"history" question

1982.

Centuri still rocks.

Er... what hit 30,000 feet?

Jerry sees dead companies... :)

Yes I remember D motors , 7 D clusters & double D drop offs. Awe " The Mighty D "

Dave

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Griffith NAR 14156 The R.A.T.T.-works Monterey Machine Products

1504-A Industrial Park Street Covina, CA 91722 U.S.A.

Cherokee D forever!... *ahem*...

The proper term is "drop-stage". It is when you tape a D12-0 to the base of a D12-something.

A double drop stage is yet another D12-0 taped onto the first D12-0. The booster motor ignites the upper motor with no additional igniter.

So what you end up with is D12-0 to D-12-0 to D12-5 for example and a Mean Machine is a good rocket to test the theory on. Did Estes realize the Mean Machine was a 3 stage rocket?

Jerry

It's what happens to busty women after age 50.

CHAD staging is what we used to call it.

Heard rumors that it could be done with small SU composites using thermalite???

Ted Novak TRA#5512

Welcome back to rocketry! Yes, the hobby has seen many changes in the past 30 years. Estes "D" motors have been around for a long time, but weren't available in some areas I think. Estes and Centuri motors are "old tech", using black powder propellent. In the late 70's "composite" propellent really started to catch on and is now used in most of the larger motors as well as some small ones. (Aerotech made composites as small as "D".)

Composite propellent is safer yet more powerful by weight than black powder propellent. It also handles temperature extremes better.

"High Power" rocketry, using motors H and up, caught on in the 80's. Reloadable motors came along in the early 90's and are now the most common type for high power. They typically use an aluminum casing that is reuseable, and the flyer purchases reload kits containing pre-cast propellent "grains", liner tube, o-rings, etc. A reload kit is quite a bit cheaper than buying a fully assembled, single-use motor -- that's why they have become so popular.

Then there's "hybrid" motors. These have only become popular in the past few years. A hybrid motor uses a liquid oxidizer (usually nitrous oxide) and a solid fuel (usually ordinary plastic).

The rocket you saw on the show which went to 30,000 feet was powered by a custom made "P" motor. Making your own motors is a whole other side of rocketry. It's certainly not for everyone, but can be done quite safely. Again, this is another area where composite propellents provide a significant safety advantage.

And as you saw there are also many advances in on board electronics, telemetry, payloads, etc.

This is just a "nutshell" answer to your question. You can find a lot more info at

Oh, and you can see some cool aerial photos from onboard cameras at my website:

:)

Hardly. Centuri is alive and owns Estes! Last time Estes showed up at the RCHTA show, their booth had the Centuri logo on it. Lee Piester smiled when I asked him about it.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

At one time, AT made reloads for the 18mm casing that were B class. But it seems they never certified them, and no one bought them, so they got discontinued.

AT also made propellant grains for A motors used by the internats team.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

I'm not sure that's still true. I think it's now "Estes-Cox Corporation."

Mario Perdue NAR #22012 Sr. L2 for email drop the planet

"X-ray-Delta-One, this is Mission Control, two-one-five-six, transmission concluded."

That's what they're calling themselves on their "Launch to the power of E" ad on the back of the latest "Sport Rocketry"...

(As an aside, I note that the small Cox brand model plane engines - "Golden Bee .049", "Pee Wee .020", etc., - are still available... but at several times the price they once were, which probably puts them out of reach of their historical target market...)

-dave w

I thought it was a reference to breast reduction. ; )

Randy

My very first rocket did that. Scratch-built from plans in Sport Rocketry about 3 1/2 yrs ago or so. I think it was called a "Moondog X3". It had a nosecone, Body tube and then 3 bamboo skewers that went from the body tube way back to a short ring where the fins were attached. The 3 D motors were taped together and slid up between the skewers with the forward one inside the BT. As they staged, the spent motors slid out the rear of the skewer frame. I think I flew it 3 or 4 times, but had trouble keeping the fins on.

Hmmm. I wonder how the "M" version would fly.

-- Eric Benner TRA # 8975 L2 NAR # 79398

Eric, do a Google on "rack rocket". I've made them with up to 5 stages.

Tom

My initial Google didn't return any relevant listings. However, when I used quotes to enclose "rack rocket", I actually got two hits out of 30 listings:

Tom - neither of these show any of yours....

Do you know of some other relevant links?

Thanks, Craig Craig R. Saunders, crs at MaxThrust.net,

News and Information for model rockets and high-power rocketry

The rack rockets are always fun to watch. They are heads-up flights. I might build one when building season comes next spring.

Zooty