The Dud

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

A couple of years ago, when our local rocket club decided to help "pay it forward" or "sow the seeds" of our hobby in the new generation, we agreed to do some info table appearances at various youth events.

One of these was "Yuri's Night", which I later found out was in celebration of the first man in space, who happened to have been Russian.  Patriotism aside, I thought it was a clever way to attract attention to the event.

I also found out that while the event was annually held in the spring, different libraries and youth organizations held them on different nights.  While it may have been named after Yuri Grigorian, it wasn't always held on his birthday.  In fact, there are LOTS of different factors that influenced the date in different communities:  The availability of the venue...the weather conditions expected for stargazing... the availability of various major players (library or vendors)...and the goodwill of the community.

Over the years, "Yuri's Night" grew quite popular with the community, at least until the pandemic broke out, and then everything stopped.

But the point of this is that we made a positive effort to reach out to families and the youth of today, to show them how simple a rocket could be, and how to build one.  By the time the afternoon was over, the glue had dried enough for the kid to get a sample of a launch  with their very own rocket that they could take home.  The hope was that a few kids would catch the bug and stay with rocketry.

There was one product that Flis Kits sold that I always found extremely helpful at these public info displays. It was an oversized teaching model of a cutaway rocket motor.  Each part was labeled, so a kid could see and understand what was going on inside the motor as it burned.


As I recall, the model motor had two sections, which included the nozzle and propellant, but a separate removable piece contained the delay and ejection charge.  In this way, you could demonstrate the difference between a booster, and an ejection charge, and explain how it dislodged the parachute or streamer.


The teaching example was very clear and I used it every public visit.

But now, as I search for it on-line, I fear that Flis Kits has discontinued the product.  I don't know what to call it, but it was the best $9 kit I ever invested in, that never flew.  In short, it was designed never to launch.

Does anyone know what this display was called, and are there any more out there still in the marketplace?

This Thrifty Rocketeer wants to know...

Comments

  1. Kirk G - The Thrifty RocketeerNovember 28, 2022 at 1:41 PM

    There is a "transparent" rocket kit from Estes called the "Phantom" which is not to be flown, but used in the classroom to demonstrate how a model rocket works...complete with a cutaway motor too.

    ReplyDelete

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