Estes started in 1958 as a mail order outfit run by Vern and Gleda Estes, and in 1961 it moved onto a 77-acre site near Penrose, Colorado, where the machines that spit out black powder motors by the thousand still live. The catalog is the widest in the hobby: ready-to-fly models, E2X kits that go together in about half an hour, classic balsa and cardstock builds like Big Bertha, and the bigger 24mm and 29mm Pro Series II line. Motors run from tiny 13mm A engines up to E and F class. Since April 2018 the company is family-run again, with its own propellant arm, Estes Energetics.
Best fit for first flights, school programs and club field days: starter sets bundle pad, controller and a kit, and the same motors sit on shelves at Hobby Lobby and most hobby shops. Fliers chasing composite propellant, reloadable casings or anything above F class need to look elsewhere.
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