flight, some of which survives today in contest bookkeeping, like GF=good flight. Supposedly, since early motor failures were common, CATO was the acronym for Catastrophe At Take Off, being a "take-off" on JATO, jet assisted take off, and that's what it's pronounced A as in cake, not as in cat. Others will try to tell you it's just short for catastrophe, pronounced as in cat.
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Roy nar12605 |
#8
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Actually, as in "catastrophic failure." Let's see, this argument has been going on for how many decades now?
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J. Stuart Powley NAR 29573 "Gravity is a harsh mistress." |
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Yeah....that's why I said other folks would have different definitions. It still boils down the the motor going BOOM! or at the very least playing Roman Candle and wrecking havoc on the rocket. Fun to watch when it's somebody else's rocket. . |
#10
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I LOVE this rocket. Does anyone know if it worked as it should have?
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