Rocketry Planet

SOUTHGATE, Michigan USA — Started in 1980 as a fireworks store, Commonwealth Displays partners, Steve Le Fleur and Donald Moore, soon let their interest in model rocketry lead them to add model rocket kits to the company's repertoire soon after they opened their business. Their store is located in Southgate, a suburb of Detroit, located nine miles southwest of the city, at 12649 Dix-Toledo Road.

The Commonwealth Displays store front as seen from Dix-Toledo Road, Southgate, Michigan.

The AeroTech wall shows and load loads of available reloadable motor kits.

A wall of Aerospace Specialty Products has kit after kit of model rockets available.

A large grouping of Edmunds Aerospace kits are also available at Commonwealth Displays.

Commonwealth Displays also carries a large selection of the venerable Estes kits.

Sunward Aerospace Group Limited is well represented at Commonwealth Displays shop.

Yet even more of the selection of Estes kits available at Commonwealth Displays.

Anyone need a LOC/Precision airframe or motor mount tube? Commonwealth has a ton of them.

Even the cold of winter can't keep loyal Commonwealth Displays rocketry customers away.

Just your ordinary happy Commonwealth Displays rocketry customer wearing a very big smile.

Claimed to be the first model rocketry company online, they duo started doing virtual business before the global networking of computers and networks was even called the Internet. Beginning with advertising on UseNET newsgroups, the pair moved on to Prodigy and then onto the World Wide Web, what is today commonly considered the modern Internet. Commonwealth Displays was a trailblazer for the hobby online, being one of the first model rocketry companies to take credit cards, one of the first model rocketry companies with an e-commerce shopping cart-enabled web and one of the few companies who still ship world-wide today.

While the Internet has allow Commonwealth to remain competitive online for the last 30-plus years, their beginnings as a brick-and-mortar store before becoming a click-and-order store gave them staying power a lot of upshoots that popped up on the Web in the late 90's didn't enjoy. They have a real store, an actual commercial building you can walk inside and browse to your heart's content. Although the physical building of 1600 square feet is considered small in today's world of cookie-cutter big-box stores, their walk-in customers rave to others about the immense volume of products that are literally stacked floor-to-ceiling.

Commonwealth currently offers about 1400 hobby rocket-related products. With such a wide variety of rocketry items, they can easily serve as a "one-stop shop" for all levels of hobby rocketery enthusiasts. Their customers range from schools all across the nation to various groups of scouts launching their first rocket in a schoolyard to a TRA or NAR level 3 rocketeer breaking the sound barrier at their local high power launches.

As a real vs. virtual business, Commonwealth is equipped to accept purchase orders from schools, 4-H groups, TARC teams and scout groups. If you are a member of such a group, Commonwealth's owners are available to answer your questions or take your orders, so feel free to give them a call. Their 30+ years of experience can help make sure you receive the rocket products that best fit your needs.

In addition to a large variety of hobby rocket kits and components, Commonwealth Displays also offers custom laser cutting. They can cut many types of material, such as balsa, basswood, plywood and cardstock up to 3/16" and G-10 up to 0.047". Just sent them your *.dxf, Corel Draw and Rocksim files and they can take it from there. Another similar service is the laser engraving of motor cases, also very popular.

Back in the day, Commonwealth started virtual business by accepting simple e-mail orders, but as the World Wide Web advanced, they started work on their first site using a new-fangled e-commerce contraption called an electronic shopping cart. This new site worked well for many years, but with today's technology the site lacked many features that customers now demand, so it was time to step into the 21st century and redesign their website using the latest technology.

The new Commonwealth Displays web site offers these advantages over their old site:

1. Real time inventory
2. Actual shipping costs
3. Browse and search functionality
4. Customer reviews
5. Coupon and e-gift certificates
6. Recently viewed items

One of the biggest advantages of the new site is the browse/search feature. Browsing for products on their new website will display a short description along with amount of stock they have on hand. This is a fast way to find the exact product your are looking for. By clicking on the highlighted part number, a detailed description and picture of the product is displayed. The search feature displays a thumbnail picture and short description. The full product details are available by clicking on the thumbnail picture.

A good example of what's available can be seen on the 3 by 3 grid on the homepage. For example, the Kevlar grid cell has a picture that if you click on it, the web site will perform a search and provide links of available Kevlar products. Clicking on the part number will provide a detailed linear listing of the Kevlar products. If you click one of the "Popular Product Line" text links, a linear list of thumbnail picture and a text link appear. Clicking on the picture or the text link will provide a detail listing of that product.

Commonwealth has solved the "hard to find" products by being able to place a product into more than one category. This helps customers find those "hard to find" products easier. And, when they get new inventory, the newly added product will show up in the new product area as well as the representative manufacturer's area.

Probably one of the most unique features of the new Commonwealth Displays model rocketry website is their consignment area, an idea to help their customers sell excess personal rocketry inventory at the customer's specified price. Unlike auction sites, consigned products that are listed on Commonwealth Displays do not expire and the seller can adjust the price as needed. Commonwealth's customers can buy from the consignment area with confidence because each product is inspected by their staff and is located on-site.

For more information on Commonwealth Displays, visit their model rocketry website at http://www.cdimodelrocketry.com/ or follow them on their Facebook web page at http://www.facebook.com/CommonwealthDisplaysModelRocketry.