Orville H. Carlisle (July 5, 1917 – August 1, 1988),[1] a shoe salesman in Norfolk, Nebraska invented the hobby that would become known as model rocketry.
He wanted a model missile for use in his demonstrations, to illustrate rocketry technology (which would, in a few years, lead to the beginning of the Space Age).
Prior to the launch of Sputnik in 1957, Carlisle read an article in the February 1957 issue of Popular Mechanics by G. Harry Stine, then an engineer working at White Sands Missile Range.
The article remarked on the danger that individuals (mostly teenage boys), inspired by the birth of the Space Age, might experiment with rockets of their own design and end up seriously hurting themselves or even dying.
Vernon Estes, whose family fireworks company was listed first in the Denver phone book, designed a machine capable of producing rocket engines every 5.5 seconds.