How far can you take this hobby?

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johnclifton said:
Jeff,
Love the recount. I've been around since 2000 and remember all this. I also remember that it was always DR. Jeff Taylor, have you mellowed?
Click to expand...

My degree helped Loki Research quite a bit. I wasn't shy about whoring it out, but I'm not pretentious and it was only good business. I'm retired now and don't use the Dr.
 
Wow, that is something to behold! And I think your one of your favorite hobby rocket photos just became one of mine, that is grand. A couple of questions:

1. Did he have sponsors? No matter how you look at it, this is a serious amount of money, time, and craftsmanship invested. I like hobbies, and (since I haven't turned my "man" card in yet) I like big things that make fire noise and fly and stuff like that. But wow, that bad boy was no Estes Alpha III!
2. Speaking of Estes, all my rockets have little drinking straws glued to the side, When you get that big and fast, I'll wager that you don't want the asymmetric drag of anything if you can help it; but you need a seriously strong sled or something to guide that beauty the first few feet.
 
Blast it Tom! said:
Wow, that is something to behold! And I think your one of your favorite hobby rocket photos just became one of mine, that is grand. A couple of questions:

1. Did he have sponsors? No matter how you look at it, this is a serious amount of money, time, and craftsmanship invested. I like hobbies, and (since I haven't turned my "man" card in yet) I like big things that make fire noise and fly and stuff like that. But wow, that bad boy was no Estes Alpha III!
2. Speaking of Estes, all my rockets have little drinking straws glued to the side, When you get that big and fast, I'll wager that you don't want the asymmetric drag of anything if you can help it; but you need a seriously strong sled or something to guide that beauty the first few feet.
Click to expand...

Cash sponsors for that type of project are extremely rare. As far as I know, the only sponsors of the Black Brant 2 project were companies like Loki Research that donated their products or sold them at reduced cost.

Straw type launch lugs work fine for small models, but they are draggy and not well suited for bigger flights. Larger models often use a launch rail instead of a rod for increased rigidity. The rail guides that are attached to the rocket are smaller and more aerodynamic than a tube and this is what the Black Brant 2 project used.
 
And here I am just learning about rail buttons, which I definitely would have used had I known before starting my 1st builds in forever last January... the rigid rail would have been much better than a 1/8" rod for my Venus Probe, in particular...
 
This is absolutely incredible. As a TRA member who's been working on research motors this is very impressive and a wonderful read.
 
About 5/8 of a mile across the Mississippi River. Cineroc via F67, 1974.
 
What Jeff has failed to mention so far is his stint as Prefect for Tripoli NC. After years of running the Whitakers launches I came to the conclusion that I could no longer commit to being present every month at launches. We had a quick election and Jeff stepped up to take the load from my shoulders. I have no idea of the time frame when this happened but will be forever grateful to Jeff. Thanks again for stepping up and I'm loving the history lessons.
 

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