Rocketry Planet

Chasing the N record: Pursuing stratospheric dreams

Four years ago, James Dougherty didn't know the difference between a G80 and an M2500. A computer programmer from Northern California, Dougherty spent most of his time in Silicon Valley helping start-up companies and their customers with complex computer systems. In his spare time he liked to drive sports cars, have fun at the beach, or just hang out with his wife and daughter.Today, Dougherty is among a handful of hard core, high-power rocketry enthusiasts — in the United States and abroad — who are quickly moving toward a new altitude record for a commercial N motor. These fliers, taking advantage of technologic advancements in rocket motors and recovery systems — and their own hard work — believe they can clear 50,000 feet, or higher, on a single N. That's an altitude nearly two miles higher than commercial jetliners typically fly, and close to four miles higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. This is the realm of the stratosphere, where thunderstorms are born and the air density is nearly one-eighth that found at sea level.

One man's quest to honor America's Saturn V rocket

On April 25, 2009, history will be made.  At Higgs Farm in Price, Maryland, Steve Eves will enter the history books as the person who flew the largest scale model rocket in history. The rocket will weigh over 1,600 pounds, it will stand over 36 feet tall and it will be powered by a massive array of nine motors: eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor. The estimated altitude of this single stage effort will be between 3,000 and 4,000 feet and the project will be recovered at apogee. In a special to Rocketry Planet, author Mark B. Canepa and ROCKETS Magazine wish to share Steve Eve's story with the readers here.

The Jarvis Illustrated Guide to Carbon Fiber Construction

Over the last few years, many people have asked Jim Jarvis of Austin, Texas, how he makes his carbon fiber rockets. So when he had an opportunity to make a new fin can, he decided to document the process in detail.The result of the build was the TooCarbYen Tutorial presented in this article. Actually, tutorial isn't a particularly accurate name for the build since it implies instruction on the proper way to do something. This article isn't about the best way to build carbon fiber rockets, it's about how Jim builds carbon fiber rockets, presented in enough detail to allow others to execute the process if they so choose.

D-REG101: Building the Estes D-Region Tomahawk

The Estes D-Region Tomahawk is back for its final segment in this How-To Classroom Series. Sporting a traditional white paint job with black, red and brown trim, the D-Region Tomahawk makes a great statement in scale model rocket kits. Follow along as we finish out this final lesson.In this edition of the How-To Classroom, we are focusing on building a hardened version of the new Estes D-Region Tomahawk (#2037). This kit is 38.8" long, 1.8" in diameter and comes with a 24mm motor mount. I got my Tomahawk from Belleville Wholesale Hobby for just $24.49. Features of the kit include a very detailed blow-molded nosecone, a very detailed fin and fin canister section, a twist-lock motor retainer and a rip-stop nylon parachute.

HJ101: Turbocharging the Estes Maxi Brute Honest John

This edition of the Rocketry Planet How-To Classroom is based on the Estes Maxi Brute Honest John, a 1/9 scale model of the venerable ballistic missile used by the United States Army. This class covers the Estes first edition Maxi Brute kit #1269 released in 1975, the Estes second edition Collector Series kit #1269 released in 1993 or the third edition Maxi Brute kit #2166 released in 2000.This kit is approaching collector status, if it hasn't already, and you can still find them occassionally on eBay for reasonable prices. This class project features dual deployment with an altimeter bay, fiberglass airframe reinforcing and fiberglass fins to replace the thin styrene shells that come in the standard kit. In fact, of the original kits, we are mainly using the styrene fin canisters and the two-piece styrene nose cones while replacing most everything else — this is imperative to be able to fly these kits on 38mm and 54mm motors.