RIP-STOP NYLON?
Why, back in my day we made chutes from garbage bags. "Para-Wad" . . . yeah, that's what we called 'em.
EJECTION BAFFLES?
Think fiberglass Son, I say fiberglass.
INTERNET HOW-TO VIDEOS?
Nope, just Estes Yellow Pages. If you were lucky, you might see an MRN Idea Box page.
CLUSTERS?
Hah! Ya better have "Sure Shots" and a car battery handy. Heads up!
3D PRINTED PARTS?
What you gonna' learn about life from that?
ROCKSIM?
You need a computer to design a rocket? We did it all on the fly!
You need RockSim? We used Luck-Sim.
FIN ALIGNMENT TOOLS?
Just a door frame and a pencil line. Our rockets spun on the way up.
Extra stable if you ask me.
KEVLAR?
Shock cords were rubber bands. They were short, waaaay too short.
E through M ENGINES?
We were lucky to get a "Mighty" D13 that didn't blow!
COMPOSITE ENGINES?
$5.00 for one Enerjet engine? An A engine was just four bits each!
No wonder Enerjet ain't around no more.
ALKALINE BATTERIES?
The PhotoFlash "D"s sorta' worked, if they didn't leak battery acid inside the base of your Electro-Launch.
PICTORIAL INSTRUCTIONS?
Our instructions had words - many, many words in English. Do these kids read?
ALTIMETERS?
Nah, we'd guess. Hey, my Big Bertha gets 2,000 feet on a C6-5!
CHUTE RELEASE?
Close recovery? Hah! That's what those two legs are for. Hey kid, go find my rocket.
MADE IN CHINA?
Dang Communists.
RTF? E2X?
WTH!
Rocksim? Open Rocket? How about the string test and cardboard cutouts?
ReplyDeleteElectronic altimeters? Alti-Trak is better: No batteries needed!
Way too funny.
Thanks Chris.
Hi Gary,
DeleteI knew there'd be some things I'd miss! Glad you liked the posts!
And we LIKED it that way [shaking fist]!
ReplyDeleteHi Lonnie,
DeleteIgnorance is bliss, I guess. All we had was all we had at the time.
an digital electronic computer? An electronic pocket calculator?
ReplyDeletebah! if you're gonna be *serious* you've got to use a slide rule!
BTW, if you're wondering why I use "digital electronic computer" rather than simply "computer"... in the past, "computer" could refer to an occupation (see: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/computers.html ); and "digital" being used to differentiate it from analog computer ( see: https://www.britannica.com/technology/analog-computer ).
Younger folks will probably look at you confused with your usage of the term "bit" (1/8 dollar). Always did find amusing the naming of the kit "Two Bitz" (
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/73cen00c.html ) - which works out since you get two rockets -- so on average each one did cost you two bits.
Hi Naoto,
DeleteMy Mother would use the phrase "Two Bits". When the Centuri Two Bits model came out, she said: "So it's 25 cents for the rocket?" I said: "There is two of them so it's 50 cents total."