1970s Model Rocketry, Part 3

Regrettably, the 38 years that have passed since these photos were taken have caused me to fail to recall the designation of this vaguely Scout-inspired rocket. It had been designed by my best friend, Dave Sharma, a tremendously skilled rocket builder. The rocket was built from Centuri parts; it measured in excess of 1000 mm in length and approximately 35 mm in diameter, and it contained an extended payload compartment.

I either acquired or traded the rocket from Dave and flew it successfully a number of times, launched from a Centuri Power Tower launch pad. It was damaged, however, on the day these photos were taken in northeast Switzerland, in July of 1978. The pleasing aesthetics of the design and its fantastic flight performance left their mark with me, and I subsequently designed and built an upscaled version of it, named Vehicle 39 Enigma. Vehicle 39 became one my main rockets and is still a part of my collection to this day.

Photography by Hans Hofer.

N Project: 6" Glass Fibre/Carbon Fibre Rocket, Part 3

Construction progress on the 6" glass fibre/carbon fibre N-motor rocket at the old machine shop of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, in September 2000.

Top photo shows project initiator and designer Professor Eugene Trubowitz preparing glass fibre components for installation in the upper airframe section, which has just been cut to length. Same image as well as centre photo provide views of the magnificent custom-made 6" carbon fibre nose cone.

Lower picture depicts one of many test-fittings of the recovery system with deployment bags.

Estes AstroCam 110 Conversion

I purchased my first Estes AstroCam 110 in July of 1980, at a toy store in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles. At the time, obtaining photos taken from a flying model rocket wasn't a trivial matter; before the advent of widespread digital photography and advanced miniaturisation, it took considerable ingenuity and resources to achieve that goal. Moreover, by second half of the 1970s, Estes had decided to discontinue the earlier, somewhat cruder Camroc camera and the associated Camroc Carrier rocket, the only dedicated consumer model rocket camera.

We were thus delighted when Estes' 1979 catalogue announced the new AstroCam 110 camera (then sold with its dedicated Delta II carrier rocket). Rudimentary by today's standards, the AstroCam 110 still represented obvious technical progress when compared to the Camroc. It required manual advancement of the film after every picture taken, and it operated by means of primitive but relatively fail-safe system consisting of a simple spring-loaded shutter, triggered by a string trapped between camera and rocket body up to the point of parachute ejection.

Nonetheless, the AstroCam 110 was user-friendly and utilized a standard high-speed Kodak Kodacolor 110/ASA 400 colour film cartridge, and the resulting photos could be developed just about anywhere. We felt slightly disappointed, however, by the fact that the AstroCam 110 was a forward-looking device; we desired to take rearward-looking photos showing the rocket's fins and its smoke trail. It was obvious that a home-made conversion was required.

Years later, I thus modified at least one AstroCam 110 to such a rearward-looking configuration and launched it a number of times on a dedicated carrier rocket, Vehicle 71 (top photo), designed for C, D, and E motors. The conversion was not quite as simple an undertaking as I had hoped, as it required rethinking the triggering system. Taking into account the limitations of the pre-digital age and a mere model rocket as carrier vehicle, the results were very pleasing, however. This is evidenced, for example, by the launch and flight photos above, taken in northeast Switzerland, on June 17, 1999.

Flight Systems RX-1 Thruster System

The components of the Flight Systems Inc. RX-1 Thruster System booster, intended to be used with the same company's Dart model rocket. Flight Systems' 1979 catalogue featured the combination of Dart rocket and Thruster System booster under the title "The Mach 1 System" and noted that this model rocket system had "the ability to break the sound barrier". Moreover, the Dart's instructions boldly announced "supersonic potential". Whether attaining transonic or even supersonic speeds was actually possible with the design and motors in question is debatable. At any rate, such claims certainly captured our attention at the time.

The Thruster System consisted of a slightly modified Flight Systems F100-0 motor (far right in the photo) to power the booster, and a Flight Systems D20-12 motor (second from right) for the Dart upper stage. It also contained launch lugs and plywood fins which were to be permanently attached to the F100-0 motor with epoxy, making the booster a single-use item. An electric match igniter (contained in the folded instructions, top centre) completed the package.

In 1979, Flight Systems sold the Dart upper stage for $ 3.25 and RX-1 Thruster System for $ 7.95.

Rocket Vision Mach Buster

In the late 1970s, we were deeply captivated by the possibility of building - with the limited means then available to a rocket builder in Switzerland - model rockets capable of attaining transonic speeds. It was not least the purchase of Flight Systems' remarkable Dart rocket kit (intended to fly with the separately available RX-1 Thruster System booster) that inspired our imagination and ambitions.

There were some other concepts we considered at the time, some of them rather adventurous. Various changes and occurrences in our private lives at the time prevented us from realizing them, however.

Of three minimum-diameter, G motor-powered transonic rockets I eventually built in the late 1990s, one was a kit: the Rocket Vision Mach Buster. I acquired it out of sheer inquisitiveness. It consisted of a fibre phenolic tube, G10 glass epoxy laminate fins, and a heavy-duty polystyrene nose cone; and it featured a kevlar shock cord/nylon parachute recovery system. The Mach Buster was designed to fly with motors in the D12 to G55 range.

I didn't use the kit-supplied launch lug and instead built the rocket to utilize my own tower launcher which could be fitted to my Impulse Aerospace/Rocket Vision Quad-Pod launch pad.

The photos were taken in Zurich, Switzerland, on May 14, 2016.

Estes Coldpower Convertible Marauder

Estes Coldpower Convertible Marauder, photographed in my backyard in Thalwil, Switzerland, in May of 1999. The Marauder made its first appearance in Estes' 1973 catalogue; it was part of an expansion of the original Vashon Industries cold propellant rocket product line Estes had acquired.

The rockets in the Coldpower Convertible line could be converted from flying on liquid RP-100 cold propellant (i.e., R-12 Freon) to flying with standard Estes black powder rocket motors. This particular Marauder was purchased as an unbuilt kit in the late 1990s and completed as a regular (black powder) model rocket. It is displayed here on an Estes Porta-Pad II launch pad.

Estes #1103 Marauder face card © by Estes Industries, scanned from my actual kit.

N Project: 6" Glass Fibre/Carbon Fibre Rocket, Part 2

Further images illustrating the construction of the 6" glass fibre/carbon fibre N-motor rocket designed for the BALLS 10 experimental launch at Black Rock Desert in Nevada, in 2000.

Top photo shows Professor Trubowitz test-fitting an aft metal flange to the 98 mm Dr. Rocket N2000 aluminium motor case at what was then the Leonhardstrasse machine shop of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, in September 2000.

Lower two photos show the main carbon and glass fibre components of the rocket laid out after the installation of the fin unit and before cutting the upper airframe section to length.

1970s Model Rocketry, Part 2

These photos were taken at Allmend Brunau in Zurich, Switzerland, on a freezing winter day in 1977, during an attempt to get my cousin interested in model rocketry. Even though I had been building crude self-made rockets and then proper model rockets for over a year by 1977, this was, to my best knowledge, the first time a launch of mine was photographically documented.

At the time, I still couldn't afford a proper launch pad (a situation remedied a few months later with the acquisition of a Centuri Power Tower), and we thus simply stuck the launch rod into the frozen soil. The rocket shown is Centuri's terrific Nike Smoke, admittedly built to what was still an amateurishly appalling standard. Sections of an equally unsightly version of a Centuri Laser-X can be seen in the background in both photos.

Original colour slides taken by Klaus Fischer.

Vehicle 22 Evolution

Evolution of a design. Vehicle 22 was created in autumn of 1980 to fly with minimum thickness, high aspect-ratio fins; its 41.4 mm diameter payload compartment was originally intended to carry a CMR Foxmitter transmitter. The rocket was first flown on April 16, 1986, powered by a Flight Systems D18-3 black powder motor (top photo, taken by Marco Schenker). The flight revealed design deficiencies, however, and the recovery system became detached at ejection.

The design was thus revised later that same month, increasing airframe length from 582 mm to 686 mm and using slightly stronger fins. The resulting Vehicle 22 B was photographed three years later, in summer of 1989, in the backyard of what was then my home in Nürensdorf, Switzerland (lower photo).

Having made its maiden flight on April 26, 1986, at a launch at Allmend Frauenfeld, Switzerland, Vehicle 22 B's flight characteristics still proved dissatisfying. Unfortunately, the rocket suffered irreparable damage during a subsequent relocation.

[Entry amended June 3, 2016.]

Vehicle 79

First flight of Vehicle 79 Dominator III on an Aerotech F12-3J RMS composite motor, northeast Switzerland, July 30, 1999. The rocket measured 938 mm in length and 57 mm in diameter; the payload carried consisted of a Missile Works RRC2 altimeter and a 31.5 mm custom piezo locator.

The ascent phase of the flight was perfect, but upon recovery, only the drogue chute deployed fully while the main parachute failed to unfold. The resulting hard landing caused significant damage to the nose cone, one cracked fin epoxy fillet, and slight damage to the payload section. Nonetheless, Vehicle 79 flew twice more that day and was later fully repaired.

N Project: 6" Glass Fibre/Carbon Fibre Rocket, Part 1

Detail shots of the carbon fibre/glass fibre fin unit destined for the 6" glass fibre/carbon fibre N-motor rocket constructed for the BALLS 10 experimental launch held at Black Rock Desert in Nevada, in 2000. The fin unit was designed by the project's initiator, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Professor Eugene Trubowitz.

Top photo shows trial assembly of the fin unit components in Zurich, Switzerland, in June 2000. Second picture, taken at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in July 2000, shows the fin unit components epoxied and fitted with laminated fin joint reinforcements.

Bottom photo shows finished fin unit epoxied into 6" glass fibre booster section of the rocket. Also visible are the integral fin unit access ports and the epoxy joints inside the booster section. To the right of the 6" rocket lies the aluminum booster section of the N-Project's 4" aluminium/glass fibre/carbon fibre rocket. The welds joining the aluminium fins to the booster section have been faired with as of yet unsanded fillets.

Last Launch Of The Century

Preparing an Aerotech G40-10W 29 mm composite motor for Vehicle 98 before the rocket's first flight in the afternoon of December 22, 1999, during what we termed the "last launch of the century" (top). We launched seven flights that day; this was the second.

Vehicle 98 measured 1063 mm in length and 57 mm in diameter. The rocket carried a Missile Works RRC2 altimeter, but it unfortunately failed to log the altitude on this flight due to a loose contact between battery and altimeter.

The boost phase of the flight was flawless. The drogue parachute deployed perfectly, the US Rockets standard main parachute was shredded upon deployment, however. Nonetheless, the combination of drogue and damaged main chutes ensured that the rocket sustained only very minor damage to its nose cone in spite of the hard landing (bottom).

Vehicle 96

Vehicle 96 E, the final iteration of a minimum diameter, maximum performance design, photographed at my workshop in November of 1999. At a length of 620 mm (including a payload section measuring 185 mm) and a diameter of 31.2 mm, vehicle 96 E was designed to fly under the power of either an Aerotech G25-15W or G125-15T motor, carrying a Transolve P 1 altimeter and a piezo sonic locator.

Based on the smaller Vehicle 99 H Supersonic 36 design, Vehicle 96 E was constructed using mainly LOC/Precision parts and a Rogue Aerospace nylon/Kevlar recovery system, and it featured three through-the-fin epoxy "rivets" per fin. The rocket featured no launch lug, requiring launch from a tower launcher.

Enerjet Nike Ram Copy

Vehicle 77, a sport model rocket with payload section, loosely based on Enerjet's iconic Nike Ram advanced model rocket of 1972. Vehicle 77 measured 643 mm in length (versus the Nike Ram's 590 mm) and 34 mm in diameter (as per the original). It was designed to be powered by D or E-type composite motors and was constructed slightly more robustly than the original.

Vehicle 77 is shown here on an Aerotech Mantis launch pad. The photo was taken in Thalwil, Switzerland, in May 1999, the month of its completion. Vehicle 77 first flew on June 17, 1999, with an Aerotech E15-7W motor.

Centuri Nike Smoke Motor Failure

These photos document the destruction of a rare Centuri Nike Smoke semi scale model due to motor failure at launch. They were taken in northeast Switzerland, on April 16, 1986. The rocket was my second Centuri Nike Smoke, converted to fly with Estes 24 mm D-motors. This was to be the maiden flight. The motor used was an Estes D12-5; it disintegrated upon ignition.

The second photo beautifully captures the launch rod bending due to the force of the detonation. Smoke is still emanating from the body tube in the bottom image. The "United States" decal has yellowed from the heat.

We experienced three motor failures in one day during the launch in question, two with Estes D12-5s and one with an Estes D11-9, resulting in three destroyed rockets. Photography by Marco Schenker.