You may be interested in reading pages 10 and 11 of the following HUVARS newsletter:

http://cv41.org/newsletters/T-Minus..._vol12_no01.pdf

Also a closer shot on p. 18.

Thanks for that. I’ve downloaded the HUVARS newsletters, but haven’t reached that issue yet.

I have the plans in pdf form. If anyone here knows Yita, and can check to see he doesn’t mind, I can send the file to Scott to post on YORP.

As I recall these were once available online. I remember downloading them. However, I can't seem to find them anywhere. It was BT-70 slightly smaller in diameter than the scale diameter of 2.3" .

James,

I had no idea that's what inspired your obsession. Yitah is still part of HUVARS. Wonderful guy! I will pass along your post.

In addition to his Little Joe, Yitah's also really creative in other ways. He's an electrical engineer and a couple of years ago he led a session at a HUVARS meeting where he taught us to build ridiculously powerful launch controllers from disposable camera capacitors. Emma and I went to Walgreens and convinced them to give us their entire recycle box (hundreds, LOL) of already developed cameras for us to "recycle."

Those controllers, really meant for clusters, were just insanely powerful. And you charged them up with a single AA battery. They were powerful enough that Yitah demonstrated how, using his controller, clusters should be connected in series, not parallel. He hooked up 8 igniters in series, pushed the button on his controller and all 8 just instantly vaporized. Just amazing.

Y’know, I could have sworn that I had sent the plans to Scott years ago and that he had posted the to YORP, but I don’t see them.

It is weird. When I first saw Estes was testing an LJ I to sell I went looking on my sites because I remembered Yitah had made plans for one. I was pretty sure I had the plans. I knew I had the plans he made for spring loading the landing pads of an Estes Super Vega. Those were in the Building Tips section of YORS. I couldn't find anything! I honestly don't know what happened to the stuff. The only thing I can think of is at some point Yitah must have asked me to take them down, although if that happened I don't recall.

So, even if Yitah asks stuff not be posted publicly when Steve talks to him I'd appreciate if you could re-send the plans to me along with a copy of the spring loaded landing pads plan if you have them. Yitah was selling the special springs back in the 90's. I have a set of the springs around here somewhere that I bought from him. I just need a set of the plans again.

Part of the mystery solved. I was positive I had the plans for spring loading the landing pads in the Building Tips section of my YORS site. I used Google and found it's on the Barclone site I host for Craig McGraw. Here's a link to that one:

http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com/tips/svspring.jpg

And the rest of the mystery is solved. Yitah's LJI plans are also on Barclone. Duh! I haven't looked at that site in years. Sorry, Craig!

http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com/de...nstructions.pdf

The plans were actually scanned/sent to me by Bill Spadafora, RIP.

There are lots of cool designs on Barclone that Craig and others contributed. People should check them out:

http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com/

Here's a thread from ~10 years ago on the same subject with a reply from the man himself:



http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/show...highlight=yitah

I brought the Yita kit along with one of the KOSROC LJ-II kits to a CMASS meeting. I don't remember whether Bill already had the LJ-I, or was going to get one after seeing mine, but we discussed the various paint schemes and modifying the kit. He knew his LJ-I's.


S.

One of the more interesting bits about Estes and the Little Joe I was the BNC-60T nosecone available in the 1966-1977 catalogs. It was a reasonably accurate boilerplate style Little Joe I balsa nosecone for BT-60. For all the years it was available, I was baffled by what seemed to be a Mercury capsule that was wrong for both Mercury-Atlas and Mercury-Redstone. Finally, more than a decade after it was discontinued, I figured out that it was for a Little Joe I.

Fortunately, I was able to find one at the old Commonwealth Displays store in the 80's at a reasonable price (They had apparently gotten it by clearing out a hobby wholesaler's stock of old Estes parts), and I built a model. It's had some accidents, but one of these days I'll be restoring it.

I find it fascinating that none of Estes's literature ever hinted what that cone was for, let alone gave plans for the model that the part so obviously implied. You can find the profile of this cone in the pdf versions of the Estes catalogs from the late 60's. After about 1971, the graphic becomes microscopic and unreadable.

Peter Alway

Still available here:http://www.erockets.biz/semroc-bals...60-2-8-capsule/


It is mistakenly described as a Gemini capsule.

Here's a picture of a backup boilerplate capsule and Little Joe booster from Wikipedia:

I agree that a short historical paragraph in the catalog would have been handy, and a more detailed historical paper sent with the nose cone would have been dandy! I saw the cone in the catalog but never bought one. I just saved up for the MR kit.

When I got into rocketry as a kid, I had no knowledge of the Little Joe I or II. The Estes Little Joe II was already long gone by the mid 70's. I didn't get a Centuri catalog until #781, which didn't have the LJ II in it. Their LJ II was OOP, but Centuri eventually mailed me a yellow tabloid sale paper that was raising money for the internats and it had some leftover LJ II's for sale. I remember being intrigued by the kit and wondering what it was all about. My library had no information on them and it wasn't until I learned about periodicals loaned out from larger libraries that I finally got some information on it.

The cover of the July/August issue of Sport Rocketry magazine features the Estes Mercury Little Joe.

You might not see it at first as there is a BIG Mercury Little Joe model in the center of the picture. :D

Our library had an early copy of The Handbook of Model Rocketry, and there was a home made Little Joe pictured, so it was always one that I wanted to try to build. When I bought an updated copy I was bummed to find that picture not included, so I went and found an older issue on Amazon or Ebay so I could have it. When Estes brought back the Mercury Redstone in the early 2000's, I tried my hand at my own Little Joe, but I got the fins all wrong and got discouraged. I never did fly that one, but now I'm thinking that I should finish the shroud and give it at least one flight.

Has anybody Heard of a timeline for the new releases(I.E. the Little Joes, the Saturn V w bonus and the Aquarius)?

No.

I attended NARAM yesterday and asked Ellis Langford about the Little Joe I's, and he said "a couple of months." I didn't press further or ask about the other kits!

The next two kits to be released should be the Explorer Aquarius and the Silver Streak 2 stager, within 30 days, according to hobby distributors. At NARAM, the Little Joe 1 was hinted as third quarter (October maybe), and the Saturn V was hinted as end of the year. Also shown was a 1/200 ARF or RTF Saturn V for next year closer to the Apollo 11 anniversary.

I heard that the Little Joes were "on the boat", meaning that they are in a container on a ship coming from China.

The waiting is the hardest part (cue music).

Chas

I got my 2018 Estes catalog today and was please that the MR Little Joe was in it. The description states balsa fins. Does that mean we have to hand-scrape the full bevels into the fins? If that’s the case, I’ll probably build them up from super-thin plywood over a basswood armature.

Estes Little Joe I
 

Ellis Langford explained at NARAM 60 that the fins are laser-cut balsa frame pieces with laser-cut cardstock overlay.

Kind regards,
Jeff Jenkins
aka: Faithwalker
NAR #46879 SR

Translation: Cardstock with balsa skeleton. Yuck. :p

Is there a link to it at Estes website? I could not find it .

Here is a photo of the prototype in the Estes conference room.

See pages 8 and 9 of Estes 2018 catalog.

https://www.estesrockets.com/media/...WEB_VERSION.pdf

Kind regards,
Jeff Jenkins
aka: Faithwalker
NAR #46879 SR

nice photo! let's see,

- Apollo LJII 1/45 back in production -- check

- LJ in production -- check

- Mercury Atlas?? be still my heart!!!

Yes, the interesting thing about this is that Ellis told us on the tour that anything we saw in the conference room would be in the next (2019) catalog. When I mentioned the Atlas to JumpJet and Angela the Product Manager in the Hospitality tent, they both went, "news to us!"

I'd like to see Estes offer both the 1/70 and 1/100 Saturn 1B again too.

Wow! I was half-kidding/wishful thinking!!! That would be great!

...and I 2nd GH's comment bring back both Saturn 1Bs!!!

The pro series patriot was done that way and looks great and was durable.

I'm really looking forward to this one.
A re-issue of the K-21 BT-70 based Gemini Titan that was last offered in like 1975 would be great too.

None of us needed that "translated" but thanks anyway!

I've got Semroc 1/70 and Estes 1/100 1B's along with my Centuri 1B and a Mercury Atlas, but I don't have any Gemini Titans. That's the scale kit I'd like to see re-released the most. If the original Semroc still existed, I could clone one and it would hit production within a month or two. My son and I had that happen 8 or 10 times when we were on our big building binge 8-10 years ago. ;) Edit....make that 12. I just counted them. :chuckle:

There are clone parts semi -kits for the K-21 offered on eBay.
You have to supply the tubes and easy to procure parts.
Not the same as a complete kit, but does include a pre-made fin unit.
I have several Semroc S1B's and one Estes K-29, but no Centuri/Estes 1/100 S1Bs.

I didn't realize that the fin units were available. That's what held me back during the great building binge. Looks like the kits have 3D printed capsules, adapter shrouds and plywood rings. That seems like it would be pretty heavy.

I need to fly low and slow for small field demos. I did see a separate BT-70 fin unit listed which would allow me to scratch build the rest. The original K-21 specs claimed a pair of A8-3's would do the job. I doubt I'd try that, but a pair of B6-4's would probably get me up and down on our school's little playground surrounded by trees.

A Gemini-Titan would be great, but I'd really like to see one based on BT-80 airframe tubing, and sporting a blow molded nose cone. Just a dream, I know...

Frankly, the release of a cluster model in the current era of sketchy igniters would probably lead to a rash of warranty claims.

James