I'm new to paper tube rockets but enjoy watching YouTube videos of high power rockets. But I was wondering, when is a "model" rocket not considered a "model" anymore? I've seen some massive rockets launched with high tech electronics... Is it the fact that it has no payload?
Very informative, thanks.
Makes more sense now. I was watching things on YouTube with K and N motors and thinking "hmmm... not really a model..."
i flew "model rockets" for a LONG time, since i was 3 with my dad... I was good at it... when my wife got me into HPR at 28,
Makes more sense now. I was watching things on YouTube with K and N motors and thinking "hmmm... not really a model..."
Obviously, I wouldn't, though. If I built a 1/4 scale Nike-Tomahawk with all of the details, for instance, I would be really concerned if it was called something other than a scale model rocket.I suppose in the end it depends on who you talk to. I'd imagine many builders of high power rockets feel belittled if you call their work a model!
I was just making the point that they're REALLY big compared to my paper rockets and bigger than some research and military rockets I'm sure.
Back in the 1960s there weren't any commercially-made high power motors that were for sale to the general public, so there weren't any big hobby rockets. An Estes Saturn V was a HUGE rocket, quite possibly the biggest production hobby rocket at that time. At the end of the decade FSI and a few other companies were just starting to make E and F motors (in very tiny quantities, and they weren't sold anywhere yet) and in 1970 Estes came out with the D13, but the notion that there was or should be different segments of the hobby based on, of all things, motor impulse, just didn't exist yet. Everyone built rockets for all of the motors that were available at the time. The most popular big, powerful motor was the Estes B14. When people wanted more than 10 Newton-seconds of impulse, they clustered together three or four C motors. If there was any notion of different groups in the hobby, they had to do with contest event specialties. Contest rocketry was the really big thing then and was regarded as the cutting edge of the hobby. There was no concept of "high power rocketry" yet; that didn't develop until some 10+ years later. The hobby was unitary at the time, without the sharp divisions that developed later; everyone who was involved called it "model rocketry." There was also no connotation of it being a "kiddie" thing; model rocketry was generally regarded as being a pretty sophisticated, "grown-up," scientific and technical pursuit. I don't have to speculate or theorize about this. I was there, and I remember.I still think "model" comes from the 60's when kids were trying to emulate the us space program with the estes stuff.... thats my thought train of it anyway... people who wanted BIGGER rockets, probably downplayed them and sayd they are just "model rockets" instead of insiting fear by HIGHPOWER rockets......(to a large vast of people who were none the wiser..) and when it got tooo big for that..... they called it amature...
Look at the Loki and Viper sounding rockets..... there are "bigger" amature rockets....(impulse wise)
I'm new to paper tube rockets but enjoy watching YouTube videos of high power rockets. But I was wondering, when is a "model" rocket not considered a "model" anymore? I've seen some massive rockets launched with high tech electronics... Is it the fact that it has no payload?
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