Category:Estes Industries
| Toy Brands and Manufacturers |
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Estes Industries |
| 1958 - |
Estes has been a supplier of home rocketry products since 1958.
1958: Model Missiles Inc.
George Harry Stine (1928-1997) was one of the main US proponents of rocketry in the 1950s, and was also a science fiction author under the pen-name Lee Correy. Fired from Lockheed Martin for giving an uncomfortably honest interview in which he explained how far the USSR were ahead of the US in rocketry, Stine was contacted by model rocketry enthusiast Orville Carlisle, and the two of them created Model Missiles Inc. in 1958.
1958: Estes Industries
MMI found themselves unable to meet the demand that their advertising created, and they subcontracted manufacturing to Vernon Estes, who created Estes Industries in 1958. Vernon had experience of small cardboard-tubed rockets and the problems inherent in producing them (the family business was fireworks), and he decided to solve the problem of how to manufacture rocket propulsion packs safely by using automation ... but by creating a manufacturing machine (MABEL) that used compressed air and mechanics rather than electronics, eliminating the risk of stray voltages igniting the explosives. MABEL was able to pop out a finished propulsion device every five-and-a-half seconds, and became the basis of Estes Industries' dominance of the home rocketry market from that point onwards.
1969: Sale, acquisitions and mergers
Damon Corporation bought Estes in 1969 and amongst Damon's other hobby-company acquisitions was rival hobby-rocketry company Centuri Engineering. Damon effectively merged the Estes and Centuri businesses.
After a long series of tedious buyouts, acquisitions and divestments, Estes-Cox (which now also included model aircraft company Cox) ended up being sold to Estes Industries LLC in 2018.
1964 advertising text:
Follow Science with Model Rocketry
"Blast Off" ... into the exciting world of this new space-age hobby
From the ranks of today's Model Rocketeers will come the future space-age scientists.
BUILD AND FLY YOUR OWN MODELS!
Learn model rocket design and principles from plans, parts and rocket engines approved by the National Association of Rocketry.
Model Rocket Kit ... $2.00 Easy to assemble ... climbs 1200 feet - 3 engines - instructions - catalogue
Safety - Education - Enjoyment
— , Estes Industries, , Boys Life, , March 1964
Addresses
- ESTES INDUSTRIES – Penrose 22, Colorado
See also:
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