WORLD WIDE WEB — The new third edition of Model Rocket Design and Construction has just been released by Apogee Components. This 328-page book guides readers through the process of taking an imaginative concept and planning for its creation (called “designing a rocket”), and then actually building it using inexpensive materials with a minimum about of time. The result is a great-looking rocket that can be safely and successfully launched again and again.

In the 22 chapters, this book covers topics like: simplified methods for building complex rockets, painting and finishing techniques for a sleek looking rocket, strengthening rockets without adding a lot of weight, parachute design and attachment, techniques for making high power rockets, designing those unique helicopter and glider recovery models, flight testing the completed rockets, making clustered and multi-stage rockets, reducing drag so rockets fly higher and faster, designing both statically and dynamically stable rockets in order to get a straighter launch trajectory, selecting rocket motors for optimum flight performance, and even how to get ideas for new creations that no one has ever thought of before.

Apogee's new Model Rocket Design and Construction, Third Edition is available now.

The author, Timothy S. Van Milligan, in describing why he wrote this book, stated "No one wants to just build and fly boring 'a-tube-with-fins' type rockets. We all want to push the edge of creativity and make unique rockets that draw spectators like magnets. But sometimes those kinds of rockets can be unsafe because they are unstable or they are weak and come apart when launched. I wrote this book because I know that the continued future of rocketry depends on modelers flying safe rockets. In this one book, modelers have everything they need to know to successfully make those innovative rockets, but keep them safe. They'll also find that their creations will cost less money, and fly higher and faster than they expected."

Besides showing how to build rockets, the book is also an in-depth educational manual on rocket science and therefore can be used as a school textbook. The reader will learn advanced topics like rocket propulsion, aerodynamics, stability, and structural design. More importantly, the reader will get a sense of how all these "rocket-science" disciplines interact with each other, and they will see the trade-offs they may have to make when designing high performance rockets.

While the author is an aerospace engineer with experience working on actual rockets at Cape Canaveral, Florida, the concepts of "rocket science" are made simple by incorporating 566 illustrations and 175 photographs. In addition, the glossary has been expanded to give definitions to over 700 rocketry-related terms and phrases. Kids as young as 10 years old should be able to understand almost everything in this guidebook.

This third edition is more like a brand new book than it is a revision, as it has double the number of pages as the previous publication. Nearly all of the previous chapters have been rewritten to incorporate the latest ideas on rocket design and assembly. For example, the chapter on multi-staging now has new information on how to accomplish successful parallel staging – where strap-on boosters are attached to the side of the core vehicle and fall off in flight like they do on the space shuttle.

The chapter describing the various types of recovery devices has also been expanded to include 16 categories of recovery devices. The previous edition only had nine, which covered the basics like parachute recovery, streamer recovery, nose blow recovery, tumble recovery, glide recovery, drag recovery, and helicopter recovery. The new moethods of recovery are sure to open up new competition events and many discussions for modelers to test their design skills.

There is one completely new chapter in this book, regarding using a computer as a rocket design tool. This came about because the RockSim software has changed the way people design rockets, by eliminating much of the guessing involved when sizing parts for stable models. This chapter shows what kinds of designs can be created and how the RockSim software can save you time and money versus traditional design techniques.

This new book is $36.00 plus shipping and handling. It is available from Apogee Components at: 3355 Fillmore Ridge Heights, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80907 USA. It can also be ordered online at: http://www.apogeerockets.com/.

10-23-2008 10:53 AM  #1
UncleVanya If pigs had fins...   Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 4071	Re: Article: Latest Model Rocket Design and Construction now available Anyone out there with earlier editions want to chime in and tell us the good and the bad of this book? Is it worth the money? What other books like it have you read and what are the strengths and weaknesses of this book compared to those? For example I have G. Harry Stine's Handbook of Model Rocketry - do I need this one?

10-23-2008 03:36 PM  #2
lkal32 NAR 86607 L1   Joined: Dec 2006 Posts: 201	Re: Article: Latest Model Rocket Design and Construction now available I have the second edition of the book. It was my first rocketry book, and I enjoy it still, but its very basic. If you are new to model rocketry, its an excellent book with general rules and tips, covering information from stability to finishing techniques and everything in between, even repairing basic parts if your rocket would take damage. Covers "high power" very minimally, if you can call it that - its more "mid-power". The part I use it for still is the part on recovery ideas, such as helicopter design, as well as glider and rc glider. Very informative on alternative styles of rocketry rather than just basic flight. Good: very broad great for beginners simple covers a lot of ideas in rocketry, not just the up part Bad: maybe too beginner based... (doesnt have as good of shelf life as say Modern High Power Rocketry) Slightly on the expensive part for what it is (a lot of info can be found online for it) All in all, I like it more than not - I just wish it dealt with more high power stuff, but, for what it is, the book is excellent. Low power enthusiasts, this one you need