and production moved to Estes in Penrose, CO. CLICK HERE
Initially, the Vashon line remained unchanged.
All six designs were BT-50 based. The initial kits included RP-100 (freon based liquid propellant), a simple wooden based launcher and a conversion kit. I don't remember my kit including the launcher and conversion kit.
I bought and built the Shark, my favorite of the six choices. I launched it using the Freon motor. It seemed to be the equivalent of a B6-4.
You had to be careful with these - cold weather could effect the performance of the self-refrigerant fuel. After two anemic launches, I converted it to 18mm black powder using a 20/50 adapter.
On the right side is the black plastic hand held launch button, cable and nozzle release.
Ejection was provided by a compressed spring, held in place during boost while the motor was pressurized. On display, the extended spring made the rocket look like a broken toy.
In 1976, the cold power rocket line was reduced to the three kits shown at the top of this post. The original aluminum bodied Vashon "Valkyrie" models were gone. The Freon propellant was contributing to ozone layer depletion and global warming
In the 1977 catalog, some original cold power convertible designs were reintroduced with 20/50 black powder motor mounts. The Scamp and Teros were back in the "NEW" kit lineup.
A close reissue of the Shark appeared as the Stiletto in 1979 (Kit #1323) using a plastic nose cone and display nozzle
(type PNC-50BB) The original Shark had four fins, the Stilletto has three. This kit run lasted through 1983. My build will be a combination of the two.
What makes the Shark a skill level 4? In the old days that meant something pretty complex.
ReplyDeleteHi Neil,
DeleteGood point! That must have been a mistake, the Yankee 5 and Marauder were level 2s. The Shark has more fins a tunnel and small thruster details. Maybe the Shark could have been a Level 3?
Looking over the scans of the instruction sheet scans on the JimZ site, I don't immediately see anything that could've made the Shark a higher skill level than the Stiletto (skill 2).
DeleteI do remember picking up the Stilletto kit back when it was introduced -- funny thing is that I kept having that "I'd seen this somewhere before" feeling with it --- didn't made the connection with the Coldpower Shark kit until many years later (despite having older catalogs that listed the Coldpower series of models).
ReplyDeleteHi Naoto,
DeleteI saw a Stiletto online and had that "I'd seen this somewhere before" feeling. I looked through some catalogs and remembered building and launching the Shark.
Looking at the catalog scans on the Ninfinger site ( https://ninfinger.org/ ), the catalog that was packed in with the starter kit (the one with the Alpha) I had was the 1973 edition (mainly remember it for having the bright yellow background on the cover). I'll have to dig through my collection to check what the oldest catalog that I still have happens to be (the older ones got tossed out as they were quite tattered from being flipped through quite often).
ReplyDeleteHi Naoto,
DeleteI used to keep all the catalogs but now they're in storage. No need to have them close when all can be found on Ninfinger's.
Speaking of older catalogs -- I'll need to check if I still have the catalog in which the Battlestar Galactica kits were first listed. I've a recollection that the edition of the catalog I had listed the Cylon Raider as "coming soon", rather than "cancelled" as with the online copies I've seen.
Delete