Rocketry Planet

America's space program owes Mr. Rahkonen a debt of gratitude.

Godspeed, Paavo.

Excellent article Darrell. Thanks for remembering John.



Terry Dean

I knew John and did some business with him. I made motors with him and fired off motors with his APCP propellant at my Pomona, CA shop in the 80's.

I visited him in his hometown to buy stuff.

The thousands of drums of chemicals referred to were P-Ban. I saw it. It was "astounding".

He was a man of good works and good intentions. He was drawn into some of the drama rocketeers generate, but tried to steer clear.

I have worked with Irv Wait on a movie deal (Mosquito Coast), my dad was buddies with George Roos, and when I challenged him on that I asked, you mean "Lonnie Reese don't you", and he said, no, the founder of FSI in Lawton, OK George.

Small world.

That old picture. What is that?? A Galaxie 500? With a rocket of a size we all see now as HPR, but back then was maybe not even seen as amateur, but about the size of a Sidewinder! Scary guy.

John had some APCP of sufficient ISP and burning rate, I find it hard to duplicate even now. He had technology beyond compare. May his wife leave his notes to rocket dudes.

Jerry

I agree; that was a very nice article. I agree also with Jerry that I hope his notes can be captured for posterity. Would anyone here know Mrs. Rahkonen well enough to approach her?

Thanks for a wonderful memory of a remarkable man.

I knew he had to be very ill; the county fire department came out before Christmas and "used up" a bunch of his supplies. They made a big deal of it on the news, although they said it was all legally procured and that they were doing it "at the request of his family". Who knows what was in that stash?

Dan Kafun and I got to know John when we were running NCR in Salt Lake. If you could catch him on a good day (and we usually did), he could tell you all sorts of stories about the old days. He felt the reason Vern beat him to the mass market with black powder pressed motors was because, while he had made a big rotary press, the casings swelled on pressing and they would not release (Vern used a different method to ensure release). He always regretted that they never had enough money to go back and fix it. Who knows, we all might be flying Pro-Dyne motors today instead of Estes!

I also got a kick out him showing us "pre-cured" propellant he had stored in his fridge, too!

He said that he inhaled sodium azide in the labs at Morton Thiokol during the development of airbag propellants, and that made him sick. He said he had to vigorously exercise every day in order to keep from having headaches from fluid buildup in his brain, and we would usually catch him after he had been out snowshoeing. To hear that he passed away from a rare blood disease just adds to the thought he got into something pretty bad somewhere.

I am sure he can put his snowshoes away and rest in comfort now, waiting to see the next big solid rocket motor fire. God bless John Rahkonen.

Matt Steele

I can't f-n believe I agree with Matt Steele.

That's not surprising, Jerry - you have always valued the contributions of the early pioneers of model rocketry, much like me.

Matt

Maybe, but have YOU ever been told by Verne to not market FS, Jay Apt not to ever fly HPR, and Lee Piester to not make commercial rockets so you can make consumer rockets with Gary? I have.

They all regretted it.

How were those tubes for the Space Shuttle scale models anyway?

How about you and I teaming up to physically visit rocket "gods" and capturing their files and records for a library, and interview them for 24-48 hours for posterity?

They will be dead soon. I see dead people.

Jerry

It would be nice to see hobby rocketry history preserved for future generation.

I am sorry to just now find out that John has passed away.

I first met John in the later 80's. One time I drove to his house at Ogden and head a pleasant and very cordial stay with he and his most gracious wife. I smile as I recall one moment where John and I were (as usual) talking rockets on a rather hot August day, and he was walking slowly through the hall, considering my question as he looked at the floor. He then stopped, looked straight up, and a huge smile came across his face, as if divine. I looked at him and asked, "John, did the answer to my question just come to you?" for which he replied, "No, but when you stand right here underneath the swamp cooler it feels really nice." I just chuckled.

John and I then drove in my rental car, a Ford Probe, across Utah and Nevada to an LDRS held at Black Rock. On the way out we stopped at a Smith's to provision a bit. I bought a styrofoam cooler and among other things, strawberries. At checkout the clerk asked if I wanted dry ice, and I thought with such a long drive ahead, why not. As we were crossing Nevada at some point we stopped. I decided to have some of those strawberries. I tore the leaf off of one and popped it into my mouth and something starnge and kind of bitter happened. It was a sensation I can only liken to seeing some giant insect on your arm -- do I swat it and risk having it sting me, or, do I just stay calm and see what develops? John looked at me and said, "What is wrong with you? Your face is all scrunched up!" It was then that I realized that the crazy sensation in my mouth was that the strawberries had become highly carbonated from the dry ice and were fizzing in my mouth! John laughed his ass off when I explained what had happened!

We stayed at a hotel at Fernly and drove up to the LDRS launches each day. I have a great B&W shot of him standing on one of those unsual domes on the east side of the road as you drive up, kind of like tufa formations of sorts. He really enjoyed the launch... rocketry was very exciting to him; it was his passion. Often times he would sort of wander off and I could tell that the succession of launches were the catalyst for myriad thoughts of rockets and propulsion and whatever else in his mind, and always he would walk back to the tent excited and just plain pumped up.

I, like others, got to see his rather large "collection" of P-BAN, which (of course) he tried to convince me to buy! I suggested that he donate it all to the DOT to use as an asphalt extender. He had tons more chemicals (literally, tons) bought up from Thiokol surplus lots, but nothing that I could do anything with. He lamented not having a buyer for all of it. I hope that he found a buyer.

We also made a trip up the road from Ogden to his friend's house (name escapes me) that was the machinist for his (then) current rocket motor projects. This guy machined the grain mandrels, casting hardware, etc. A very nice gentleman wearing denim bib overalls, red bandana and a straw hat! At first I thought "Green Acres!" but I was wrong. Outside was this HUGE fiberglass spherical tank that he would draw a vaccuum in when he went to cast propellant and use it as sort of an anti-surge tank. It was from John that I learned a really valuable trick regarding how to vaccuum cast composite propellants, and in fact, a specific device for same that I still have to this day was given to me -- with a great big and knowing smile -- by John. He asked me to keep it a secret, so I will, though it really isn't very complex... just clever, which generally goes a lot farther than complex does.

Outside this man's trailers were hundreds of feet of the reddish lumpy fiberglass tubing that he used for his kick-ass star-grained K-700. We tested one of his plugged K-700s that he donated at the Black Rock LDRS, and it was in fact the first motor ever tested on the ESI-manufactured (Richard Kuzma and Dan Wilson) test stand that would later be used to test hundreds of motors for Tripoli. I have an incredible 8x10 of a shot I took of that motor's burn... a favorite shot of mine... and WOW did it perform! John had that one nailed down after making a slight modification to the original grain geomoetry.

On yet another side, John knew a great deal about the blending of different size AP particles and the use of iron oxide to achieve his desired burn rates, much of which was no doubt gained from his extensive lab experience at Thiokol. His K-700 greatly inspired me on the use of aluminum and iron oxide in propellants.

I learned a lot from John, both in rockets and in life. It is an inside joke between he and I, but when he was in the Army he had a rather interesting encounter with a garden free of weeds. Maybe some of you know the story. If you do, you're laughing now; if not, oh well.

John always got a very big grin when he would see me light up at learning something new from him. For example, he relished knowing of a propellant with "a linear burn rate of 36 inches per second." It was zinc-sulfur, which was popular in the late 50's early 60's and is still very popular in the Netherlands today. John was involved in hot-melt casting of this genre of propellant, and vividly described to me how the rockets leaped into flight. To this day I have yet to see a "boomer" in person. Zn-S is also so very poorly understood. John's delight with Zn-S propellants enthused me and ultimately led me to add Zn to my chemical equilibrium free energy minimization codes just so that I could investigate it a little bit more at the thermodynamic level (this with a few very helpful tips from D. M.). It still flummoxes me and I am not sure that I fully agree with current evaporative theory on it, but that is the best thing going.

It was just fun to be around him and his wife, both so warm, friendly and gracious. On a few occasions John told something to me, and in a way where he really tried getting me to bug him for the answer -- as if it were a great puzzle of paramount importance, it was the bait and I was to be reeled in. There is a low mountain by Thiokol where they tested the shuttle SRBs. He said that he placed three objects at the top of that mountain and that they had truly significant meanings, and their presence there affected the development of the SRBs. I thought that he was just being a bit kooky, and if you knew John he was a bit of a kook (aren't we all, especially if we are rabid for rockets?)... I wish now that I had asked him...

I still have an unfired Prodyne K-700 and a number of unfired original Prodyne black powder motors in phenolic brown and black tubes, which I will always cherish. John gave me some of the V2 kits that he marketed back in the 60's, and I am sure that I still have them somewhere. When I get to digging out the attic, and find one, I will assemble it and launch it with a Prodyne motor in his memory. He was indeed one of the great model rocket pioneers, just not one of the ones that marketed so successfully like Centuri and Estes, but equally as important and that should never be forgotten.

John was dedicated to rocketry at all levels. He lived it and breathed it in a pure and simple way and in a way like no other that I have ever met. It brought him Joy, as did his Mormon faith. He was quite a dreamer, and maybe when he was enjoying that blast of cool air from the swamp cooler he was looking up and seeing something beyond what I can see...

I have the greatest respect and admiration for you, John -- who else had and has the courage to truly follow their dream? You did. I will miss you, John. You changed my life in important ways and I will never forget that and will always cherish the times we spent together, few that they were.

Rest in Peace.