What is THIS??
 

This is the inside front cover of the September/October 2024 Sport Rocketry magazine.

What is this Estes Pro Series II model?

Athena. As I recall, John Langford (Estes owner) made some fine scale models of the Athena back in the late 70s, maybe even for international competition.

Earl

Here is a link to an Estes Model Rocket News issue from October, 1978. Look at the top right of page 24 for a photo of John with one of his Athena models at the 1978 Internats.

Link: https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/mrn/mrn_v18n05.pdf

Earl

This is the new 1:18 scale Estes PSII Athena H.

Mallory and Ellis Langford introduced it at the NARAM-65 Manufacturer's forum.

Kind regards,
Jeff Jenkins
aka: Faithwalker
NAR #46879 SR

Another one I gotta buy that don't really need like the Black Brant XII. :D ;)

Cool! Is it supposed to be available in 2024?

Not sure, I don't recall that Ellis or Mallory Langford specifically said when the 1:18 scale Estes PSII Athena-H would be available. Ellis did say that it is designed to fly on 29mm motors, but he said it can also fly on 24mm engines.

Here is a YouTube video recorded by @Ronz Rocketz, where you can see and hear the presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQcf_ptshmI&t=1071s
Ellis Langford begins speaking about the 1:18 scale Estes PSII Athena-H at about 17:45 into the video.

Also, here are some photos of an actual Athena-H: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...ounding_rocket)

The National Air and Space Museum has a nice color photo of the Athena-H here: https://airandspace.si.edu/multimed...nasm-9a10174jpg

Also, the White Sands Missile Range Museum has another nice color photo of the Athena-H in their, "A Brief History of White Sands Proving Ground, 1941-1965" (scroll to 1964 section): https://wsmrmuseum.com/2020/09/21/a...nd-1941-1965/8/

Kind regards,
Jeff Jenkins
aka: Faithwalker
NAR #46879 SR

That explains the choice of this model, thanks Earl. Isn't it great to have hobbyists running the company?

I had similar thoughts:

Oh no, another one to add to the MUST BUY list. I still have a bunch I need that were introduced in the past couple years. Until I see F15-4s, though, there is no point in buying ASAP. I do have a few E and F reloads I could use.

I have very limited use of the 29mm Estes E16 and F15 engines.
There are just so many more useful Aerotech SU and RMS engines with REAL thrust levels to ensure better kick off the pad. Many are less costly per n/sec too. I especially like them re-creating the old Enerjet line.