NSL - Which rocket for Vern to sign?

So the word is Vern and Gleda will be at NSL and will be willing to sign 1 rocket

Now to choose which rocket to get signed......

The Scout? I have the 50th anniversary Scout that Carl at Semroc set up.
Alpha?
Big Bertha?

One of my favorite rockets is the Explorer Aquarius. It is my most flown rocket and getting a bit worn out and ready to become a shelf queen.
Because I doubt I would every fly a signed rocket again........

Also have the Mega Mosquito and Der Mega Max.


What rocket are you going to get signed???

Yes, Vern will be signing one rocket per registered flier. What to have him sign is a good question.

I suggest adding a personal element to it. The first rocket I flew was an Estes Alpha in 1971. That rocket was introduced in 1967. To commemorate, I am building an 8X upscale Alpha in the original color configuration. So I made a model Alpha that is roughly the same configuration. I figured I would fly the small Alpha on a B6-4, then have Vern sign it. Hoping Vern will get to see the big one fly.

This is the "real Alpha"


This is the upscale in build progress The undecaled real Alpha is under it.


Other thoughts... Vern's favorite design was the Big Bertha. The first rockets listed in the first catalog were the Scout, the Space Plane, and the Mark. The Scout was offered free with any purchase.

I was going to say “Big Bertha” as Vern has said more than once it’s his favorite (Gleda’s is the Space Plane).

Bill Simon designed the Alpha, though as Bill tells it, Vern had been bugging him for something like that for some time.

I’ve managed to collect Vern’s signature four times and Gleda’s twice at various events over the years - a Golden Scout (brought into a big fund-raising banquet at the Museum of Flight in the inside pocket of my rented tux), a Big Bertha (NSL 2013), another Big Bertha (NARAM-56, which had a Big Bertha “contest” judged by Vern and Gleda) and even a Make It-Take It at another event at the Museum of Flight for which I was leading some building sessions. The latter two are also signed by Gleda (they signed all the BBs they judged at NARAM-56).

And yes, they are all now shelf queens, along with the Maxi Micron and Aphelion I was lucky enough to have Carl McLawhorn sign at NSL in 2013, and a Centaur that Lee Piester signed while at another Museum of Flight event.

The second Big Bertha (the NARAM-56 one) has been flown once since. It is shown here at NARAM-56 alongside Vern's original Big Bertha (which, someday, will be in the Museum of Flight's National Sport Rocketry collection).

My other choice is the Super Big Bertha I just built.

I have been pondering this question for a while now. I'm still not sure, but I'm leaning towards a Super Big Bertha too.

I'm currently building a 4" Big Bertha, basically because Vern was going to be at NSL and NSL is at one of my local flying sites this year. So, I guess that's what I'd go with...

once it's signed, will it then live an a glass case?

I would choose a big rocket so the area to be signed is large and ask him to do a John Hancock signature (nice and big so the British will have no trouble reading it).

If I were in this position, I'd select the one I would most proudly like to display permanently.

LW Bercini said:

If I were in this position, I'd select the one I would most proudly like to display permanently.

Click to expand...

Yes. This was a particular consideration for the Big Bertha Vern signed for me at NSL 2013 - I built it specifically for this purpose and mimicked to some extent the color scheme on his original as well as using the Semroc BNC-60LV cone that is much closer to the original shape and doing the motor mount like the original (no hook, no stuffer tube, thin rings on either side of a JT-60).

The NARCON signatures were a bonus. We knew Vern and Gleda were going to judge the "contest" but we didn't know until afterward that the models emerge with both their signatures on the them.

The Make It Take It was an impulse thing - mainly to get a picture of them signing it with a poster which featured the same model was in the background.

Apologies for the poor quality of the "judging" picture (the second one)....it was shot from clear across a large room with an iPhone 5.

I'd be asking for something that I'm sure he'd like, and that I'd never fly again. Since I don't care for the Bertha, I'd be inclined to go with something like an Alpha.