What was the first rocket you ever launched?

qquake2k said:

Ha! Funny you should mention an upscale. I just did a 3" upscale in Open Rocket a little while ago.

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That's awesome!!!

Estes Alpha... who'da-thunk(?)

My first was an Estes Honest John in 1967. Chute failed to deploy. Nose cone got rammed so hard into the fuselage that the two biggest boys in my class couldn't separate them.

Next was an Estes WAC Corporal (don't know why I kept drawing tactical missiles). It flew straight and high, landed in a cranky farmer's field half a mile away, and was recovered by his cranky dog.

It took me over 40 years to try rocketry again, with my godsons! (We recovered both rockets -- one barely, after going so high we couldn't see it for two anxious minutes!)

1980-ish, Der Big Red Max.

The first "real" one was an Estes Saturn V semi-scale (the one with the clear plastic fins.) Probably circa 1973 or 74. Prior to that, plenty of water rockets and baking soda and vinegar creations.

Model Missiles Aerobee, Roc-A-Chute. Made a booster for it later, Jetex fused.

Did they make rockets (Estes) back in the 1950s? My first was in '59 (age 7) inspired by the X-15 and a new TV Show called 'Men Into Space' . All we had was gun powder, road flares, and metal pipes and were lucky we didn't burn things down or kill ourselves...but they did work. In 1961 when Alan Shepard flew into space we tried building a liquid propellant rocket...it failed.

My first rocket was the first issue Quasar in 1973. It was a beautiful sight to behold with those chrome plated fins and nose cone.

Estes Alpha from the starter set with a yellow porta-pad and red Astron launch controller, A8-3, Greenpoint Long Island, NY. August 30, 1972. Brush painted with Testors white with a red nose cone. Didn't look very good, but it's how I started.

The original Estes Alpha with Balsa Nose Cone. Got the range kit for my 10th birthday back in 1969.

Late 80s, Estes something or other from a starter kit. Got it as a birthday gift, launched once, never did it again. Until this past Christmas, when my son received an Alpha III starter kit. I've built three so far and lost only one. I'm looking ahead to the next build.

Estes Alpha. It was also the first rocket I lost.

Estes Firehawk, around 2001-02

still have the crinkled tube and 2 of 4 fins (not sure what happened to the NC)

Estes X-Ray with a 2" grasshopper for a "Bug-A-Naught" in Texas in the summer of 1964. Both grasshopper and rocket survived the flight to fly again.

Goonstr said:

Estes X-Ray with a 2" grasshopper for a "Bug-A-Naught" in Texas in the summer of 1964. Both grasshopper and rocket survived the flight to fly again.

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How many flights did the grasshopper make?

wow, that was a long time ago. I was in the 7th grade and my Science teacher, Mrs Lee, started up a little rocket club. My 1st rocket was an Estes Mark II !

My first model rocket launched was the Estes Galaxy Gold. The launch was a great success and from that point forward it encouraged me to build and launch my other rockets. I would launch my rockets at the field behind Hyde Observatory in Holmes Park in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Xan

1967 Estes Arcas. $2.00 and it seemed like a million. Three separate days of launch attempts and on the fourth it launched and I never saw it again. I expected a nice, slow, lumbering launch like I saw NASA doing instead it got a instant gone. I built many rockets and have an original Trident sitting on a launch pad ready to go. I can't believe the cost of engines.

Completely home made. Body tube made of rolled up wallpaper. Three fins were made from cardboard cereal box. Nose cone was carved from a chunk of wood chopped from the apple tree. Parachute was my mother's handkerchief and fishing line. This was in 1963. Perfect launch and recovery.

Can't remember the specific model, but I know some of my early flying was with the old Estes Freon (R-12) "cold" motors. The first one I remember definitively was the Estes Alpha ...

chuck2200 said:

Completely home made. Body tube made of rolled up wallpaper. Three fins were made from cardboard cereal box. Nose cone was carved from a chunk of wood chopped from the apple tree. Parachute was my mother's handkerchief and fishing line. This was in 1963. Perfect launch and recovery.

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Boy, I would have loved to see that! What motor did you fly it with?

First launch was around 1980/81,it was an unpainted Blue Bird Zero.Launch was perfect ,recovery...not so much.It hung in a tree for a week before I got up the nerve to climb up there and get it.It then received some paint and flew a bunch of times before getting lost..I found its remains a few years later when developers started clearing the woods around the field.

qquake2k said:

Boy, I would have loved to see that! What motor did you fly it with?

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It was an "A". Don't remember the impulse. I wasn't ready for "High Power" (B-engines lol) yet.

chuck2200 said:

It was an "A". Don't remember the impulse. I wasn't ready for "High Power" (B-engines lol) yet.

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My first B was in a Big Bertha. What a rush!

I'm trying to remember the name of the rocket I first flew. I know it was made by Quest. My first flight was about 15 years ago.

Century Javelin. Mid 1970's.

Estes Alpha II Was during a rocketry workshop my sister took me too at her college when I was 10. I believe we all launched our rockets on a 1/2A6-2 so we could all recover them to take home with us. Very memorable experience and one that made me a Model Rocket fanatic.

Estes Wac Corporal. Probably 1965. Used a 1/2A for a perfect flight. Got major hooked on rocketry.

My first rocket and first launch was the L'il Hercules from the old century catalog. Painted it with blue(body) yellow on the fins. It was featherweight recovery, but after launch got stuck in a tree! Great memories.