NationStates Jolt Archive

So, does anyone have model rockets, or used to? I used to back when I was little, my first one was a Styrofoam Space Shuttle where the wings broke off after about 5 launches. Then I brought one that you could make yourself, that one only lasted for about 2 launches. It used to be that me and my neighborhood friends would launch these rockets together and see who can go the highest. Then we'd do something stupid like taking the "motor" of these model rockets and launching that without the rocket. Ahh it was fun trying to avoid getting hit by one of those.

So, has anyone else ever played with model rockets or still do?

I had a few. Some made from paper towel rolls some estes stuff even one with an alien lander pod. Those were fun but got destroyed or lost easily. So the most fun came from making astronauts out of GI-Joe by attaching a rocket motor and straw with electrical tape :tongue:

I used to. Would like to again.

Got started when I was 6 and learned the hard way how critical it is to secure the motor housing to the inside of the body tube well. Sometimes the failures were more fun than the successes.

Yea, I want to see if I could build at least a 2 stage rocket and see how high it would go.

I also want to see if it's possible to send one of those model rocket into low earth orbit! :D

Yea, I want to see if I could build at least a 2 stage rocket and see how high it would go.

I also want to see if it's possible to send one of those model rocket into low earth orbit! :D

Not the little 20 dollar ones from the store you sure as hell wont :)

I always have liked model rockets, I have a ton of them I've built up over the years since I was 15, when I have some free time I like to put more together.

Mine always last alot of lunch's kuz I build them right :)

Yea, I want to see if I could build at least a 2 stage rocket and see how high it would go.

I also want to see if it's possible to send one of those model rocket into low earth orbit! :D

Pretty much impossible since there's only so much energy density in even the very best chemical fuels. You'd need a lot of rocket fuel and therefore a big rocket. At which point it's not so much "model" rocketry anymore.

Used to do it all the time. Had a bunch...corkscrew, one with little gliders that detached after it launched, one with a spinning helicopter nose on the way down, and one with a camera in the nose.

Oh, and then there was the one I built for school when I was 12 or so and it failed miserably.

my rocket is bigger than yours.

On topic: I never got to play with the one we had cause my parents were afraid someone would get hurt.

Yeah, in Grade 12 at school we had an afternoon each week when we could do something like that. Rocket club was cool (albeit a bit of a weiner fest)

https://www.discountrocketry.com/estes-wacky-wiggler-rocket-p-554.html?manufacturers_id=4

It was cool, until its' final flight when it came this close to killing half a dozen 6 year old kids...

and then got stuck in a tree...

and caught on fire

yeah...

Read this as Modal Rockets and was extremely intrigued, now I'm just disappointed (nothing against model rockets but...modal rockets? That sounds awesome).

I used to do the rocket thing fairly often, but I haven't in some time. I used to really enjoy it though, I kinda miss it.

I did it for a while, but kept losing the models and had to buy new ones. It got expensive. (Well, that and store owners who started chasing me off the field I used to launch them. I think it was technically private property, and I may have left a few engines in their parking lot.)

A group of friends recently used a model rocket to launch a homemade weather balloon. I'd be curious to try that.

I started when I was a kid with the Omloid (I think that's how you spell it) and moved on to bigger and better rockets. I'd like to build a launcher that uses an explosive charge to both propell the rocket out and ignite a booster engine. Get some spring fins on there and rifle the barrel for accuracy will be the next challenge.

I used to have several model rockets. I loved putting the lower-letter class motors into the smallest rockets possible (letters towards Z were more powerful). One time I actually melted a rocket, that was awesome. It went really high...

Once I forgot to use tape on a streamer/tumbler that lacked an engine hook and the engine popped out when the ejection charge blew sending the rocket nose first into the junior high track. I pulled it out with about a half inch of pavement stuck to the nose cone.

I used to have several model rockets. I loved putting the lower-letter class motors into the smallest rockets possible (letters towards Z were more powerful). One time I actually melted a rocket, that was awesome. It went really high...

I remember one time my friend put an E motor in a small plastic rocket. We never saw it again.

Yea, I want to see if I could build at least a 2 stage rocket and see how high it would go.

I also want to see if it's possible to send one of those model rocket into low earth orbit! :D

Hell...I'd rather get one to break free of Earth's gravity. Just far enough on thrust to get out of the well, then just drift off to somwhere for the next few billion years.

Probably not possible with model rockets, but it'd be neat though. Add a little handwritten note as a payload...talk about a message in a bottle. :tongue:

Hell...I'd rather get one to break free of Earth's gravity. Just far enough on thrust to get out of the well, then just drift off to somwhere for the next few billion years.

Probably not possible with model rockets, but it'd be neat though. Add a little handwritten note as a payload...talk about a message in a bottle. :tongue:

Hehe, knowing me if I had access to the kind of technology that'll allow me to send a rocket into the abyss of space and carry a note, I'd write something that'll get the entire Earth blown up.

Hehe, knowing me if I had access to the kind of technology that'll allow me to send a rocket into the abyss of space and carry a note, I'd write something that'll get the entire Earth blown up.

I'm sticking with "Earth: Mostly Harmless"

I'm sticking with "Earth: Mostly Harmless"

I'd write "Thanks for the anal probing, here's my number." and I'd have a fake number written on the bottom.

I've competed at a few NARAMs, and won some championships.