The good old days!

This video has been featured on numerous rocket blogs and sites, and it is time I posted it here. From the mid-60's to mid-70's, the West Covina Model Rocket Society (WCMRS) was one of California's most active model rocket clubs, having over a hundred members. They even had their own designated launch site in a city park, which is unheard of nowadays. The video, from 1967, shows the club in action, and features things such as a "silo launched" scale model of a Titan, and an underwater launch (Yep, it can be done). Here's the link to the low-res version on YouTube:


A better version, with a 3 minute prelude about Robert Goddard, can be found here ("Junior Missilemen in Action").

I found a short article about the club, published in the Centuri American Rocketeer, Vol 3, No. 1:

(Click to enlarge)

So what happened to the West Covina Model Rocket Society? Well, it appears that they had some problems with starting fires in the park. After the third such incident, in 1974, the city banned rocket launches there and WCMRS faded from history. Yet another reminder that good things are easily lost.