Rocketry Planet

A paper company had a contest running this past fall. What project could a person come up with to re-use the rolls from toilet paper and paper towels? They even gave the contest a catchy name, "Imagination Unrolled".

The timing was good for me, as I already had plans to build a rocket out of those very same materials. Had my entry ever actually been uploaded (Firewall issue? Bad timing? Act of God?), I feel I could have won at least second or third place in the popularity polls, both $500.00 cash.

If the voting public had any sense of justice, I may have taken home $1,000.00. As it happened, grand prize was claimed by some wall art, with the Titannic and some paper patriots rounding out the winner's circle.

You, too, can build exciting, flying rockets from ordinary household trash.

Maybe I'm biased, but I think my two-stage flying rocket would have given them a run for the money.

The rocket was not completely made using paper rolls, but it was totally scratch built from scraps. No actual model rocketry components were utilized.

The basis for the build was trash paper rolls, which lend themselves readily to a variation on the standard fins needed to give a rocket stability in flight: tubular fins. Letting my own imagination roll a bit gave me "TF-TLV". Tube Finned-Trash Launch Vehicle.

Having decided early on that the rocket would be a two-stage project, I opted to use paper towel rolls for the sustainer (main) stage and its fins, and the slightly larger in diameter toilet paper rolls for the booster stage and fins.