1970s Model Rocketry, Part 3

Launching the remarkable Centuri Phoenix Bird from what was likely (and with an unashamed nostalgic tinge) my favourite launch pad ever, the Centuri Power Tower, northeast Switzerland, July 1978.

Frequently preferring Centuri over Estes, I ordered the Phoenix Bird and Centuri's Screaming Eagle at the same time. I had seen them side-by-side in Centuri's deeply absorbing 1978 catalogue (which, unlike some of their beautiful earlier catalogues, was incomprehensibly printed on cheap and flimsy paper). Both rockets were labelled as Kwik Kits, distinguished by one-part plastic fin units, white body tubes which did not need to be painted, plastic nose cones, and stick-on decals. The catalogue thus praised them as "ready to fly in one hour", although the actual construction still required glue and took a bit longer.

First launched on a cloudy and windy day, the Screaming Eagle flew fantastically. It was lost, however, in the forest visible in the background of the photo above, on that very flight. But the Phoenix Bird served my fleet as an equally stable and beautifully and cleanly designed display rocket for quite some time. I am unable to recall after all of this time why I refrained from using the kit's stunning decals, or if I applied them after this photo was taken.

Photography by Hans Hofer.

Cox Rocket Launch System

While looking around a long-since closed toy store in the heart of Zurich, Switzerland, as a young teenager in 1974, I happened upon a model rocketry catalogue. Noticing my excitement, the owner said I could take it. It was their last copy, and they apparently no longer sold rockets. This was the 1972 Cox Model Rocketry catalogue.

I had become fascinated by rockets and space flight due to the late 1960s Apollo missions which, with Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz, were still continuing at the time. I was thus of course utterly captivated by the semi scale and scale-like model rockets in the catalogue. It would still take two more years until I first held a professional model rocket and motor in my hands; by that time, however, we couldn't find any Cox model rocketry items anywhere anymore. Nonetheless, that catalogue would always remain an extraordinary source of inspiration for me.

Only much later in my life was I at last able to acquire an actual item from the 1972 Cox catalogue: the Rocket Launch System launch pad and launch controller, one of the items that had always interested me most, owing to its realistic look. Judging by the minor exhaust staining on the metal blast deflector, it had likely been used only once, and it was sold in its equally mint-condition original box.

I subsequently restored the blast deflector gently, and I modified the launch pad slightly by making the wires of the remote launch controller and ignition connector disconnectable and fixing the rather flimsy adjustable feet in place. The Honest John model rocket displayed on the Rocket Launch System in the top image is not the Cox flying plastic model, however, but rather a completely scratch-built sport scale model rocket originally begun in 1986 and repaired and finished in the late 1990s.

Cox Rocket Launch System front and back box artwork © by L.M. Cox Manufacturing, Inc./Leisure Dynamics, Inc., scanned from my actual kit. Top photo taken in Zurich, Switzerland, on June 23, 2016.

N Project: 4" Aluminium/Glass Fibre/Carbon Fibre Rocket, Part 1

Construction of the 4" aluminium/glass fibre/carbon fibre N-motor rocket, one of three flight vehicle designs built by our team for the BALLS 10 experimental launch held at Black Rock Desert in Nevada, in 2000. The rockets were designed by the project's initiator, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Professor Eugene Trubowitz, who subsequently invited me to be a main partner in logistics, financing, construction, and launch.

The 4" aluminium/glass fibre/carbon fibre rocket consisted of a Dr. Rocket 98 mm aluminium N motor case doubling as a load bearing airframe structure, and an upper airframe section of the same diameter, made from glass fibre. The custom-made nose cone was manufactured from carbon fibre and steel.

The rocket's three Anticorodal-110 T6 aluminium fins were welded directly to the motor case. They measured 317.5 mm by 114.3 mm, at a strength of 4 mm. We initially contracted the welding to the renown Pilatus aircraft factory in central Switzerland. The results were startlingly disappointing, however. While the welds were of a clean external appearance (top photo), Pilatus had actually welded right through the motor case, thus rendering the entire component unusable. We were suitably surprised; this was a reputed aircraft factory, and they had promised us an expert job.

As we were working on three different rockets at the same time and thus were subjected to a tight schedule until the launch date at the end of September 2000, we purchased another motor case and had Dr. Rocket courier it immediately across the Atlantic. This time, we contracted the welding of a new set of fins to E. Nussbaumer AG, an aluminium welding shop in Bremgarten, a small town in the Swiss countryside. The second photo from the top shows Professor Trubowitz (far right) explaining the work to be done to an employee of E. Nussbaumer AG, using the damaged motor case as an example. Nussbaumer's welding was fantastic, and we were finally able to proceed with the remaining construction of the rocket.

The lower two photos show the thus completed tail section of the rocket at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's machine shop. Fins and motor case have been masked, leaving only the welds exposed, in anticipation of the application of an aerodynamic fillet consisting of an epoxy mixture. The second photo from the bottom shows the tail section of another one of the project's three rockets in the background, the 4" glass fibre/carbon fibre vehicle.

ARGOS Launch

Two beautifully crafted scale rockets as seen upon visiting the ARGOS launch in Kaltbrunn, Switzerland, as a spectator on November 7, 1999. The acronym ARGOS stands for Advanced Rocketry Group of Switzerland, a long-standing association of Swiss rocket builders, also registered as Tripoli Prefecture 103.

The rocket on the cradle stand is a scale replica of a WAC Corporal, the first American sounding rocket. The WAC Corporal's maiden flight took place on September 16, 1945. The model is seen here without the additional booster that launches the original. The white/black rocket is a scale model of the infamous German A4/V2 ballistic missile, painted to resemble the fourth A4 prototype as successfully launched on October 3, 1942.

Last Launch Of The Century, Part 2

Late afternoon maiden flight of the newly completed Vehicle 81 C Into The Pandemonium during our "last launch of the century", northeast Switzerland, December 22, 1999. Vehicle 81 C was the third variation of a design originally sketched in late summer of 1999, and the first version to actually be built. It measured 1173 mm in length and 66 mm in diameter, and it was powered for this flight by an Aerotech G35-7W Econojet 29 mm composite motor.

The payload carried in the nose cone compartment was a Missile Works RRC2 altimeter for passive altitude determination. The flight was extremely stable and near flawless, and so was the recovery sequence, using Rogue Aerospace and Top Flight parachutes. Minor damage suffered by the rocket at parachute ejection and touch-down was subsequently repaired.

Black Rock Desert Impressions, Part 2

The UK's exceptional seven-member MARS team during final launch preparations at the BALLS 2000 experimental high power rocketry launch on October 1, 2000, at Black Rock Desert, Nevada. The team arrived at the event with the goal of setting a new UK amateur rocket altitude record. For that purpose, they had designed the Phobos EAV rocket, powered by a Kosdon O10000 motor.

Phobos EAV was a two-part vehicle, consisting of the powered lower section containing the motor and an unpowered boosted dart upper section. The vehicle measured 3960 mm in length and 104 mm in diameter. Both parts were to be recovered by parachutes. The top two photos show the lower section being readied for insertion into the launch tower.

Third photo from top depicts the electronics bay of the boosted dart upper section before closing. The electronics consisted of three altimeters/accelerometers, a backup timer, as well as tracking equipment. The dart upper section was constructed from fibreglass and kevlar, with carbon fibre fins and steel nose and tail cones.

Lowermost photo shows the MARS team placing the powered lower section of Phobos EAV in the launch tower; the dart upper section was added later. The lower section was also fitted with a separate altimeter/accelerometer and a backup timer, in order to trigger the booster recovery system.

Both parts of the Phobos EAV rocket performed flawlessly, achieving what was later confirmed to be a new UK amateur rocket altitude record of 34,579 feet.

Two Prototypes Of Vehicle 30

I built the first incarnation of Vehicle 30 (8230 A) in July of 1982, using CMR and Estes components. This rocket was designed to be a simple, reliably stable sport model, vaguely resembling Estes' iconic Astron Goblin. Vehicle 30 measured 325 mm in length and 29.5 mm in diameter, and it featured plywood fins and a plastic nose cone.

The top photo, taken in northeast Switzerland on April 16, 1986, shows Vehicle 30 shortly before launch on an Estes D11-9 black powder motor. Unfortunately, the motor disintegrated upon launch, ripping both nose cone and recovery system from the rocket. Unlike the Centuri Nike Smoke sport scale model that was completely destroyed by a similar Estes D12-5 malfunction on the same date, Vehicle 30 remained repairable.

Only ten days later, on April 26, 1986, the rebuilt rocket was lost during a launch held next to the Swiss model rocket competition at Allmend Frauenfeld, Switzerland. Vehicle 30 flew high on an Estes D motor and then experienced so much wind drift that it could no longer be found.

I had built a second, identical prototype of the design, however, and repeatedly flew and recovered this rocket (8230 B) successfully that same day, with the same motor type. Center photo shows the second Vehicle 30 during one such launch, likely powered by an Estes D12-5 or D12-7 motor. Due to its superb flight characteristics, this design thus became one of my most frequently flown rockets.

Lower photo was taken in Zurich, Switzerland, on June 7, 2016, and shows the surviving second version of Vehicle 30 as it looks today.

Top photo by Marco Schenker; centre photo by Martin Kyburz, lower photo by the author of this blog.

N Project: 6" Glass Fibre/Carbon Fibre Rocket, Part 4

Final construction activities on the 6" glass fibre/carbon fibre N-motor rocket at what was then the machine shop of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, in September 2000.

Top photo shows the author of this blog (left) and Professor Eugene Trubowitz after the first full assembly of the still unpainted 6" (152 mm) rocket. The length of the rocket was 3000 mm. The design of the rocket provided for the integration of the Dr. Rocket N2000 98 mm aluminium motor case as a load-bearing structure. The release of the Rocketman drogue and main parachutes was to be guided by a BlackSky AltAcc recording accelerometer with dual deployment. The rocket was expected to exceed a speed of Mach 1.

Centre photo: the three rockets of the Balls 2000 N project assembled and displayed together for the first time. They were subsequently transported to an automotive paint shop we had contracted. Far left is the 4" glass fibre/carbon fibre/aluminium rocket, second is the 4" glass fibre/carbon fibre rocket, and far right is 6" glass fibre/carbon fibre rocket.

Bottom photo depicts concluding work on the freshly painted 6" rocket. Only the main body of the rocket was painted, the carbon fibre fins and carbon fibre/steel nose cone were deliberately left unpainted. In order to precisely drill the necessary mounting holes and access ports for the internal altimeter bay (to be installed last), the rocket has been temporarily wrapped with a large-scale, custom printed template.

All three rockets were shipped to the Black Rock Desert in late September of 2000. A number of circumstances during the preparation for the launch resulted in time constraints, however, limiting our team to only launching the two 4" vehicles of the project, while the 6" rocket remained unlaunched at the time.

Centuri Excalibur 2

One of the classic late-1970s Centuri model rockets, the Excalibur 2 two-stage sport model, photographed a few moments before launch in northeast Switzerland on April 16, 1986. For this flight, the booster was powered by an Estes C6-0 motor while the upper stage used an Estes C6-7 motor. The rocket performed flawlessly, but windy conditions, combined with the comparatively high altitude achieved, caused much drift during the recovery phase. A second flight by the same rocket that day was thus made without the booster and with the lower power of an Estes B6-4 motor in the upper stage.

The Excalibur 2 was a development of Centuri's earlier, beautifully sleek Excalibur, a single-stage model rocket styled to look like the sounding rockets of the day. Excalibur 2 measured 724 mm in length and 23 mm in diameter. The kit came with a plastic nose cone and Centuri's own Pass-Port staging connector.

Photography by Marco Schenker.

Vehicle 66

Maiden flight of the then newly completed Vehicle 66 on a somewhat conservative Estes D12-7 black powder motor, launched from an Aerotech Mantis launch pad, northeast Switzerland, June 17, 1999. Vehicle 66 was designed as a pure sport model, strongly inspired by the legendary Estes Der Red Max, a model rocket I worshipped as a teenager in the late 1970s after building it both in its original guise and in the Der Big Red Max version.

Vehicle 66 measures 390 mm in length and 44.5 mm in diameter. It was built from MRC and Estes parts and carried an Estes Transroc II sonic beacon during its first flight. The rocket is intended to be flown with D, E, or F motors. Top photo was taken in Zurich, Switzerland, on May 18, 2016.