Model Rocket Fleet
 

So my kids are wicked into model rockets... here's our fleet.

Versions:

1.0 - the big one with the huge fins, flies like a mf on a big engine as long as it's not too windy.

1.1 - the orange one, the W123 of my rocket fleet - launched this one about 75 times.

1.2 - MIA. She was a beautiful W124 of my fleet, lost to a five year old who couldn't stop the count down when a 40 mph wind came out of no where.

1.3 - The white one. Built this one today. More tomorrow.

Cool. Have you been up to Goddard in Greenbelt to fly them?

Model Rockets

I used to love those when I was little. I had a few, one looked just like an ICBM.

I built an SR71 rocket to, but it never flew right.

I'm on the second generation
 

I had some when I ws growing up in the 60's / 70's. We would get the Estes newsletters with notes from Vern ... way cool.

When my kids were little I went on round 2. Finally got the Big Bertha I wanted as a kid 8-). We had a blast launching them. I may have to drag them back out!

10 years ago I was at a hobby store focused on finding some replacement engines for the Estes rockets. I was looking down into a display case. From my peripheral vision a noticed some larger cylindrical things. Across all of the back wall were these 4-8' tall liquid fuel rockets! Now that is a major cool toy.

I had Big Bertha as well...black with yellow and white trim. She was fun until I had a faulty engine and blew the bottom off of her. She flew at least 60 times before that happened.

Wow.

I guess I shouldn't admit to being the president of the Model Rocketry Club in high school... :eek: Not a chick magnet kind of activity...

Estes had a huge catalog back then. My most exotic was the scissor-wing...never could get that one to fly right though. :(

Hope your kids enjoy their hobby as much as I did back then.

We used to make poorboy rockets out of co2 cartridges stuffed with match heads. Never knew which way they were going to fly. :eek:

CO2....
 

We used to tape a straw onto a CO2 cartridge. We used a length of coat hanger drilled into a board as the launch guide. Then had a nail sticking up out of the board. With a little practice, the CO2 cartridge/straw was lowered down the coat hanger we, put the cap of the CO2 cartridge on the point of the nail, hit it with a hammer, and it went 20-30' up in the air. This was about the vintage of the "Red Ryder BB Gun", and nobody got their eye poked out. 8-)

We're still in the learning and training phase so we have a ways to go before we launch at Goddard. Keep in mind that these rockets are hand built from scratch and are not kits. The kids tell me what they want it to look like and I engineer and build it from there. The kids play a hands on role in construction and finish. My design criteria are safe, durable, and fun (durability is where I lost faith in estes kits because they could not stand up to the abuse the kids give them). After that if flies well and looks cool, that a bonus. I still weep over the lost version 1.2, man that was the perfect blend of stability and low drag... it easily went several hundred feet higher on the same B engine compared to the others. That one was a thing of beauty.

The orange one is light weight relative to the others that I have built (2.5 ounces). In rocket terms it is "over-stable" meaning the fin surface area is high relative to the length. The fist time we launched it was in a strong, steady wind about 15 to 20 mph. I angled it slightly into the wind not knowing that it would actually fly into the direction of the wind. Went vertical for about 30 feet and then keeled over at about a 20 degree angle into the wind, flying almost parallel to the ground. Went about 1,200 feet and when the engine gave up she began a beautiful, shallow glide down the earth. five feet off ground, just before she landed in the middle of a pickup basket ball game, the ejection charge went off spewing the chassis, nose cone and recovery system right in the middle of the dudes playing hoops. It was very funny after the fact. Still has a loose fin and a large scratch. That is one tough little rocket.

The white one flew great today but the newly engineered recovery system malfunctioned. I used what I thought was strong elastic between the nose cone and chassis. The elastic stayed attached at both ends, but it snapped right in the middle. Got a little repair work to do before next weekend. Her next flight will be on a larger C engine.

Love the smell of rocket fuel.

I'm trying to imagine where you fly in DC. (?) Even a decent sized park is surrounded by high-density housing, making retrieval difficult or impossible. We tried a few in our yard but lost them to the tall trees.

We ended up going to Goddard where recovery is guaranteed. The first time is a little intimidating because sometimes you only get one shot at the launch pad, so you have to be sure your igniter is solidly attached. But then you get to see your majestic creation soar skyward in front of hundreds of people. They also have an 'expert' do a flight worthiness check on every rocket. You are definitely ready for NASA launch and the kids will love it.

whats up with your nose cones?

Yea we're close to going to Goddard but not quite yet. Do you know how many times they let you launch? I think I may have set the expectation too high with the kids because we usually do about ten launches in an hour or so.

My nose cones suck. They are plastic wine bottle corks. Safe, sturdy, but not that pleasing to the eye. I'm planning my second generation, version 2.0. Should be even more sturdy, will definitely look cooler (especially the nose cones), and will recover even better than these do. I should have that done by the middle of August.

I started to say where we launch but I think I should keep that under wraps. It's a safe location that follows the local government and NAR rules, but I don't think the local government would appreciate me advertising it. After hundreds of flights, we've lost one rocket. I know where it went, but I was too embarrassed to knock on the person's door to ask to get in their back yard. Keep in mind our rockets fly pretty straight up and then drop almost straight down. After the ejection goes off, the rocket become very unstable and tumbles straight down slowed by a long streamer.

Funny story, about a year ago when we were just figuring out how to make rockets that fly straight, we were all set to launch when I heard a helicopter fluttering in the distance. For some reason my kids can not stop a count down themselves, so I reached over and pulled the safety pin from the launcher. The helicopter got louder and closer until we could see it was one of the white tops marine helicopters the the president uses. It was a single bird flying quite low, so I don't think President Bush was in it. Glad we waited to launch until it was gone, though.