New Products Reply From Estes John Boren

From John Boren (JumpJet on TRF): 
"Sorry I haven't posted in this thread yet but I couldn't find it and since I seldom go to the Watering Hole section it was by chance I found this thread since it was linked in another thread.

As you can see my original question or statement if you wish to call it that instead, isn't an easy one to answer or for a company to act on. There are some common wants but for the most part everyone wants something different as their number one thing, which is common no matter what the topic is. I see more engines and parts are pretty much at the top of the list. I've flown engines here that I WISH would have made it to market, but for one reason or another they didn't. Estes isn't in the parts business so you won't see everything we use in our products sold separately. Places like BMS and Semroc supply most of this kind of stuff anyway.

By the way this is me asking the question not Estes asking me to ask the question. I am a modeler first of foremost so I pretty much would like to see just about everything everyone has mentioned but I'm also the one and only R&D guy here and what I design has to first and for most be in the best business practice for Estes and not my personal want. 

Here are a few items I can comment on - 

Centuri Super Kits: I knew Carl was doing them so I stayed away from them, since there's plenty of other stuff to do.
More Card Stock: I use card stock in many of my designs and there's more of it to come.
More Scale: There's more to come
Limited production runs: This is what most of the other rocket companies do. A hundred or two hundred kits is fine for them but we have to do several thousand at a time.
More Bring Backs: I'd love too, but they really don't sale any better then new stuff, so why do  YES. in most cases this might be better then a simple bring back.
Higher Skill Level kits: For many years Estes didn't have any skill level 4 and skill level 5 kits, now we do and there are more to come.
38mm retainer: A fellow club member tested a rapid prototype one I designed, it worked great. This won't be coming to market.
RC Gliders: I wish, and I've created a few that I've posted here in the past for my personally use but were also used for testing of radio gear that could be used by Estes.
Gooney Birds: I created a whole new series of these but we instead made other short BT60 models like the Estes Jet Liner
Smaller kits for 29mm: It's on my personal to do list.
 I've got two in testing.
Cluster Model kit: I would like to do at least one kit since we now have the Pro Series Launch Controller.
More Electronic Stuff: Yes
A3-6T : We tried, can no longer get 6 seconds of delay in the case with the black powder available 
Rock Sim: I don't use any type of stability software to design my models with. After the fact I do use Rock Sim to prove the margin of stability of the design for Corporate.
Rubber Shock Cords: LONG LIVE RUBBER SHOCK CORDS, Down with Kevlar. Places like Apogee welcome your purchase of their Kevlar. Kevlar burns and breaks just like rubber, plus it zippers.

By the way posting positive stuff on the Estes Face Book page is the best way to maybe get more of what your looking for since more Corporate people will see these posts then just I who visit the forums.
I would also ask that you leave reviews on the Estes web site on the products we sale. The New Conquest I designed has yet to have a single comment posted and it." 

John Boren

Most interesting for me is More Scale, Bring Backs, Info on the A3-6t engine and Rubber Shock Cords. Regarding the A3-6t: I had heard black powder takes up more room in the casing now so longer delays aren't always possible.