North Coast Rocketry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Big Brute was one of NCR's oldest model rockets.

North Coast Rocketry was originally founded in Ohio by Chris Pearson and Matt Steele, with Dan Kafun added as a partner in 1989.

North Coast Rocketry (NCR) had their own line of unique High Power rockets and introduced some "cutting edge" technologies and designs for their time. To augment their product line NCR was also a dealer for Class "C" Aerotech motors, and Class "B" Vulcan motors in the mid to late 1980's. North Coast provided a limited selection of disposable motors in 1984 that were called "North Coasters". The North Coaster motors were made by Aerotech on a special agreement that North Coast would have sole distribution rights. The motors were shipped to North Coast Rocketry near Cleveland Ohio with no end caps and labels and final processing was conducted by North Coast Rocketry. The North Coasters motor line was: the E28 (24mm), F41 (24mm) and G60 (29mm) motors. They were phased out late in 1987 due to a supply issues. North Coast intended to make Reloadable motors with a few prototype cases being made until the propellant shipping issues in the early 1990's stopped their development. NCR reloadable motor design was said to be so simple (color coded parts) to construct it could be done by someone who knew nothing about rockets and without reading one word of instructions. The reloadable motor technology was however never released into production.

North Coast Rocketry was moved to Colorado and Utah in the early 1990's prior to being purchased by Estes. During this time NCR branched out into making Composite motors based on Potassium Perchlorate that would deliver a Pink flame during the burn. The motor technology was changed by Estes to the more industry standard Ammonium Perchlorate based propellant.

North Coast Rocketry was Subsequently purchased by Estes Industries' around 1995/ 1996 and served as their Mid-High Power Model Rocketry division. This line of rockets and products was discontinued in 2000. All Estes versions of the NCR models used DarkStar motors, which emitted a dark black smoke trail. These motors were made specifically for NCR rockets and were slighlty smaller in diameter than their competitors motors. The motor was unique in that it had a molded aft thrust ring on the motor.

Since the brand has been discontinued, most people modify the motor mounts to use 29 mm size motors.

NCR also sold a heavy duty launch pad and controller for their rockets.