Intact box of Rock-A-Chute motors with all the original contents.

Anyone have an idea of what year these might have been?

Attached Thumbnails

   

1958?

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Shrox

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Welll at least Jan 1959, which is when Estes started manufacturing the Rock-A-Chutes for MMI.

EDIT
There an MMi ad iin 12/59 issue of American Modeler mag where they advertise 3 standard A4 motors for $0.98....

For this ad to appear in the 12/59 issue, it had to be available perhaps as much as 3-4 months earlier than the publication date

The last MMi ad where they are 3 for $1.50 appears in the 4/59 issue of AM, so that dates them to after 4/59 and before approx 10/59

These were most likely made in Vern's backyard in Denver Co. by Estes Enterprises

Terry Dean

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"Old Rocketeer's don't die; they just go OOP".....unless you 3D print them.

The printing on those looks just like that on my late 1960s vintage Estes engines....so perhaps these are from the original Vern Estes-build engine making machine (AKA "Mabel")?

I have both an original Brown Rock-a-chute and an early Estes Rock-a-chute - those motors are clearly Estes

Willing to sell them?

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Dale Greene

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" Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act. " George Orwell

"...with parachute wrappers..."

A K A recovery wadding. I kind of like MMI's terminology - on one level, "parachute wrappers" is a very specific, functional way of describing wadding (if you already know what it is). On another level, it is strikingly vague and euphemistic. (Huh? Parachute wrappers? Why would you need wrapping paper for the parachute?)

MarkII

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We have an unfolded box in the display case, model rockets were referred to as model missiles then.

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Shrox

Master of the Dark Art of Model Rocketry

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You might know this, but:

This wasn't wadding they were talking about. Way early on, parachutes were protected by a sort of folded paper cup with long "legs" that formed the sides. Plain paper, from everything I've read.

Ah, you can see them in one of the pictures, lower right side. The diagram printed on the outside sheet shows an assembled protector.

By the early '60s wadding replaced protectors.

The First Edition of G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry" has the plan & pattern for the original-design parachute wrappers, which were cruciform in shape, rather like a Maltese Cross. Two opposing arms of the cross had the angled cuts toward the center (like the cuts in the newer wrapper design that Gus posted).

I once tried home-made cruciform parachute wrappers, and they worked very well. If the parachute wrappers are made of fire-proofed typing paper or computer printer paper (see below for a fire-proofing solution recipe), they are just as safe as commercially made wadding. Here is the recipe (from a July 1961 "Popular Science" article about tissue paper model hot air balloons):

Water..............................4 ounces
Borax...............................60 grains
Boric acid.........................28 grains
White glue....................3 or 4 drops

Just saturate the paper by flowing this solution over it, then let the paper dry.

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