What was your first rocket?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Please vote based off the previous thread.

  • luv2launch

  • gpoehlein

  • Peartree

  • stymye

  • foose4string

  • marcm

  • DanB

  • luv2launch

  • gpoehlein

  • Peartree

  • stymye

  • foose4string

  • marcm

  • DanB


Results are only viewable after voting.
74, I believe the first was an alpha. I was introduced to model rocketry in school and was hooked.
 
I did not have paint for my first rocket so it was naked with just the decals. I covered the fins with Elmer’s glue to seal them for sanding and covered them again (something I still do to this day with balsa wood before painting). Later on when they had invited whiteout my sister had some leftover from her typing class so I covered the fins and body tube with it. It left ugly brush marks and some light sanding smoothed it out.
For a launch pad I used the lid from an orange juice can with a 1/8” hole near the side. The rod was a 1/8’ steel welding rod I borrowed from my dads work. I would place the lid on the grass at the park and push the rod in the ground. The ignition system (if you could call it that) was some speaker wire I borrowed from my brothers’ stereo. I taped some D batteries together and after my countdown would touch the last wire to the batteries.
Life was great back then. No RCO, LCO, just me and my little brother and the future in front of us.
(I did walk to school up hill in two feet of snow. Don’t tell any one but down hill to home was great.)
 
Astron Farside X, Electro-Launch pad, 6 C.8-0 and 3 B.8-6 motors, all for under $10. I even got all 3 stages to light on the first flight although it went more downrange than up.
 
Cox Honest John starter set. Plastic rocket maybe 1970. First rocket I built was the X-ray, and Streak.
Larry
 
Originally posted by adrian
Estes Patriot Starter Set, in 1992. It's still operational, although one reason for that is that it hasn't flown as often as some of my other rockets.

My first was this same set in 1992, however, my Patriot is long gone. I missed it so I bought a starter set off of Ebay and have in on the shelve with the rest of the collection.

Scott
 
Mine was the Estes Star Trek starter set 1977.
The launch pad was just a 12 volt lantern battery
with a rod and deflector plate on top. I mowed
grass to get the money for it. My parents were
less than impressed. :(
 
hm...I honestly cannot remember...whatever it was, I think it is destroyed now:rolleyes: ...I know the Blue Ninja and the Stormcaster were one of my firsts, and I still love 'em!
 
Gawd I feel old!

Mine was a Rock-a-Chute! Circa 1957 or so...I think. It was a very long time ago!
 
Astron Sprite

I built it in 1967.

There was no sanding sealer wasted nor sandpaper harmed in the contruction of this model. ;) :p

Painted with model airplane dope. This was the first model I flew as a BAR last spring.

sprite_1.jpg
 
ALPHA!!
Though I lost it on the first flight, I still have my second one!!! Too bad I built it-would be worth mucho bucks as a kit!!
Second was an Estes Strlight kit that I also still have from the 1960's!! Third was an Estes redstone that is still in orbit!! :D
 
mine was the estes wizard. still have it minus 1 fin. i shall rebuild...
 
Mine was an Estes Arcas in 1969. I cloned it last year and posted the pictures here on TRF.
 
Estes Bandit. Flew it at a school launch and into a back yard of a guy wearing a speedo and sunbathing. Bad memory there.

Edward
 
Originally posted by edwardw
...Flew it at a school launch and into a back yard of a guy wearing a speedo and sunbathing. Bad memory there.

Edward
I bet that was a bad memory, though it sounds kind of funny.
Reed
 
estes helicat starter thing... lost it 2nd flight right to where the launch rod was pointing and before i pressed the button i said "i should move it but it wont hurt" :rolleyes: i still have the launch pad even after i had to re-glue all of the legs that snapped off about 10 times... i apoxed a 3/16 rod into it and use it pretty much just for that
 
An Estes Mosquito in 1978. I kept screwing up the paint job until I finally DIPPED it in some gray paint I found in the garage! At that point I think it earned the title of "the worlds heaviest Mosquito" it never flew, and I don't know exactly what happened to it. It did however end up with the title of "the first of hundreds".
 
Scratchbuilt egg lofter, C5-3, October 1991 (iirc)...

Tube was a paper towel roll, nosecone was the EGG :) with the parachute & shockcord sticky-taped directly to the egg. Fins were of similar proportions to Big Bertha.

I had the egg for dinner that night.
 
Quest Big Rage. I used all the wrong glues, and it reverted back to Almost Ready to Fly status 1/2 way through its first flight.

:rolleyes:
 
Pretty sure my first was the Alpha III because it came with the launch supply box, this was about late 70's, maybe 1979. I still have the whole shebang, including the range box, Porta pad, solar launch controller, original manuals (handbook of rocketry and others), and of course the rocket, which you can tell has seen better days. But it still serves me well at every launch as a wind tester, because at this point it's so beat up, I don't care if I lose it. Some other early rockets I built around that time were the Estes Icarus (lost in a forest about 10 yrs ago), Estes Javelin & super flea combo (still have the Javelin, super flea lost to a tree last yr) and the Blue Bird Zero (Core sampled last year, status unknown as I gave it to a fellow club member who wanted to try and fix it up and haven't seen it since).

Glenn
 
Originally posted by r1dermon
mine was the estes wizard. still have it minus 1 fin. i shall rebuild...

1979: I got my first rocket. The Estes Wizard.
 
Originally posted by cydermaster
Quest Big Rage. I used all the wrong glues, and it reverted back to Almost Ready to Fly status 1/2 way through its first flight.

:rolleyes:

Yep, that's called "re-kitting"... :p
 
Back
Top