The Latest DARS News!!! (from 1977)

Well, campers, it is the end of yet another year. As we bid farewell to 2014, I thought I would take everyone on a trip back 37 years to when DARS was a mere five years old. Who could have guessed that all these years later the club would still be going strong?

For your reading pleasure, I present to you the November- December issue of the "D/FW Rocketeer." There are a couple of folks featured that still show up at launches from time to time. Chas Russell provides a rather amusing Star Wars parody, and I really wish I had part one of the Boles/ Boyd Interview, because Part Two is certainly worth a read. Who knows, I might even build a "Stinger!" So, it is with pleasure that I present our feature:

Happy New Year, everyone! And until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Of Vulcans and Holiday Wishes

I'm pretty swamped with last minute Christmas-type stuff, so I thought I would let an old friend speak for me this week. Therefore, here you go!

So from all of us here at STB (basically me, my wife Laurie, and Alex the Wonder Dog...oh yeah, and the cats Pepper and Becky...) we wish you the merriest of Christmases and may all of your eggs be well nogged...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

She Canna Take Any More Cap'in!!!

At this time of year, these words often spring to mind. I guess being of Scottish heritage myself, I've always been fond of Montgomery Scott (aka "Scotty"). If you doubt how tough he was, just remind yourself that he was the only guy in a red shirt that never died. Ok, I ripped that off from a Facebook meme, but its true! My daughter, Jessica, (who is also of Scottish heritage- go figure) gave me this for my birthday:

He stands guard in my office reminding me that even though it may seem that "she canna take any more...." she always did. And if push comes to shove, its always nice to have a phaser.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Modern History

Sometimes its very easy to get so focused on the past that one actually misses the world going on at the present. I often lament the fact that NASA has become a shadow of what it used to be; starved of funding by a short sighted administration in Washington, and unfocused in its mission (at least compared to the 1960's). However, there is hope. An event happened a few days ago that got relatively little time in the 24 hour news cycle, but it was a significant leap forward in man's exploration of space. For your viewing pleasure, I give you Orion...

http://youtu.be/hOHvCWCv5pk

Yes, Virginia, there is hope.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

And you know what Thanksgiving means.....Christmas decorating! And you know what Christmas decorating means....Space related ornaments!!! So, since I'm kinda swamped with this job, I'll just give you a pre-tree taste! Here ya go!

From left to right we have:

The moon (ok, not an ornament, but I like it)
An LEM
The Galileo 7 (complete with Spock's voice!)
The Solar System
The Space Shuttle
A GI Joe Astronaut
The Enterprise
Marvin the Martian
A Klingon Bird of Prey (Nothing says "Peace on Earth" like a Klingon attack!)
A night sky globe (again, not an ornament...sue me)

So, there you have it. In moments they will all be on the tree and almost impossible to find! Well, I gotta get back to work!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

The Super Viper Rides Again!

This week I didn't have much, so I'm just going to publish a couple of pictures of my Super Viper from the DARS Classic X. I was thrilled (and surprised) that the Viper took first place in the Classic Death Match! Speaking of "death," I had to fly her to grab the spot and she smacked down pretty hard when the plastic shock cord retainer on the nose cone snapped. One wing and a cannon were broken off, and the decals were a little shredded. The wing and cannon have been repaired, the decals are awaiting replacement.

So for your viewing pleasure:

My wife had an interesting observation. A lot of rockets are red and white...Who knew? This is the Death Match  section of the table,,, You can see why I was surprised that I won. The competition was fierce!

So there you have it! Hopefully she will be flying again soon. I'd like to give a HUGE shout out to Gary Briggs who has done a fantastic job of organizing and running the Classic for so many years...Sa...Lute!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

My Odyssey Odyssey.....

This week's post is a follow up on a post done a while back, in which I bravely told about a project that I was planning. Usually I don't do things like that because, let's face it, there might be a pretty good chance that it ain't gonna happen. In this case, I had done exactly nothing on the project except dream about it, but I put it all out there anyway... I said I was going to clone my old Estes Odyssey!

Fortunately, I actually followed through! I purchased an Estes Dark Energy kit off of eBay (if you can't find it on eBay, you probably made it up). I then ordered the decal set from Gordon at Excelsior Rocketry (Gordon is a cloner's best friend...and does great upscale decals too!) Both arrived in a couple of days and I was in the Odyssey business!

Here are the pictures from my venture:

Well, there she is! She took third place at the DARS Classic Classic, which is pretty good considering the competition! She still hadn't flown, but I hope to fly her soon!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Model Rocketry in 1958

We in the model rocket hobby have become very used to certain conventions in the field. For example, it is taken for granted that model rockets are built around some sort of "body tube," that there is some form of recovery system involved, and that professionally made solid fuel motors will be used. It is also well known that model rocketry is extremely safe and at least fairly sane.

In 1958, however, very little could be assumed about the hobby. Although G. Harry Stine had already founded the National Association of Rocketry in 1957, his way of doing things was not really "standard" yet. In my "old model airplane magazine stash" I found a magazine that drives this point home pretty well.

Rather than go on and on about the magazine, I have included the two articles it contains here. One is on rocketry safety, and the other is plans for a two stage model. So, for your reading pleasure, I give you:

So there you have it! Just think we could have been making rockets out of balsa frames and powering them with underpowered motors with 50% reliability! It kind of makes you appreciate G. Harry all the more..  (not to mention Orville Carlisle!)

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

A Pretty Cool Find...

A while back I posted about several hundred model airplane magazines that I bought in two lots at an auction. At the time I said that I would go through them all and if I found any rocket stuff, I would post it here. Well, as it turns out, my wife Laurie actually found a couple of cool ones!

Subject for your approval this week is the September 1956 edition of "Flying Models." This is the cover:

Its a great shot of the Disneyland Flight Circle! When the magazine came out, Disneyland had only been open for 13 months. The picture was, therefore, taken before the park was a year old. At that point, there was relatively little in Tomorrowland. The Flight Circle filled in real estate that needed something interesting, and gave the park some additional income (it was leased to Cox for them to promote their products). Of course, I think the most interesting item in the shot is that handsome 80 foot tall item in the background. Yep, the TWA Moonliner....WITH the Rocket to the Moon show building behind it! Wow!!!!

I was really hoping that there would be a great article inside the magazine, but alas, no such luck. All the magazine had to say about the cover was:

Oh well. Its still a great find! Oh, and just in case anyone is wondering about the back of the magazine; here ya go:

So that's about it for this week. I have more stuff to put on from those magazines, but that can wait for future posts (one thing you learn real quick in blogging is to not use all of your material up at once!)

So until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Special Halloween Edition!

The 1960's brought about quite a few fads and crazes.  There was the space race, the British Invasion, and monsters. Yes, I said monsters. This post dives into the point where monsters and rockets collide (not literally, but that would be cool.)

The monster craze of the 1960's found its start in the 1930's....in Hollywood. In the 1930's monster movies were very hot and many studios (most notably Universal) cranked them out with abandon. Now these are not to be confused with the 1950's B movie space aliens. These were the classics; Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, and Frankenstein.

The movie goers tastes changed, however, and soon these films were largely forgotten....until a new outlet became available for them. The outlet was television, and movie studios were more than happy to dust off their tired old films to make a few more bucks on them. Included in these films were the classic monster movies, and people, especially kids, couldn't get enough! Suddenly monsters were cool again, and everybody jumped on the band wagon....or hearse....or whatever.

Television gave us such new shows as The Munsters, The Addams Family, and Dark Shadows, toy companies came out with games such as The Green Ghost, Haunted House, and Ka-Balla, and Estes rockets came out with the following classics:

The Goblin.....Mine has flown tons, hence the busted fin...

The A-20 Demon

The Scamp....actually my Maxi Scamp, but close enough...

The Zoom Broom....A Goony Classic!

After sometime in the 1970's, the craze died down (except maybe for stupid zombies. Here's my tip to get away from zombies, "Walk fast." You're welcome.) Still, these birds are just plain cool in their own right, and they are perfect for this time of year. So from SLB, Happy Halloween, and to all a spooky night!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Disney in Plastic

As many of you know, I am a fan of both rocketry and Disney. Nothing combines these subjects quite as well as the TWA Moonliner. Now, I have written at length about this subject before, so I won't go into it again (sound of cheers). This week we are focusing on the plastic model kit.

The original kit was produced in the mid 50's by Strombecker. It was an official licensed product. Disney discovered very early how to cross promote just about everything.

More recently the kit has been produced by Glencoe, who purchased the original molds. The only difference is that now it was NOT an official Disney product. This fact makes sense when you realize that the "real" Moonliner has been missing from Disneyland since the mid 1960's. Also, TWA wouldn't have any interest in licensing it due to the fact that they have been out of business for a few decades. This is not a huge issue since you can sometimes find replacement TWA decals on eBay.

I have also included a picture of what comes in the box. As you can see, this is a very simple model. Also, I don't think it would be good for Plastic Model Conversion, due to the small scale. 1/144 scale translates into about 11 inches tall, and pretty skinny.  Still, it is pretty cool, overall.

The TWA Moonliner was used to promote both TWA and Disneyland. 

The original kit

The most current kit

What is inside...

By the way, there is a 41 inch tall TWA Moonliner plastic model being offered on eBay right now that seems like it would be really cool....IF it didn't go for 250 bucks! Is it weird that I still find it a little tempting? Oh well, maybe when I hit that ol' lottery (that I always forget to play)

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

46 Years Ago....

In celebration of the Apollo 7 flight 46 years ago, I'm sharing one of my most prized rocketry items. It was an incredible honor to be on the team that built these birds, and an even greater honor to see and meet many childhood heroes, including Walt Cunningham, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. (My wife still has a crush on Buzz after he insisted on standing by her in the pictures, lol)
So in honor of Apollo 7, I give you model number 3, built by the DFW team....

Here is hoping that one day our nation will find its way in space exploration again...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!