Spinning Rockets?

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I know that, by design, the Terrier-Improved Orion is spin-stabilized; I recently saw a video of one launched from Wallops, and, especially after staging, it was very visible. (Can't find the stupid video, now).

Of course, this, for me, raises a different question: it seems that, aerodynamically, you want the rocket to move as "straight" (for lack of a better word) as possible. Every event that causes the fins to "direct" the air, rather than move smoothly through it, is going to induce more drag. So, the question: why spin stabilize? I know that it's been used extensively in "real life" (Honest John is another one that comes immediately to mind), but I'm trying to understand why...

Anyone with a better understanding of the aerodynamics than I have able to explain?
 
Refernce making a rocket with a vane
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I know that, by design, the Terrier-Improved Orion is spin-stabilized; I recently saw a video of one launched from Wallops, and, especially after staging, it was very visible. (Can't find the stupid video, now).

Of course, this, for me, raises a different question: it seems that, aerodynamically, you want the rocket to move as "straight" (for lack of a better word) as possible. Every event that causes the fins to "direct" the air, rather than move smoothly through it, is going to induce more drag. So, the question: why spin stabilize? I know that it's been used extensively in "real life" (Honest John is another one that comes immediately to mind), but I'm trying to understand why...

Anyone with a better understanding of the aerodynamics than I have able to explain?
You spin stabilize for accuracy. Of course you don't go as far but at least you are on track.
 
Estes used to make a lot of older kits, like the Apogee II and Camroc Carrier, that had the booster fins canted for spin, and no cant or spin on the upper stage. Why was this design practice discontinued?

Alan

The original Camroc carrier was actually called the Delta, the "Camroc Carrier" was a later single stage design. My question to John remains.
 
(I haven't read the whole thread yet, so please forgive redundancy, repetition, restatements, and the like.)

Apogee has a kit called the Slo Mo which has canted fins and some high drag features for a slow liftoff.

I've made one with canted motors. Not the usual canting outward, but canted out of plane. I took a Sunward cluster kit for 2×18 mm in a BT60, inserted the two motor tubes in the two centering rings, then twisted on ring with respect to the other. That should spin like a sunuvabich, but I haven't launched it. No fins; hey, bullets don't need'm. It has no launch lug, as I suspect it would spin so hard it'll rip a lug right off, so it needs to be tube launched. I haven't decided on/acquired the right tube, which is the main reason I haven't launched it.
 
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