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Original Estes K-44 Birdie
I want to share some photos from an Ebay auction that just closed. Perhaps one of the very rarest Estes kits, the original issue K44 Birdie. Gerry Fortin's site doesn't even have a photo of one, and lists no sales. I've never seen one come up for sale either.
There were four versions of this kit. It began as an Estes Design of the Month in October 1968. The design was very simple, a shuttlecock, a short piece of BT-20, an engine block, a short launch lug, and a centering ring. For stability reasons it was meant to fly only on shorty motors. Shortly after the publication of the plan, Estes began to offer it as a kit, the original K-44. The "instructions" were simply a reprint of the DOM plan (below). The ebay sale was for one of those original first year kits. The K-44 Birdie was offered that way for a year, then changed to the "Astron Birdie," in a double oval header design, with more normal instructions. In 1972 the kit changed again, to the TK-44, using 13 mm motors. Gerry Fortin gives a nice description of the kits here. And as Fortin points out, even those kits are extremely rare. Subsequently the TK-44 became part of the Mini-Brute line. I hope this adds a bit to the history of this very early oddroc. I was really surprised to see one show up on ebay and didn't want to miss the chance to capture and share the photos. Steve |
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