Rocketry Planet

"Stop the presses," said Editor-in-Chief Tim Van Milligan on a cold Tuesday morning in January 1986, "we have to completely redo the paper." As per The Avion schedule in 1986, the staff had just finished making the latest edition Monday night, but now, after almost everyone on campus had just seen the Space Shuttle Challenger explode in the sky above Embry-Riddle, The Avion staff decided to start from scratch. "That was the only time I had to stop the printing presses," said Milligan as he looks back, "I was actually supposed to be at the Challenger launch for The Avion, but I had a test so I couldn't go."

Nowadays Milligan is still calling the shots but instead as the owner and "Chief Visionary Officer/Janitor" of Apogee Components, a model rocket company based in Colorado Spring, Colo.

Milligan did pretty much everything at The Avion in his three-year stint with the newspaper. After starting out as a page/production editor he slowly worked his way up the ranks to Advertising Manger, then Managing Editor and finally in 1986 Editor-in-Chief. He says it was a lot different back then, "We still used light-tables, wax and paper strips and had a dark-room to process the photos." During his tenure as Editor-in-Chief, Milligan says the most tragic and newsworthy event was definitely the Challenger explosion. "We had to pretty much start that week's paper over from scratch," says Milligan. "And of course everyone on campus was affected by the accident."

After graduating from Embry-Riddle in 1987 with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, membership to an honor society and a solid CGPA, Milligan went into industry. After working on the Delta II project with McDonald Douglas at Kennedy Space Center, Milligan left to join Estes Industries. While at Estes, Milligan designed several model rockets including CATO, Skywinder, Omloid, Delta Clipper, and TurboCopter. Then in 1994 Milligan and Estes parted ways and Milligan started his book, "Model Rocket Design & Construction."

In 1995, after suggesting a few designs to Apogee, Milligan purchased the ownership of Apogee Components and reincorporated the company in Colorado. In the ensuing years, Milligan and Apogee have never looked back, growing, progressively in sales and staff. In 2000, Apogee won the coveted "Howard Gallaway Service Award" from the National Association of Rocketry, the highest award given out in the rocket community. Now Apogee is still growing and recently moved to a new facility. "Last year was a good year for us," said Milligan. "And the start of this year has been real strong as well,
so far the recession hasn't hit our company too hard."

While working with models, Milligan has definitely not left his aerospace engineering roots behind. "Working on the models is almost the same as working on the real thing," explains Milligan. "I've done both, I know from experience. Model rockets have all the same aerodynamic, stability and control, thrust to mass and recovery issues as their big brothers, just at a smaller size and smaller budget."

One example of how complicated model rocket dynamics can get is shown by RockSim, a software product sold and co-developed by Apogee Components. In this enthusiast and educational software, users can import their rocket models, or design them in the program, and then Milligan's program crunches the engineering numbers for them. Using RockSim modelers can choose the best engine to mass ratio, or find out how high and far their rocket will go and much more. "This program can do all the engineering for you," says Milligan, who provided most of the engineering input for the software. "It makes it real easy for modelers."

Recently, Apogee has brought out an Avion model rocket kit, a tribute to where Milligan credits a lot of getting his first job at McDonald Douglas. "Working at The Avion really makes you learn about writing, and that does wonders for a resume," says Milligan. The Apogee Avion rocket is a skill level one rocket so according to Milligan is a good place for novice rocketeers to start. "Level one rockets teach a lot of basic rocket construction techniques, it's a good place to get into it." The Apogee Avion can be purchased for $10.20 on Apogee's website http://www.apogeerockets.com.

Copyright © 2009, The Avion.