Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - MRI Starter Set / MRI History

Quote:

Originally Posted by hcmbanjo

To clarify, Myke Bergenske started M.R.I. It did stand for Model Rocket Industries.
MRI was bought by MPC. Myke was brought on to run the model rocket division of MPC.
MPC got out of rocketry, MYke purchased the inventory and engine making machinery.
AVI was then started selling AVI "sticker re-branded" MPC kits and supplies.
Towards the end of AVI you could get kits and engines very cheap.

Here's some more information on MRI from a phone call to Myke Bergenske himself in 2011 -
http://modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com/search?q=mri

He led me to believe that General Mills (the parent company of MPC) got rid of MPC
rockets. In their eyes, model rockets didn't make enough money to justify their continued production.

Myke Bergenske probably doesn't get enough credit for his contributions to the hobby.
He was one of the few to build large production engine making machines.
For a short time, MPC sales exceeded Estes! MPC had great distribution already from their plastic model kit sales.

Around 1973 and 74 I built quite a few models for MPC. I got to know the Bergenske's through correspondence and at the NARAMs.

Thank you, Chris! The correct timeline (and the linked-to information on your blog) does clarify things--and I hadn't known that Myke Bergenske *started* MRI. (My impression is that the "second generation" model rocket companies such as MRI/MPC/AVI, Bo-Mar, and Semroc rose--and later sank--as public and educational interest in Apollo and the space race peaked and then waned.) Also, I would never have suspected that MPC ever exceeded Estes in sales (as they did in 1970)! Also:

Stefanj's account about Cox having a fatal motor production accident is correct. The account that I had read, somewhere here on YORF, about MPC's accident (which I may be confusing with Cox's), involved black powder "dust" accumulating over time atop one or more beams of the building, above the motor-making equipment. At some point this fine black powder was ignited (by static electricity?), touching off a large explosion. (Estes' motor production set-up is very wisely thought out. Spreading it out among several widely-separated, isolated little "shacks" with 'blow-off roofs' avoids having any single large amounts of black powder, ensuring that no explosion will be large and powerful.)