Estes industries was founded by Vern Estes in 1958 in Colorado when he developed a machine that mass produced solid propellant model rocket engines. Over the time, Estes joined hands with COX in 1996 and were purchased by Hobbico in January 2010, a 100% employee-owned corporation. After working steadily and rising to a position of significance in the field of Model Rockets, they started expanding. Gradually they ventured into the realms of quad copter manufacturing, and usually when such a profound company with an emphatic history turns to something new, you just can’t overlook them, but it isn’t the same with Estes. Because it looks like they are better off producing rockets.
They just offer two options as far as unmanned aerial drones are concerned. Both of them are cheap entry level toys priced at around 40$. However, their drone SYNCRO Quad copter, to our surprise has received certain accolades in the quad copter arena. Namely, the International Toy Fair Award for Best New Toy in the Teenager and Family Category (Nuremburg, Germany – January 2014) and U.K. Toy Fair Award for Best New Toy in the Hobby Category (London, England – January 2014). The quality of Estes Rockets micro drone is not really good. The power is missing, so are the agility and the looks. This can be an entry level drone for children. Not much to say about it.
There are certain things though that we must give Estes Rockets credit for. Like their meticulously designed and differentiated website, and their often lauded customer service. The experience definitely comes in handy here. But as far as drones are concerned, they need to put in huge chunks of research and development processes and resources, only then Estes can hope to revolutionize the quad copter market in the same manner they changed the rocket market.