Friday, April 22

Semroc Astronautics

Madeleine and I assemble the Semroc "IQSY Tomahawk" which is a "1/10 semi-scale model, historical sounding rocket" which is "fun to build and fly" with "laser cut fins". My foray into rockets started with Berkeley neighbor Todd, four years older, and all that. Todd and I got ourselves into bugs and Star Trek and first-bikes, paper airplanes, tree forts, go-carts and .. model rockets. This would have been '77 or '78. Todd is now a firefighter in Chico and I am thrilled to rediscover an inch of my youth.


From the packaging:

"Semroc Astronautics Corp. was started by Carl McLawhorn in his college dorm at North Carolina State University in November, 1967. Convincing a small group of investors in his home town of Ayden, NC, to invest in a small corporation, the company was reincorporated as Semroc Astronautics on December 31, 1969.

Semroc produced a full line of model rocket kits and engines. At its peak, Semroc had twenty-five full time employees working at two facilities. One was for research and development, printing, shipping, and administration. The other was outside town and handled all production and model rocket engine manufacturing. For several years, Semroc was successful selling model rocket kits, supplies and engines by mail-order and in hobby shops. In 1971, Semroc became involvement and had to close its doors.

After 31 years of dreams and preparations, Semroc Astronautics Corporation was reincorporated on April 2, 2002, with a strong commitment to helping put the fun back into model rocketry."