What was your first rocket?

[Stewart32]

My first was a scratch build in 8th grade shop. We even rolled our own BT's.

 

[TonyF]

Originally posted by Stewart32
My first was a scratch build in 8th grade shop. We even rolled our own BT's.

First rocket was a scratch build from a empty waxpaper roll, cardboard fins and a home rolled nose cone.. Flew it on an A8-3 if I remember correctly... Sometime in the mid 70's.

TonyF

 

[dtomko]

Estes Alpha III in the starter set, when you had to assemble the controller yourself. It had the grey plastic parts used in the Quasar, though. This was at least a year before the Citation line came out. My dad and I had no idea how high it would go and so we lost it at the high school on its first flight. I was hooked!
Drew Tomko

 

[Damage...]

Estes Code Red I think it was called - a starter set with one US Army and a US Navy rocket in it. I still have the Army rocket somewhere without the nose cone...
Brings back memories of chasing those rockets all over Dartmoor... Ah me!

 

[kelltym88]

Star Wars Proton Torpedo Starter set, about '77 or '78. I lost it a long time ago, but thanx to ebay now have another one.

 

[TonyF]

Originally posted by kelltym88
Star Wars Proton Torpedo Starter set, about '77 or '78. I lost it a long time ago, but thanx to ebay now have another one.

Now that is an intersting "launch pad"



TonyF

 

[shinbone]

Like Jacques, mine was an Arcas, somewhere around 1971.
I bought enough stuff on my order that I got three C6-5s for free!
I couldn't resist trying one, and the first flight of the Arcas was its last.
I didn't have a "real" launch system, but just a blast plate and launch rod on a painted board. Some lamp cord with two alligator clips on one end and a dry cell on the other did the trick.
Again like Jacques, I cloned it a few years back and knew enough to fly it on an A8-3. It came back this time!

 

[Phil125]

Estes Alpha starter kit back in the 80's.

 

[Kitch]

My first rocket was an Estes Superflea (with "breakapart" recovery! in elementary school. Back then we were using dope paint! Unfortunately it never flew 'cause I messed it up right before launch day :-(

When I got into it in earnest in '81, an Alpha III Starter set was the first purchase.

-Kitch

"One, Two, Five!!"

 

[Ltvscout]

Centuri Payloader II in 1969.

 

[cjl]

Estes scorpion in 1998. It has flown many times, and is in nqmc (not-quite-mint-condition)

 

[Ray Dunakin]

Here are some of my "firsts"...

First launch: My brother's Freon-powered Vashon rocket, sometime in the mid-70's.

First rockets of my own: A couple modified Estes kits. I don't recall which kits they were, except for the first one I launched, which was a stretched Mosquito on an A10. I think this was in 1980.

First camera rocket: Estes Astrocam, early 80's.

First flight using a composite motor: About 1982, in a heavily modified FSI kit, with an Astrocam payload. The motor was an F67 (I think) from Crown (formerly SSRS).

First 35mm camera rocket: Scratchbuilt with a cheapo plastic camera and a mechanical timer. Took one shot per flight, looking down past the tail of the rocket. The rocket was powered by an FSI F100 and two Estes D12-0s. Mid-80's.

First Super 8 movie camera rocket: An odd-looking scratchbuilt rocket with two 29mm motor mounts. Flew it once or twice on a pair of F100's, then shredded it on two G125's. About 1987.

First "high power" rocket: A 4" diameter scratchbuilt cluster rocket with Super 8 movie camera payload. Powered by three 29mm H motors and four Estes D12's. June 1988.

 

[kelltym88]

Originally posted by tonyf
Now that is an intersting "launch pad"



TonyF

That is the actual "launch pad " that came with the kit. All you had to do was buy the big 6 volt battery. There were a couple of starter kits like that. The Star Trek starter kit was just like it. Some of the older Centuri Starter kits used the same type of set up, except the battery was upright and the plastic standoff was a little different.

 

[Johnnie]

Estes Alpha in 1978..

My Grandmother caught two good picks, one of me setting the Alpha up for flight, and one of the rocket about 1' off of the pad...I could only find one of the pics:

Here I am down low posing with the Alpha on the pad while my brother looks on...and yes I have both of my arms.

 

[Steven]

Centuri Mercury Redstone followed by the Centuri Saturn 1b and Centuri 1/45th scale Little Joe II at the age of ten to eleven.

 

[ksaves2]

Estes V2 from the 5th grade from around '66 or 67. Kurt

 

[solid_fuel]

My first was either an Estes Vagabond or a Quest Striker AGM or the Estes E2X that came in the launch kit. Depending on how one defines first. First purchased or first finished. Or first flown.

 

[DRAGON64]

Estes Alpha in 1978..

My Grandmother caught two good picks, one of me setting the Alpha up for flight, and one of the rocket about 1' off of the pad...I could only find one of the pics:

Here I am down low posing with the Alpha on the pad while my brother looks on...and yes I have both of my arms.

Hey, that is my old TRF handle, Cool! But my first rocket remains the same, Estes Alpha.

 

[MarsFire]

In 6th grade I took a class called Industrial Technology. The correct translation of "IT." The final unit of the class before summer break was Rocketry. I wasn't going to be satisfied with just an Alpha or Wizzard. I convinced my mother to buy me 2 rockets at the local Michale's. I went home with an Estes Nimbus and a Mean Machine. I built the Mean Machine first but I flew the Nimbus first. Two of my favorite rockets to this day. Good memories, very good memories.

 

[viciouspeanut]

Estes Alpha with my dad in Cub Scouts. Still want to do a big upscale.

I temember when the the troop leader pulled out a big bertha, us kids about cropped ourselves lol!

 

[Marc_G]

Holy necro-post thread resurrection!

Anyway, the mini-brute Screamer.

 

[Mugs914]

1972, age 8, Estes Alpha III that came in the Porta-Pad starter kit. Not my first rocket kit, but the first one I flew!

 

[pondman]

Estes WAC Corporal around 1966 or so. Back in the day when engines came in those blue mailing tubes....

 

[TTG]

The Alpha !

 

[jlabrasca]

Estes WAC Corporal around 1966 or so. Back in the day when engines came in those blue mailing tubes....

Estes WAC Corproal -- about a decade after pondman.

Just saw mikyd's mention of an MRI WAC Corporal in THIS thread

Looked up the plans HERE

Its virtually identical to the Estes kit -- but for a spacer around the motor (a "motor compartment" tube) and the absence of balsa side walls to make the lug look more like the conduit that ran up the outside of actual WAC Corporal. It even has the same beveled fins (which the full-sized WAC Corporal did not have). Does anybody know who was copying who's IP?

 

[kuririn]

My first rocket order was for 3 kits from Centuri, around 1968 or so. They didn't have skill levels in the catalogs then, so I just ordered the "coolest" looking ones. Got the Li'l Herc, Honest John, and Defender. Li'l Herc was an easy build. The Honest John was a little challenging because of the spinner rocket housings that you had to shape from balsa pieces. The Defender was a three engine clustered model, definitely not for beginners but somehow I muddled through it. Ah, memories.

 

[BDB]

My first rocket was the Challenger I starter set. The huge lantern battery was the base for the launch pad. On it's maiden flight it sailed into my uncle's corn field. We found it that day, but it was subsequently lost to the rocket gods. I had at least 30 other Estes kits after it in the late '80s and early '90s.

 

[SKREAM TEAM]

Estes Bull Pup 12D in 1994. I still love that kit.

 

[Lawndart]

MPC Pioneer 1, Lunar Lectric controller and a Lunar Launch Pad all of which my dad bought me in 1970 or so.

Thanks to Dale Windsor, got a new Pioneer, and somebody on ebay had the other stuff for a song....

Al

Just bought (and built) another Pioneer. Steadily building up my MPC fleet.

 

[Lawndart]

original Estes Astron Scout-1967

Me too. Same year. Painted it with red dope.