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Violent Agreement 2: Adrian Adamson's BALLS 2010 project
Project Review by Adrian Adamson   
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Violent Agreement 2: Adrian Adamson's BALLS 2010 project

Featherweight Altimeters' owner Adrian Adamson, father of the lightweight Parrot altimeter, has a real penchant for high altitudes and getting there in a hurry.

Adamson is an engineer who worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the electrical system for the Mars Rover project and more recently finds himself working on power system models for NASA's Constellation Program.

Apparently bitten by the altitude bug, Adamson has been tinkering with setting records, wielding carbon fiber and high temperature epoxy into multiple stage rockets.� His latest project, Violent Agreement 2, is a story packed with details of his trip to fly it on the Black Rock Desert at this 2010's BALLS experimental launch.

 
Violent Agreement: Adrian Adamson's high altitude project
Project Review by Adrian Adamson   
Friday, November 06, 2009
Violent Agreement: Adrian Adamson's high altitude project
Featherweight�Altimeters' owner Adrian Adamson, father of the lightweight Parrot altimeter, has a real penchant for high altitudes and getting there in a hurry. Adamson is an engineer who worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the electrical system for the Mars Rover project and mor...
 
Tom Engelhardt and his gorgeous L3 D-Region
Project Review by Darrell D. Mobley   
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Tom Engelhardt and his gorgeous L3 D-Region
As a fan of scale sounding rockets, to say I was intrigued when I saw photos of Tom Engelhardt's Level 3 D-Region Tomahawk would be an understatement. Engelhardt, who hails from Goettingen, Germany, had shared his photos with readers of Rocketry Planet's Forums last year and I thought they d...
 
Upscaling the classic Estes Cherokee-D rocket
Project Review by Dan Michael   
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Upscaling the classic Estes Cherokee-D rocket
An obsession that started when he was just eight years old led Dan Michael into the hobby of model rocketry.��He never forgot his fascination with the Estes Cherokee D kit, and decided to upscale the model, which led to the creation of this 14 foot tall Cherokee M! It wasn't until the fall of 19...
 
Rumpty Dumpty sat on a rail, looking to let out a great wail!
Project Review by Rump Aerospace Team   
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Rumpty Dumpty sat on a rail, looking to let out a great wail!
Jim Russell, Art Upton, Scott Miller and Mark Palmer are headed to Black Rock next weekend for XPRS and with them will be Rumpty Dumpty, a 4-inch all-composite two-stage rocket flying on a CTI N2500 staging to a CTI N1100, expecting an apogee close to 92,000 feet AGL. In 2006, the Rump Aerospace Tea...
 
Summit City Aereospace Modelers' 6X upscale ACME Spitfire
Project Review by Darrell D. Mobley   
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Summit City Aereospace Modelers' 6X upscale ACME Spitfire
Group projects often struggle for uniqueness, something to make them stand out from the crowd. With the collective genius of group projects already dipping into the local talent pool, why not do something different to make your project really outstanding? Summit City Aerospace Modelers (SCAM) of For...
 
Project Dragon Fish: Taking Rocket Science to New Depths
Project Review by Joe Peck   
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Project Dragon Fish: Taking Rocket Science to New Depths
In a recent edition of Design News, Texas rocketeer Joe Peck had an article published about his model rocketry project.� "Case #97: Project Dragon Fish: Joe Takes Rocket Science to New Depths" was Peck's version of his own Polaris program featuring underwater rocketry. Joe Peck has extended the ...
 
The Mock Terrier Sustainer: Level 1 is FUN!
Project Review by Mark Willett, NAR 82585   
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Mock Terrier Sustainer: Level 1 is FUN!
There is nothing quite as thrilling as that first certification flight, unless it is your second or third certification such as when going for your Level�2 or Level 3.� But Level 1, that first rush, is usually the one that gets its hooks in your soul as well as your wallet. Recently, Mark Willett of...
 
15X Fat Boy: As seen on ABC's America's Funniest Videos
Project Review by Darrell D. Mobley   
Monday, February 05, 2007
15X Fat Boy: As seen on ABC's America's Funniest Videos
American's have become fascinated with the video format, having developed their addiction to camcorders and furthered with the advent of the personal computer, the Internet.�Prime-time television leveraged this popularity some time back, through the highly-watched America's Funniest Videos t...
 
Rear-view mirror: Team X-30 flies at LDRS 22 in Argonia
Project Review by Dave Schaefer   
Monday, January 29, 2007
Rear-view mirror: Team X-30 flies at LDRS 22 in Argonia
At LDRS 22 in Argonia, Kansas, a group of Texas high power rocketeers got together to fly their scale version of the National Aero-Space Plane, the X-30. This unique craft was the United States attempt to build a "single stage to orbit" spacecraft.� Real life pilot Dave Schaefer�teamed up�with sever...
 
There's only one way to go for your Level 3: Full Throttle
Project Review by Darrell D. Mobley   
Sunday, November 19, 2006
There's only one way to go for your Level 3: Full Throttle
Certifying Level�3 is no easy accomplishment, but through the combination of careful planning, hard work and following the advice of your certification advisors, you can get the job done.� The process is designed to test the skills and knowledge of the builder in order to prove you are capable of sa...
 
HighCarbYen: Jim Jarvis' L3 N-powered carbon fiber screamer
Project Review by Darrell D. Mobley   
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
HighCarbYen: Jim Jarvis' L3 N-powered carbon fiber screamer
Jim Jarvis completed his Level 3 certification at LDRS 25 in supreme fashion, flying a 4" minimum diameter carbon fiber rocket on an N4000 to 35,000 feet!� This qualified Jim for the Tripoli N altitude record without him even knowing he had accomplished the feat. I asked Jim it if would be possible ...
 
Mercury Joe: Living a Childhood Dream
Project Review by Darrell D. Mobley   
Friday, September 08, 2006
Mercury Joe: Living a Childhood Dream
It happened way back in 1969. Jamie Clay, of San Rafael, California, had a birthday, and on this birthday, he got a Hasbro GI Joe Mercury Space Capsule. Fast forward, thirty years later. Toys-R-Us and Hasbro have re-issued the GI Joe Mercury Space Capsule, and Jamie was better prepared to follow up ...
 
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High Power Rocketry's Top 10 Biggest Regional Launches

I have a friend who has the goal of watching a baseball game in every big league stadium in America. He's been to Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium, to Fenway Park and Chavez Ravine, and a dozen other parks scattered throughout the land. Every year he makes it to a new field, sometimes even two, and returns home with great memories—and enough hats and shirts—to last a lifetime.His most recent journey—to Progressive Field in Cleveland—got me thinking about high power rocketry's biggest venues and how this hobby has continued to grow in the last ten years. Some impressive traditions are alive and well out there at the biggest regional events in America.

 

Chasing the N record: Pursuing stratospheric dreams

Four years ago, James Dougherty didn't know the difference between a G80 and an M2500. A computer programmer from Northern California, Dougherty spent most of his time in Silicon Valley helping start-up companies and their customers with complex computer systems. In his spare time he liked to drive sports cars, have fun at the beach, or just hang out with his wife and daughter.Today, Dougherty is among a handful of hard core, high-power rocketry enthusiasts — in the United States and abroad — who are quickly moving toward a new altitude record for a commercial N motor. These fliers, taking advantage of technologic advancements in rocket motors and recovery systems — and their own hard work — believe they can clear 50,000 feet, or higher, on a single N. That's an altitude nearly two miles higher than commercial jetliners typically fly, and close to four miles higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. This is the realm of the stratosphere, where thunderstorms are born and the air density is nearly one-eighth that found at sea level.

 

One man's quest to honor America's Saturn V rocket

On April 25, 2009, history will be made.  At Higgs Farm in Price, Maryland, Steve Eves will enter the history books as the person who flew the largest scale model rocket in history. The rocket will weigh over 1,600 pounds, it will stand over 36 feet tall and it will be powered by a massive array of nine motors: eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor. The estimated altitude of this single stage effort will be between 3,000 and 4,000 feet and the project will be recovered at apogee. In a special to Rocketry Planet, author Mark B. Canepa and ROCKETS Magazine wish to share Steve Eve's story with the readers here.

 

The Jarvis Illustrated Guide to Carbon Fiber Construction

Over the last few years, many people have asked Jim Jarvis of Austin, Texas, how he makes his carbon fiber rockets. So when he had an opportunity to make a new fin can, he decided to document the process in detail.The result of the build was the TooCarbYen Tutorial presented in this article. Actually, tutorial isn't a particularly accurate name for the build since it implies instruction on the proper way to do something. This article isn't about the best way to build carbon fiber rockets, it's about how Jim builds carbon fiber rockets, presented in enough detail to allow others to execute the process if they so choose.

 

HJ101: Turbocharging the Estes Maxi Brute Honest John

This edition of the Rocketry Planet How-To Classroom is based on the Estes Maxi Brute Honest John, a 1/9 scale model of the venerable ballistic missile used by the United States Army. This class covers the Estes first edition Maxi Brute kit #1269 released in 1975, the Estes second edition Collector Series kit #1269 released in 1993 or the third edition Maxi Brute kit #2166 released in 2000.This kit is approaching collector status, if it hasn't already, and you can still find them occassionally on eBay for reasonable prices. This class project features dual deployment with an altimeter bay, fiberglass airframe reinforcing and fiberglass fins to replace the thin styrene shells that come in the standard kit. In fact, of the original kits, we are mainly using the styrene fin canisters and the two-piece styrene nose cones while replacing most everything else — this is imperative to be able to fly these kits on 38mm and 54mm motors.

Upcoming Events

SARA Club Launch - Tucson, AZ
October 27, 2012
(Local Launch)
SARA (Southern Arizona Rocketry Association) was formed in 1994 for those in southern Arizona (Tu...

ICBM Research Weekend Orangeburg, SC
November 10 - 11, 2012
(Local Launch)
Research weekend TRA rules apply

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