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ELKHART, Indiana USA — Hobby rocketry icon Robert "Robby" Robinson, owner of the legendary Robby's Rockets and manufacturer of a long line of igniters, ejection charges and recovery supplies, has died following a year-long battle with cancer. Robinson was a friend to the hobby and will be missed. To old time high power rocketry enthusiasts, the name Robby's Rockets was synonymous with flash bulb igniter systems and ejection charges. His Loadable Ejection System (LES) featured pre-wired AG1 flashbulbs with a reusable aluminum charge canister, which the end user filled with the required amount of black power and then sealed using the kit's adhesive seal disks and custom packing dowel. Robinson was definitely a friend to the hobby, having grown up during the early days of the hobby, where he caught the bug early on. "Back when I was a kid—in the early 1950s, when the space race seemed to be the thing of the future—I began making my own motors from black powder," Robinson told a newspaper reporter in 1994 who was covering flights for LDRS XIII at Argonia, Kansas. "I was lucky to get them up 50 feet. Mostly, it would just burn up my rockets. I would have loved to have been an astronaut, but as time went on, it became too late." The reporter was interviewing Robinson about the 1/2 scale Honest John that his team was scheduled to fly that weekend. Robinson's love affair with the Honest John dated back to his service days, when he was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army, where he served as an artillery surveyor for the ballistic missile. "The Honest John has always been my first love," Robinson said in the article. "The roar, the excitement—it's hard to describe the ground shaking, the massive roar of this thing lifting off the launch rail. Since then, I've followed all the space launches." Robinson built the Honest John along with his son, Jim, and friend John Baumfalk. High winds at LDRS XIII caused damage to the Honest John, preventing the rocket from flying. The team went on to fly the 20 foot tall, 18" diameter Honest John at the first Argonia International Air Festival, AIRFEST-1, in 1995 on an AeroTech M1939, resulting in a launch photo sequence that that made it onto the December 1995 front cover of High Power Rocketry magazine. There will be a viewing on Thursday, December 4th, 2008, at Billings Funeral Home located at 812 Baldwin Street, Elkhart, Indiana, just off Johnson Street north of the Johnson Street Bridge. The viewing will be from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM and from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM on Thursday. Robert Robinson was 70 years old. Dave McVeigh and Gerald Kolb contributed to this story.
12-01-2008 11:53 PM
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Valley Aerospace Team
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 9
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Re: Article: Hobby icon "Robby" Robinson passes away
Bob was one of those guys who had a tremendous influence on the hobby by both spreading his knowledge of Rocketry and by providing a lot of useful products to rocketeers for many years. When I got started in high power in '93 he was one of the first vendors I dealt with. He was so helpful in answering all those "newbie" questions that I still remember it to this day. I still use his L.E.S. canisters (yes, with flashbulbs) even now. I realize a lot of folks abandoned flashbulbs for ejection charges long ago, but I've never had one of Bob's fail yet.
I know you hear this a lot once people have passed away, but Bob truly will be missed. He was one of the "grand old men" of Rocketry. So, the next time you put one up, say a word of thanks to Bob. It's guys like him who helped us advance the hobby to where we are today.
Godspeed Bob!
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12-02-2008 09:03 AM
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New Member
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 4
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Re: Article: Hobby icon "Robby" Robinson passes away
Quote:
I know you hear this a lot once people have passed away, but Bob truly will be missed. He was one of the "grand old men" of Rocketry. So, the next time you put one up, say a word of thanks to Bob. It's guys like him who helped us advance the hobby to where we are today.
Godspeed Bob!
Bob was the kind of person who became a friend of everyone that ever met him. He will truly be missed by all! |
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12-03-2008 02:08 AM
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Certified Level Eleven
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 154
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Re: Article: Hobby icon "Robby" Robinson passes away
Amazing as it may sound, I still use his ejection charge canisters. I fact, just a couple of weeks ago I made up some charges using his LES canisters (using e-matches now). Every time I use one, I think of "Robby" and wonder what became of him.
I think it was LDRS 21 was the last time I ran into "Robby's Rockets". I remember that "Robby" was not there, but I bought a bunch of stuff from his son who told me that he had just got married or was fixing to very shortly.
I should have bought more...
Stu
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