LAKE TOWNSHIP, Ohio USA — The garage at Steve Eves' home looks ordinary — maybe a little bigger than most, but nothing striking.

But the work barn outside his Greentown-area home resembles the local branch of NASA.

LAUNCH PLANNED: Steve Eves of Lake Township supervises as his rocket is erected during a recent appearance in Hartville. He plans to launch the 36-foot amateur rocket, a 1/10 scale version of the legendary NASA rocket Saturn V. Photo: Ray Stewart.

MORE ON THIS STORY:
An interview with Steve Eves

More with Steve Eves

SLIDESHOW: Steve Eves and his rocket.

It's where Steve Eves, 50, has taken his lifelong love of rockets to new heights. The auto-body technician is constructing a 36-foot hobby rocket replica of the iconic Saturn V that took Americans to the moon in the country's race to beat the Soviet Union to the lunar surface during the Cold War.

As a child, Eves watched the historic launch of the Saturn V in 1969 on TV. Eves was captivated with space travel.

"Nobody ever built a rocket that did what the Saturn V did for this country," he said. "It was a victory."

Decades later, the Saturn V is serving as inspiration for Eves' most-epic project: Launching a 1,700-pound rocket powered by nine motors. Projected to reach about 4,000 feet, the rocket, 40 inches in diameter, will be propelled by solid-rocket fuel, generating an estimated 8,000 pounds of thrust and blazing a 30-foot trail of fire. Assembled by crane at the launch site on farmland in Price, Md., the rocket will be attached to a 50-foot steel-framed tower.

Four military-style parachutes, each 28 feet in diameter, will bring the 20-foot stage back to Earth. The amateur rocket is a 1/10 scale version of the legendary NASA rocket.

The ambitious project gets more elaborate.

ROCKETS Magazine is the main sponsor. Another sponsor is PPG Industries, which supplied the paint. The magazine's Web site includes a special section about the project at www.rocketsmagazine.com/saturn-v-project/Main.html

"From what I've seen, and I've seen a lot of rockets and have been involved with this (hobby) for probably 13 years now, this is without any question one of the finest-made (amateur) rockets ever," said Neil McGilvray, editor of ROCKETS Magazine and a member of the Maryland Delaware Rocketry Association, which is assisting with the launch. It's scheduled for April to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. The association regularly uses the launch site — 600 acres of farmland.

SHOOTING FOR THE MOON

The Saturn V replica would break the Maryland association's record for heaviest amateur rocket, McGilvray said. The Tripoli Rocketry Association bases records on altitude, not weight or size. The National Association of Rocketry tracks records based on various categories, including altitude and parachute duration, strictly for model rockets weighing 3.3 pounds or less.

McGilvray expects to get a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration permitting the launch. Waivers are based on altitude, he said, and the Maryland Delaware Rocketry Association routinely receives waivers for the Maryland site, about 50 miles outside Baltimore. Police also will be notified of the launch.

LOVE FOR ROCKETS

From model rockets to rail buggy cars, mechanical projects captivate Eves.

"All kids, they want to be a fireman, they want to be a policeman," he said. "I knew I wanted to make something with my hands, just anything to build — to create something from nothing has always interested me."

He discovered model rockets as part of a school project in the fourth grade. As a child, he frequented hobby shops, improvising and building makeshift flying saucers — rocket motors attached to a flying disc. One time, the experimental craft nearly slammed into his uncle's Buick Skylark.

As a teen, Eves lost interest in model rockets, opting for girls and cars. In the early 1990s, during a random stop at a hobby shop, he noticed a magazine about high-power rockets. Eves was hooked again. A member of Tripoli Rocketry Association, Eves launched a 16-foot rocket weighing 135 pounds. Later that decade, he took a hiatus from the hobby, then jumped back in last year.

COMPLEX PROJECT

Eves estimates he's spent more than 1,000 hours working on the Saturn V. After work. Weekends. All with the support of his wife.

The rocket body — gleaming and unblemished — mirrors the Saturn V. One thousand wooden ribs are glued and nailed to the shell, which is crafted out of fiberglass and aircraft-grade plywood.

"The workmanship is second to none," McGilvray said. "The attention to detail and the quality of the workmanship is ... a clinic."

Now Eves is turning to a team of fellow rocket enthusiasts who will help with the motors, electronics and parachute system. None of the crew members are professional aviation engineers, Eves said, but all possess years of experience in the hobby.

Eves has spent about $5,000 out of his pocket on the project. He is seeking corporate sponsors to defray additional costs, including the motors, estimated at $13,000. McGilvray estimates the project could total $20,000 to $25,000.

"It's massive; it's like a construction project in itself, just to get the thing up and set, then after all that, we're going to press a button on that, and throw it in the air and try to bring it back in one piece," McGilvray said.

Hobby rockets cannot have computer-guided flight systems, said McGilvray, 51, a project manager for a mechanical contractor. That would be too close to a military missile.

Instead, the high-power rocket will be aided by radio-control technology. Automotive seat belt and air bag technology will separate the rocket before parachute deployment.

The nine custom motors, a far cry from the black-powder variety associated with traditional hobby rockets, are being designed and built by Loki Research in Pennsylvania.

MISSION CONTROL

What could go wrong with the launch? Lots.

Eves is jittery about potential problems. Shortly after launch, the rocket could blow up. Or the rocket could leave the ground and take a quick nose dive.

Eves vows not to launch the rocket until it's fine-tuned and ready, even if it means a delay. "I owe it to (sponsors) to check and triple check to do the best we can to make this thing come off the way we're planning it."

Computer programs are part of the testing to make sure the rocket maintains balance in flight. "Everything here from this point has to be tested over and over and over again," Eves said.

Anytime a rocket launches, especially one of this magnitude, the potential for disaster lurks. The structure or motors could fail, McGilvray said. And the rocket could take "some sort of weird turn," although it's unlikely.

Eves' project obviously does not compare to the enormous scope of the genuine Saturn V, considered among the nation's greatest achievements.

Still, for inspiration, he evokes the historic days of the space race. The Web site section devoted to Eves' project carries a quote from President John F. Kennedy, who shepherded the country into the new frontier:

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

Copyright © 2008, The Canton Repository.

08-11-2008 12:39 AM  #1
UncleVanya If pigs had fins...   Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 3640	Re: Article: Lake Township man aims high with Saturn V rocket replica The article brings to mind two questions: 1) On the original Sat V what was the purpose of the ridges in the structure? The regular patterned ridges that have been replicated with wooden stringers here? 2) How did the internal structure for this 1/10 scale rocket get designed and tested for load? The internal structure is complex and interesting to see - I am very curious how it was designed.

08-11-2008 12:59 AM  #2
Steve_Shannon Growing more clueless...   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 2212	Re: Article: Lake Township man aims high with Saturn V rocket replica Quote: The article brings to mind two questions: 1) On the original Sat V what was the purpose of the ridges in the structure? The regular patterned ridges that have been replicated with wooden stringers here? 2) How did the internal structure for this 1/10 scale rocket get designed and tested for load? The internal structure is complex and interesting to see - I am very curious how it was designed. I think the ridges are the corrugations in the metal wrapping the airframe. My feeling is that they are there for stiffness, same as on a metal building.

08-11-2008 04:30 PM  #3
SpartaChris Certified Certifiable   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 136	Re: Article: Lake Township man aims high with Saturn V rocket replica My fiancee and I are planning on heading out from CA to go see that flight. That's just awe inspiring.

08-11-2008 04:39 PM  #4
plano_doug NAR L2   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 86	Re: Article: Lake Township man aims high with Saturn V rocket replica Quote: I think the ridges are the corrugations in the metal wrapping the airframe. My feeling is that they are there for stiffness, same as on a metal building. That's pretty much it. The rocket uses the tanks as structural elements - the skin of the tank is the skin of the rocket. In the vertical space between tanks, the ridged skin is used to transfer the load from one tank to the next. Doug .