45 Years Ago Today....

This picture was taken at Disneyland exactly 45 years ago today.....

From the Official Disney Blog

All of these people were crowded into Tomorrowland to witness man's first steps on another world. Walt Disney had helped pave the way for this moment with his Man in Space series of programs that featured such greats as Werner von Braun and Willy Ley, so it was perfectly fitting that his park would feature the historic event. Of course, the rest of the world was watching as well.

I can remember as a child of six, watching it with my parents in Denison, Tx. We were at the Garber's house (Henry Garber was the pastor of our church, and since my father was the church's minister of music and youth, they were good family friends) and had hamburgers. The black and white picture on the tv was somewhat static prone, but to my six year old eyes it could have been in Technicolor and 3D! I had a real sense that I was watching history.

As we left their house that night, I looked up at the moon. The knowledge that there were men there...right at that very moment...filled me with awe. I guess that feeling has never really gone away.

That is why each year for the past five years I have volunteered at the DARS booth at Moon Day. Frontiers of Flight Museum (Home of Apollo 7!) puts on the event each year on the Saturday that is closest to the Apollo 11 mission date. Various science, space, and technology groups take part in the celebration in order to hopefully rekindle the spirit that took us away from our planet all those years ago.

This year the DARS booth featured over 50 rockets, ranging in size from four inches long to over 10 feet tall. In addition to myself, DARS members Jack and Suzie Sprague, John Dyer, Scott Cook, John and Melanie Kneen, their kids Hannah and Michael and Hannah's friend Tori were all there and helped out TONS. (Jack helped set up and tear down, but he had to cover the launch in between times) We had a building session for kids where 14 eager new club members built their first Alpha III's. All in all we saw hundreds of enthused space lovers and met tons of great people!

The DARS booth

One of the free giveaways I picked up was a pinback button with a simple message: Carpe Lunam. I think that sums up the day quite nicely. We should never forget to look toward the moon and remember that we were there....and we can be again...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

One From the Very Early Days

As some of you may know, my wife runs an eBay business where she sells various items that we find at auctions throughout North Texas. Recently, I was able to pick up about 300-400 model airplane magazines from the early '50s to the late '70s. I plan on reselling most of them, but I'm keeping the ones that contain any information on model rocketry, such as ads or articles. I also plan to share the really interesting stuff with you here!

Therefore, let me first share an article from the January 1959 issue of "Flying Models." It is simply called "Jupiter C" and was written by Gene Thomas. When I first read the article, I thought that "Gene Thomas" might be a pseudonym for G. Harry Stine, since the writing style is similar, and since his company is so prominently mentioned.  However, upon further research (although admittedly not much further) I found that Gene Thomas was actually a model airplane guy and that he published a series of airplane scale data packs. Apparently, he also dabbled in rockets, at least once anyway.

Anyway, here are the scans from the article. Just click on them to enlarge them. I hope you enjoy!

The cover makes no mention of the rocket...

There ya go! It is interesting to see how the modeler had to make literally everything from scratch, including the launch system! However, there were some kits available, and I find it amusing that this ad was in the back of the same issue:

I "Googled" Model Dynamics, but had no luck...

I hope you enjoyed our blast from the past! Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Happy Star Spangled Independence Day!

Today marks The United States' 238th anniversary! And Britain said it wouldn't last a day over 163... Anyway, before I head down to Main Street to watch the sky explode in celebration, I thought I would share a topical picture from the STB vaults. Here ya go!

This late '80s picture is Martin Catt posing with my North Coast Rocketry Star Spangled G Bird! Actually, I think he was trying to keep it from falling over, since we were using VERY wimpy launch rods. (hey, mid power had just started to happen, we didn't know any better...) Anyway, this was the only flight of the SSGB, since it landed in a grove of trees and then vanished. (I still suspect those punks on the dirt bikes!...you know who you are!)

So what does that have to do with the Fourth of July? Well, not much really, but it was a really cool rocket, and that paint job was kinda tough, so I'm just showing her off.

So have a safe and happy 4th, and until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

2014...A Cloned Odyssey

Today I'm not going to write about a project that I've done. Instead, I'm going to write about a project that I'm planning to do! It all started 36 years ago.....(cue wavy lines over the screen)

It was September 13, 1978. I can remember the date because it happened to be my 16th birthday! I had a surprise party at my house and lots of my rocket buddies showed up. What do rocket buddies give for gifts? Rockets! I don't remember who gave me the Odyssey, but it was a winner! It had premiered in 1977, and had even made the cover of the Estes catalog.

The Odyssey was a deceptively simple model. About half of it was a complex plastic nose. It went together like a breeze and after applying the paint and decals looked like a champ! It quickly became one of my favorites.

I wish I could tell you what happened to it, but I simply don't remember. I grew up. It went away. End of story.... Until now!

You see, I never cloned this model because of that huge, weird, wonderful nose. There just isn't a good way to duplicate it. And then a wonderful thing happened....a wonderful thing called "Dark Energy."

Estes released this wonderful model of my dreams. Now, I don't mean that the model itself is wonderful (although it may be) I mean the nose cone is wonderful! Yep, the Odyssey cone is back! Well, almost. Its not exactly the same, but its pretty darn close!

Looking on Ebay (for the model) and at Excelsior Rocketry (for the decals) I can have my Odyssey back for about 20 bucks. Whatadeal!

So there you have it! Its not often you can get back a memory for so little coin, so I'll probably spring for it... So look for it at a meeting or launch coming soon!

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

My Non-PC Interceptor E

This week I am featuring what is probably my least politically correct rocket; the Confederate Space Navy Interceptor "JEB Stuart." It has raised a few eyebrows at launches, so I figured I might as well tell the story as to how it came to be. So settle back, light yer corncob pipe, and let me spin ya a yarn....

The whole thing started when Estes released the Interceptor E. At almost 40 inches long, it was an incredible follow up to their original Interceptor. It was supposed to take Estes E9 motors, but was actually under powered with them, so pretty much everyone used composite E's (such as the E24) instead. Maybe it was the lack of the Estes motor to properly power the model that caused them to discontinue it, but maybe not. At any rate, if you can find one I suggest you snatch it up, as they are great rockets.... but I digress...

Anyway, when I purchased mine I decided that I wanted it to stand out and really look sharp. The first thing I did was to laminate the fins with 1/32 aircraft ply so that I could omit the ribs that Estes had engineered to reinforce the largish fin area. That having been done, the rest of the build was pretty much by the instructions...until I got to the decals.

As you can see with even a quick glance, the Interceptor has a TON of decals. Strangely enough, the decals that came with the model were not great. They were very thin and very difficult to work with. Estes usually has good decals, so I'm not sure what went wrong. I originally was going to use the stock decals until I shredded too many of them. Well, crud!

I actually was able to find some replacements on YORF from a very nice guy named Bob Wheet (Thanks again, Bob!)  While I was waiting for them to arrive from Oklahoma, I happened to check out Excelsior Rocketry's selection of decals. They had German, Confederate, British, and Canadian versions of the Interceptor!

Now I had some deciding to do. I almost went with the German version ( to tie in with my Screamin' Max) but I decided on the Confederate version; providing Gordon (the ever- helpful owner of Excelsior) could make one little change.  You see, I had come up with a way to get my name on the model and still make it appropriate to the theme. Instead of the General Lee, I asked if he could print them with JEB Stuart. He said "no problem" and the rest is history! As it turns out, I used the YORF decals and Gordon's decals together. If I messed up, I had a backup! By the way, if anyone needs some I still have some... but not a full set.

So there you have it! My most un-politically correct rocket actually has nothing to do with politics. I just liked the design and wanted my name on it. So there. Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Moon Madness

Today marks a rather interesting coincidence. It is Friday the 13th AND a full moon. Now I could do some research to find out how rare that is, but it might take effort and it really doesn't have anything to do with this post. I mention it simply to point out that it reminded me that Moon Day is coming soon!

Moon Day is an event that DARS participates in every year at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field. This year it is on July 19, and several club members have already volunteered to man (and woman) the booth. The event gets bigger each year, with many space and technological organizations participating. It is a great networking opportunity for DARS, and great PR as well. It's really worth your time if you can come out and participate.

So, for this week's blog, I am sharing some pictures from the Moon Day that took place two years ago. I would share last year's, but I didn't take any. Oops! So here ya go!

An overall look at the DARS booth

People really like displays like this!

John helps young modelers at the build session.

Of course there are great displays of other craft as well!

Until next time; fly 'em fast and high!

Two Random Pictures

Well the title about sums it up. I was scrolling through my phone and these two pictures caught my eye. First, we have this one...

Now there are several interesting things about this photo. First, I'm not sure who took it. I think it may have been Suzy Sprague, but I'm not sure (we were at their house, after all). We were building about a zillion Saturn 1B's for the Apollo 7 celebration, and silliness had set in a while back. Second, I'm not sure what the heck I'm doing (which is often the case). I seem to be attempting to glue eight fins to one spot on that poor rocket. A time saver for sure, but not exactly scale! Note the "tub 'o fins" sitting on the table in front of me. We had LOTS of parts laying about! Actually this pic brings back lots of great memories about building sessions that were tough, but fun as all get out!

Next we have this:

It's my dog, Alex. She has nothing to do with this blog, but I thought it was a cute picture. So sue me.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

<<<UPDATE>>>

The mystery photographer had been identified! It was Chas Russell! He kindly sent in these additional shots from the same day!:

Ok, that other picture WASN'T the silliest!

John Dyer on the assembly line!

James Gartrell added his many skills to the project!