Earl, I read this document yesterday, and I have to state that it is exceptionally well-written. At least as good as the documents that were issued by Estes (the gold standard for such IMHO). Thanks for posting it here!

Yes, I am somewhat surprised Stine's and MPC's efforts in this report has not seen wider distribution throughout the years, and now, on vintage rocketry sites. I had heard of references to the various safety tests that were performed on motors for this technical paper, but had never seen a hard copy or a scanned copy on line anywhere when I first got this hard copy about a decade ago.

They certainly were trying to get across to local fire officials, potential distributors, and certainly end users, that model rocket motors were VERY safe if treated and used as intended. And, even if someone TRIED intentionally to mis-use (or abuse) the motors they were going to have a somewhat tough time doing so.

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

I remember reading in Estes literature you could not ignite their motors with a match.
At age 13 I set out to prove them wrong in my BEDROOM.

I placed an unlit wooden match at the top of the grain of a C6-0 motor.
I touched that match atop the grain with the glowing ember of a blown-out but previously lit wooden match. It Ignited EASILY. So much for that BUNK/GUFF/HAWGWARSH/BALONEY of cannot be ignited by a match.

I remember being startled of how large the flame was when burning the motor in "reverse".
Windows were quickly opened. Fans placed in windows to suck out fumes/smoke.
Parents never found out.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

That is a gem. Thank you Earl and Scott!

__________________
Bob Portnell, Sparks, Nevada
NAR #87762, NARTREK Silver, Not an actual Silver Snoopy awardee
"Flying Like It's 1980"

Estes put out an updated version of this about 35 years ago as their legal department was "putting out various fires" in state governments. Georgia had shut down rocketry for about six months in the mid 80's due to changes in fireworks laws with un(?)intended consequences. The club that I belonged to had helped Estes contact various legislators and I saw a copy around 1991. It was written by Harry, repeated most of that info, and had some photos showing the "hobby store fire tests" (model airplane fuel in plastic jugs, and aerosol paints were far more dangerous to firefighters than model rocket motors!), I think the rifle test, and some other tests.

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Roy
nar12605

OK, out of all the weird statements you've made, **that** one doesn't pass the SMELL test.

Putting a freshly burnt motor casing in my car after a launch puts a smell in there that people can notice days after the casing has long been thrown in the trash.

Either your parents didn't visit your room often, or they were chain smokers to the point that their sense of smell was gone!!

__________________
Roy
nar12605

I may have posted about this incident here many years ago, but:
A couple months after I started in Model Rocketry (summer of 1967),
a friend of mine got into the hobby. I helped him put his first order to Estes together with a couple of kits, some motors, a Tilt-a-Pad and launch controller. He called me up the morning his stuff arrived to come over and help him build the kits, and just as I walked in to the back room I saw him with the pad set up, a motor taped to the top of the launch rod and the clips hooked up to the igniter. I looked at him with this "you're not serious" look on my face just as he said "Hey Sean - watch this!" I barely had time to say "No Tony - don't..." and he pressed the button. Fortunately, the launch rod stayed attached to the pad, but unfortunately it was a B3-7.
His mom heard the motor ignite and came running in yelling and screaming, ripping him a new one while the delay smoke continued to fill the room. Both Tony and I new it wasn't over. His mom didn't. Just as she was catching her breath to lay into him again the ejection charge went off, spraying red hot black powder particles up and out. Tony and I ducked and she fell backwards out of the room. We both started looking around making sure nothing was burning while she just stood there staring.
Needless to say, I was sent home while Tony faced his mother's disappointment in her only son's stupidity (and later that day, his father's).


The whole reason for this short story made long is that, to Roy's point, that room stunk for weeks after.

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SAM #0031

Earl,
Thanks for posting these historic gems! These are great pieces of model rocket nostalgia. I was looking through some of my MPC literature yesterday and came across another similar pair of MPC sales flyers from the same time period as the MPC Titan III one you posted. What I found are the MPC introduction flyer to these kits and the MPC Russian Vostok RD-107 flyer. I have posted them here for additional reference.

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

Attached Files

	MPC_Introduction_flyer.pdf (275.9 KB, 56 views)
	MPC_Vostok_flyer.pdf (514.2 KB, 56 views)

Here is a scan of the Lunar Lectric Launch Pad instructions.

Earl

Attached Files

MPC Lunar Lectric Launch Pad-Instructions.pdf (753.6 KB, 20 views)

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Here's the Lunar-Lectric launch controller instructions for the one I have, which is yellow and brown and has a round "Ignite" button rather than the red/white with rectangular button that is on the box and in most pictures of these things.

Attached Files

MPC Lunar Lectric controller.pdf (607.4 KB, 14 views)

__________________
Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE