Hawk Mountain Raptor

Hawk Mountain Raptor near-minimum diameter, high-performance rocket, intended for 29 mm E to I composite motors, photographed in Zurich in summer of 2016.

I acquired and built this Raptor in late 2000, also adding the optional payload section. As is common for many commercially available mid to high power rockets, the appearance of the kit contents was somewhat sparse, and only a bare minimum of instructions were included. The quality of the rocket's parts was impressive, however. The Raptor consists of a G-12 glass fibre airframe of 33 mm diameter (pre-slotted for secure fin installment), G-10 glass epoxy fins with pre-sanded airfoil, a 29 mm motor mount, Kevlar shock cord with quick link, a glass fibre nose cone, and an x-shaped Top Flight parachute, among other parts.

Besides adding the optional 300 mm payload section, I also replaced the conformal launch lugs with more appropriate rail guides, in order to be able to fly the Raptor from my Rocket Vision Quad-Pod launch pad (top photo). Moreover, a few other aspects of the rocket were modified (e.g. the possibility to firmly secure the nose cone to the airframe, etc.).

The finished Raptor thus turned out to be a sleek and beautiful rocket.

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.