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Old 11-14-2017, 12:57 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
The long box MMI Aerobee Hi kit was the first one that was introduced. The idea was to provide a person with everything they needed to launch a model rocket, including the launch pad and launch rod. Because everything was done by mail order at the time, MMI found out that these long kits created a big problem when they were delivered. Because they didn't fit in conventional mailboxes, the postman would simply fold the box is half and stuff them into the box. This resulted in MMI removing the launch rod and making a much shorter kit.
I wonder if this--or the memory of it, to Vern Estes and Leroy Piester--prompted Estes and Centuri to use two-piece 1/8" (and later, also 3/16" Maxi-Rods) launch rods? (Before Maxi-Rods came along, a third piece could also [optionally] be added to the two-piece 1/8" rods, for a total length of 53"). Also, the shorter but wider and deeper (yet possibly larger-volume than the long MMI boxes) starter set "range boxes" that Centuri and Estes used might possibly have been cheaper to mail to mail-order customers (some postal classes cost more for unusually-sized and/or unusually-shaped parcels, and may have back then as well).
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