A Pretty Cool Find...

A while back I posted about several hundred model airplane magazines that I bought in two lots at an auction. At the time I said that I would go through them all and if I found any rocket stuff, I would post it here. Well, as it turns out, my wife Laurie actually found a couple of cool ones!

Subject for your approval this week is the September 1956 edition of "Flying Models." This is the cover:

Its a great shot of the Disneyland Flight Circle! When the magazine came out, Disneyland had only been open for 13 months. The picture was, therefore, taken before the park was a year old. At that point, there was relatively little in Tomorrowland. The Flight Circle filled in real estate that needed something interesting, and gave the park some additional income (it was leased to Cox for them to promote their products). Of course, I think the most interesting item in the shot is that handsome 80 foot tall item in the background. Yep, the TWA Moonliner....WITH the Rocket to the Moon show building behind it! Wow!!!!

I was really hoping that there would be a great article inside the magazine, but alas, no such luck. All the magazine had to say about the cover was:

Oh well. Its still a great find! Oh, and just in case anyone is wondering about the back of the magazine; here ya go:

So that's about it for this week. I have more stuff to put on from those magazines, but that can wait for future posts (one thing you learn real quick in blogging is to not use all of your material up at once!)

So until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Special Halloween Edition!

The 1960's brought about quite a few fads and crazes.  There was the space race, the British Invasion, and monsters. Yes, I said monsters. This post dives into the point where monsters and rockets collide (not literally, but that would be cool.)

The monster craze of the 1960's found its start in the 1930's....in Hollywood. In the 1930's monster movies were very hot and many studios (most notably Universal) cranked them out with abandon. Now these are not to be confused with the 1950's B movie space aliens. These were the classics; Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, and Frankenstein.

The movie goers tastes changed, however, and soon these films were largely forgotten....until a new outlet became available for them. The outlet was television, and movie studios were more than happy to dust off their tired old films to make a few more bucks on them. Included in these films were the classic monster movies, and people, especially kids, couldn't get enough! Suddenly monsters were cool again, and everybody jumped on the band wagon....or hearse....or whatever.

Television gave us such new shows as The Munsters, The Addams Family, and Dark Shadows, toy companies came out with games such as The Green Ghost, Haunted House, and Ka-Balla, and Estes rockets came out with the following classics:

The Goblin.....Mine has flown tons, hence the busted fin...

The A-20 Demon

The Scamp....actually my Maxi Scamp, but close enough...

The Zoom Broom....A Goony Classic!

After sometime in the 1970's, the craze died down (except maybe for stupid zombies. Here's my tip to get away from zombies, "Walk fast." You're welcome.) Still, these birds are just plain cool in their own right, and they are perfect for this time of year. So from SLB, Happy Halloween, and to all a spooky night!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Disney in Plastic

As many of you know, I am a fan of both rocketry and Disney. Nothing combines these subjects quite as well as the TWA Moonliner. Now, I have written at length about this subject before, so I won't go into it again (sound of cheers). This week we are focusing on the plastic model kit.

The original kit was produced in the mid 50's by Strombecker. It was an official licensed product. Disney discovered very early how to cross promote just about everything.

More recently the kit has been produced by Glencoe, who purchased the original molds. The only difference is that now it was NOT an official Disney product. This fact makes sense when you realize that the "real" Moonliner has been missing from Disneyland since the mid 1960's. Also, TWA wouldn't have any interest in licensing it due to the fact that they have been out of business for a few decades. This is not a huge issue since you can sometimes find replacement TWA decals on eBay.

I have also included a picture of what comes in the box. As you can see, this is a very simple model. Also, I don't think it would be good for Plastic Model Conversion, due to the small scale. 1/144 scale translates into about 11 inches tall, and pretty skinny.  Still, it is pretty cool, overall.

The TWA Moonliner was used to promote both TWA and Disneyland. 

The original kit

The most current kit

What is inside...

By the way, there is a 41 inch tall TWA Moonliner plastic model being offered on eBay right now that seems like it would be really cool....IF it didn't go for 250 bucks! Is it weird that I still find it a little tempting? Oh well, maybe when I hit that ol' lottery (that I always forget to play)

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

46 Years Ago....

In celebration of the Apollo 7 flight 46 years ago, I'm sharing one of my most prized rocketry items. It was an incredible honor to be on the team that built these birds, and an even greater honor to see and meet many childhood heroes, including Walt Cunningham, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. (My wife still has a crush on Buzz after he insisted on standing by her in the pictures, lol)
So in honor of Apollo 7, I give you model number 3, built by the DFW team....

Here is hoping that one day our nation will find its way in space exploration again...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Happy Birthday to STB! Plus, A Look at an FSI Classic

Well guys, a year ago about this time Shroudlines The Blog was born! Now, 53 posts later, we are still going....Who woulda thunk it? On a side note, some of you may be thinking "Why don't we see more DARS stuff on here, or launches or meetings?" The truth be told, I haven't been to many lately. A combination of ever increasing demands at work and playing in three bands means very little time for rocket related activities. However, I can still access my 40 year collection of rocket junk and I can still ramble on about practically nothing, so I think we can keep going here for a while....At least it gives me a "rocket fix" once a week...

Speaking of that collection, this week I have a treat for you! Namely, this:

Yes, its the FSI Sandia Sandhawk! FSI produced this kit from 1990 to about 1994. It was a respectable 49 inches tall and designed to take FSI E60 and F100 motors. One interesting thing that I noticed when I set the parts out is that the fins are 1/4 inch balsa....and very light. I guess I have gotten used to heavy plywood fins, but these seemed a little flimsy. That being said, I have never heard of one of these models shredding, so what do I know?

The size of this bird is about the size of the FSI Black Brant (which is one of my favorites). I have toyed with actually building it, but can't bring myself to ruin the value of a vintage kit. Such is the plight of the collector. Oh well, maybe someday when things settle down a bit I can think about cloning her...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

A Matter of Control...

Hello to the 52nd installment of Shroudlines, the Blog. It's not actually our one year anniversary because we double posted one week. Such is life.

Anyway, this week I'm going to look at a really cool item in my collection, the Command Control Launch Controller by Estes.

The front of the box

The back of the box is more interesting than the front...

Out of the box....

Instructions and whatnot....

As you can see, this controller was designed and marketed with the "High Impulse" crowd in mind. It was part of the North Coast Rocketry line (a company which shall be mourned for many moons) and as such was aimed at mid-power flyers. This just in: North Coast Rocketry lives again thanks to Matt Steele! Thanks for the info, John Dyer!!

The controller itself is an over-engineered thing of beauty. Why only have a safety key when you can also have dual launch buttons? Why not have a display that shows battery life? Why not have muti- power settings? Why not have a spool for the launch wires? Why not design it for nicads? Why not charge almost 60 bucks for it???

The sound you just heard was the echos of hundreds of rocketeers wallets slamming shut. The fact of the matter is that for what it did, the controller was just too danged expensive. A more powerful controller was designed over 50 years ago that can still be built for about ten bucks (not including the car battery, but you already have one of those under your hood). And thus we have a lesson in "new and shiny is not always better."

I purchased my controller on closeout at a local hobby shop for a little less than 20 bucks. I have never used it, and probably won't. Why? Well, first of all DARS has wonderful launch equipment that it provides at all club launches. Secondly, I have this:

Yep, its my original 1970's Estes Solar Launch Controller. A little grimy, a little worn, but still functioning perfectly after 40 years. (I did rewire it a couple of times). And it fits in my range box. That was $3.95 well spent in 1973! So in the launch controller showdown, old-school wins!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

NASA Meets Snail Mail

As you know, I am always on the lookout for space related items. If said item is related to Project Apollo, so much the better. One such piece I picked up in Denison, Tx a while back is this:

As you can see, it is a letter opener from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I found it sitting on a shelf of totally unrelated items at an antique mall. It was cheap (I think about a buck) so I snapped it up!

Now it is always neat to find a piece of space history, but it is even more fun to try to figure out when the object was purchased. In this case, I had precious few clues. Consulting "The Great and Mighty Google" was little help in that it simply pointed out that the letter opener isn't particularly rare, since there are no fewer than five for sale on eBay at the time of this writing. I therefore had to rely on some good guesswork. The date I came up with was....the 1970's.

The reason I chose this date is as follows:
1. All of the eBay listings state that it is "vintage." Now that can mean almost anything, but at least it tells me that the sellers didn't pick it up at the gift shop yesterday.
2. Speaking of the Kennedy Space Center gift shop, they don't sell letter openers now. I checked.
3. The vinyl case and plastic handle seem of that time period.
4.It isn't stamped "Made in China."
5. It has a Saturn V on the handle. The 80's would see merchandising shift to the Shuttle. (I saw it myself when I visited there in the early 90's. There was very little Saturn merchandise at that time.)
6. The graphic of the Saturn is detailed enough to make it pretty clear that it wasn't the 60's. 1960's pictures of the Saturns were often very simplistic.
7. It's a letter opener. How much more 70's can you get?

So there you have it. I might be right or I might be wrong, but it really doesn't matter. Either way, I think its a cool addition to my collection. If anyone has any more info on it, I'm all ears! (Well, not literally. That would be weird.)

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!