Ever build an Estes rocket?

[41Dude]

These are bigger.

 

[bobski]

i made a saturn 5 centuri once.

 

[GasGuzzler]

My buddy built a 19' tall one that required FAA clearance. Launched in 1995 with an 8mm camera in the nose. It was designed to come apart in sections like a real one and the nose deployed a parachute.

 

[bobski]

those groups musr file NOTAMS to fire. amazing.

 

[GasGuzzler]

Rented a box truck to haul the pieces from Flower Mound to the launch site where it was assembled. The video is searchable on Facebook for those so inclined.

 

[Fox Mike]

I have a few somewhere. I know where my Blackbird is. Have to dig it out. Spent a lot of time with them when I had access to Weide AAF off duty hours. LOTS of room to launch and retrieve.

 

[jimbo1096]

That is really cool. I had trouble with my little rocket you put on the end of a water pump and pressurize the little plastic rocket.

 

[MaxMan]

Build quite a few with the boys.

 

[LDB]

My best friend and I used to build them 55 or so years ago. There's a high-school in the panhandle where they build them and have won competitions beating out assorted college teams. Theirs have to have FAA notification as well I believe. Interesting segment on them on Texas Country Reporter.

 

[foxtrapper]

Yes built and flew many ,along with plastic car models……. All eventually became BB gun fodder

 

[Jack Ryan]

We built several and launched them when my boy was young. We even got some of them back.

 

[Fox Mike]

We built several and launched them when my boy was young. We even got some of them back.

I truly understand that statement. Somewhere in the woods near the old Nike Ajax site on APG-EA there are two of my ships

 

[rcs9250]

My two brothers and three brothers next door when we were kids built several of various single stage models. That high speed launch and the thrill of recovering them was a lot of fun. For an entire summer, every penny we could scrounge went for rocket kits and engines. Good times.

 

[Jeepnik]

Built a few. But, I found much better uses for the rocket motors. I haven't looked, but I suppose the days of going into a store as a kid and buying a bunch are gone.

 

[Springer2]

Build a lot of Estes rockets. Started out with single stage and later 2 stage. I even made a few where we put black powder in stage 2 and it would explode after stage 1 burned out.

 

[rcs9250]

Built a few. But, I found much better uses for the rocket motors. I haven't looked, but I suppose the days of going into a store as a kid and buying a bunch are gone.

I’m guessing 18 years old or a parent any more.

 

[Tensaw]

Built a few when my son was young. We went to the USS Alabama Battleship Park to launch them. Lots of room there but the wind was tricky. We had a blast (sorry couldn't resist).

 

[Buffalo Red]

I shot one off around 1969 never saw it again

 

[bobski]

well well, look what i found in the attic.
imo, centuri was a better kit.

 

[bigbillyboy]

Yes , lots of them my favorite was " big bertha " ...

 

[Hertervillian]

My two brothers and three brothers next door when we were kids built several of various single stage models. That high speed launch and the thrill of recovering them was a lot of fun. For an entire summer, every penny we could scrounge went for rocket kits and engines. Good times.

One summer sounds familiar. There was the Rocket summer, the cox airplane summer, then the summer of experimental explosives. Small town living at its best .

Must have been shortly before cars entered the picture. I was well and truly broke from that day forward.

 

[s4s4u]

I actually won a contest that Estes ran, designing a rocket. I was 12ish at the time.

The prize was...a rocket...

 

[coach]

I was in a Hobby Lobby for the first time last week and I was surprised to see a display of a model rockets and motors. It was right across from the plastic air plane models. The P-51 caught my eye among all the others. Kind of took me back.

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

These are bigger.

I had some of the smaller kits, then started making my own, including engines. I used press & twist 6v bulbs with the glass removed as igniters, hooked to a little box with 9v battery and button switch.

 

[Taterman]

I remember the thin bent wire igniters that you stick into the back of the engine. Good times.

 

[Joey]

That is really cool. I had trouble with my little rocket you put on the end of a water pump and pressurize the little plastic rocket.

I made an exploding version when I was 11 yo. Took a bunch of fireworks , took the powder out, poured it into the inlet at the bottom. filled about half way. I lived in a housing project that had a long side walk, took and layed it down, stuck a fuse in, lite and ran! It skewed up the sidewalk, never took flight. Got another bunch of fireworks and repeated, only stuffed it about full. Took and leaned it on a brick on our front porch, didn't run this time. It was winter, I had a heavy coat on. Lit it and stoof behind to watch the glorious launch! Only it didn't. It exploded! A piece went thru my coat and barely piercer my left shoulder. Fortunately that was the only physical damage. Couldn't hear for a coupla days! I have no idea how I survived to such a ripe old age!

 

[KIR]

During the mid 60's I went through the model rocket phase. I made a few using paper towel tubes and even one using a short toilette roll tube which almost killed us as we used to put aluminum foil shaped into a nose cone; the glued on fins broke off and rather then rising vertically, flew around us horizontally, making everyone to hit the deck. One summer day several kids (me included) had 26 launchings. We went to a local high school football field. One guy had an SST, but he did not have an 'E' (?) and only had a 'D'engine and due to the weight it only rose about a dozen feet then fell back to the earth whereas the reverse part of the engine made the parachute pop out of the nose cone. Earlier when he used an 'E' engine the rocket worked perfectly including the small jet plane that shot out of the nose cone. That little airplane had a small needle stuck on one side and thus it spiraled back to earth about a dozen feet from where it took off, as it was perfectly balance and would have ended up far, far away. That was really cool. One last thing that has not been mentioned in this thread, was the use of baby powder, so when the rocket was high in the air and the reverse engine popped open, there was a small burst of powder from the nose cone and everyone could see it. The powder also served as a dry lube for the parachute to come out of the body easier. GOOD TIMES!

 

[BarryinIN]

Used to? I did, and started up again a few years ago. I haven’t messed with it in maybe five years, but yeah I was what they call a BAR- Born Again Rocketeer.

Those Estes and Centuri kits we used to build are small time stuff now. You should see the Mid-power and High-power rockets. Think body tubes made from concrete form tubes, or carbon fiber of even larger diameter.

 

[el caminero]

One summer sounds familiar. There was the Rocket summer, the cox airplane summer, then the summer of experimental explosives. Small town living at its best .

Must have been shortly before cars entered the picture. I was well and truly broke from that day forward.

Rocket summer...sounds like ray bradbury...
Built half dozen about 10-11yro. Dads biggest was unretrievable, a cow took umbrage at the invader as it landed

 

[JimA]

We actually built a bunch of them in applied science class in HS back in 1964. We built a remote launch console to fire them off.