What's the most abundant component in a high power rocket? Is it fins? Airframe tubes? Coupler tubes? Rocket motors? The answer is centering rings, bulkhead plates, thrust plates — you can't build a rocket without rings!  Jerry O'Sullivan shares how he does rings right.

SINCE THE ARTICLE ABOUT A HOBBY ROCKETRY MANUFACTURER'S PARTING 'JOKE' was posted, I have received some very interesting e-mail. A few said that by posting the article, that action had the potential to be injurious to the hobby, suggesting that the primary motivation must be sensationalism to drive traffic to Rocketry Planet.

Group projects often struggle for uniqueness, so why not do something different to make your project really outstanding? Summit City Aerospace Modelers of Fort Wayne, Indiana, did just that, making their latest project really unique by going with a very unusual theme.

THE RECENT FLAP over the Bluegrass Rocketry Society flying rockets near Lexington, Kentucky's Blue Grass Airport points out a fact that is unlikely to change as long as model rocketry exists: the perception by people unfamiliar with rockets that they are dangerous.

This past October 20-22, 2006, rocketeers from all over the East Coast descended on the Higgs Dairy Farm in Price, Maryland to attend the event called “Red Glare,” gleaned from a phrase in “The Star-Spangled Banner” and now one of the nation’s largest regional high power rocketry events.

For anyone who migrates past the kit stage of hobby rocketry, inevitably the subject of cutting airframe tubing comes up.  There must be a million ways to go at cutting a tube, but do we ever find one that truly meets our criteria for what the ultimate rocketry airframe tubing cutter should be?

Everything starts somewhere, even if determining exactly where is difficult to pin down. But when you are dealing with three times the fun, sometimes it gets down right difficult. Three times anything can be a lot, yet other times, it can be just right. When it comes to Rocket Team Vatsaas and the three brothers involved, you'll have to be the judge.

The Black Rock Desert is home to the premiere experimental launch in North America, the Tripoli Rocketry Association's BALLS launch.  Liberty Launch Systems and ROCKETS Magazine was there once again to capture the magic that is now in the history books as BALLS 15.