Favorite Rocket Designs?

[smstachwick]

I saw and posted in this thread here: Least Favorite Rocket Designs

I suppose it's only appropriate that the converse should exist too. What's a design that you'd consider to be among the best? A classic, perhaps, that's been assembled and flown countless times? An underappreciated or unknown masterpiece that never got the attention it deserves? Something with performance that's extremely difficult to match? Or maybe there's just a model in your collection that flies every time you go to the range?

For me, it's the Baby Bertha. Controversial, I know, but when you help fifty of your fellow Boy Scouts put together their own examples of this kit in just over an hour, and then sing "Bring Back My Bertha To Me" around a campfire a few short weeks later, that has a tendency to stick.

 

[K'Tesh]

While there are those who are partial to the Alpha, Me, I'm all for the Omega!!! According to Mike Dorffler (its designer), it took 15 minutes to design it... I think he was divinely inspired.

 

[dr wogz]

Bleu Bird Zero for me..
WM's Darkstar (any size) is a very close 2nd..

Fat boy.. BD Thug.. Big Daddy..

actually, there are lot of cool-to-me designs.. hard to pin it on just one..

 

[smstachwick]

Bleu Bird Zero for me..
WM's Darkstar (any size) is a very close 2nd..

Fat boy.. BD Thug.. Big Daddy..

actually, there are lot of cool-to-me designs.. hard to pin it on just one..

I never owned a Fat Boy but my Troop's resident rocket expert did. One of the very first I ever witnessed fly. Gosh that was probably like 15 years ago now.

The Big Daddy was also a perennial favorite of mine. The stock one was fine but years ago I bought a long body tube with a inner diameter that matched its outer diameter almost perfectly. I put a stuffer tube in it and made a custom motor mount to fly a G80 and that made it a real crowd pleaser.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Lots of fins:

 

[teepot]

The first design that comes to mind is the Nike Smoke.

 

[hball55]

Just about any military missile (not the Wasserfall) and any upscale Estes design.

 

[NateB]

I really like Darkstars. I have 3 so far, but still need the 3" and 4" kits as well as some that fly on 18mm and 24mm motors.

 

[PayLoad]

Favorite Kit? Estes or PMI Bull Pups

Favorite Scratch? Moonshot Heavy

 

[les]

Sci-Fi
Trident and Mars Lander

 

[Scott_650]

Mine is based as much on performance as appearance - Estes #3217 Vagabond. It’s been my most consistent and reliable rocket and it was the first build I did as a “BAR” that I felt I could confidently show off to friends and family - I know it’s a simple scheme but mine turned out really nice.

Back during my original days as a rocketeer it was the Centuri Vulcan which I still haven’t gotten around to replicating.

 

[Antares JS]

My calling card is long and skinny with minimal fins.

 

[OG1959]

The original Trident. Built one in 1974.

 

[Cape Byron]

The first design that comes to mind is the Nike Smoke.View attachment 475428

The Nike Smoke and V2 are prolly the most rockety rockets that ever rocketed.

That said, @BigMacDaddy 's C-450 is the most amazing thing I've seen in years.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/snecma-c-450-coléoptère.167448/

 

[Sooner Boomer]

While there are those who are partial to the Alpha, Me, I'm all for the Omega!!! According to Mike Dorffler (its designer), it took 15 minutes to design it... I think he was divinely inspired.

View attachment 475424

I like the Omega. With the "pop and go" staging, prep is quick. Add in an ejection baffle, and it's almost perfect!

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Bleu Bird Zero for me..
WM's Darkstar (any size) is a very close 2nd..

Fat boy.. BD Thug.. Big Daddy..

actually, there are lot of cool-to-me designs.. hard to pin it on just one..

Probably my all-time favorite is the Fat Boy. I've built them "stock", 18mm cluster, 24mm cluster, single 24mm, single 29mm, and 24mm to 18mm staged. Yeah, I've built a lot of them.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Favorite kit, Das Model, Noris Vostok. Flown many times and still has the German cardstock fins. Vacuform fun to build.

Favorite scratcher, Albatross DV. Always something new on the glide, never crashes.

 

[smstachwick]

Favorite kit, Das Model, Noris Vostok. Flown many times and still has the German cardstock fins. Vacuform fun to build.
View attachment 475466
Favorite scratcher, Albatross DV. Always something new on the glide, never crashes.
View attachment 475467View attachment 475468

Yeah….you might want to look at joining a model aviators’ club. A space-age hobby like this one doesn’t have a place for propellers. Ick.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Yeah….you might want to look at joining a model aviators’ club. A space-age hobby like this one doesn’t have a place for propellers. Ick.

You are a big bad meanie. You make me sad.

 

[smstachwick]

It’s all tongue-in-cheek, my friend.

Talk to me about that green one, second from right. Is that a Vostok K? Where’d you get it?

EDIT: Oh I found it! I’ll have to check that out if I ever get into modeling scale.

 

[K'Tesh]

Yeah….you might want to look at joining a model aviators’ club. A space-age hobby like this one doesn’t have a place for propellers. Ick.

Daddy, don't listen to him... He obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

[greylond]

Flown the most, WM Darkstar 3. Very versatile I to L flights. Pretty cool looking too. If I could have only one rocket, that would be it.

 

[alexzogh]

Nuclear sledgehammer was my L3 many years ago, and still one of my favorite designs

 

[Back_at_it]

My favorites are the space ship or plane themed rockets. My all time favorite hands down is the Estes Nasa Pegasus. I had one as a kid and when I got back into rockets a few years back it was the first rocket that I actively tracked down and found one on eBay.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/estes-nasa-pegasus-1376-gallery.21326/
Other include the Falcon Commander, Fox Fire, Argosy, Orion, etc. As for normal rockets. I have to say that the Bertha style does it for me. I'm built every variation of the Bertha style rocket I can think of with one exception which is an oversite I'm correcting in an upcoming built very shortly.

 

[BABAR]

Whatever I am scratch building at the moment.

although I am partial to this one, up until it broke a shock cord it was an incredibly consistent flier

the blue is the rebuilt, still flies straight as an arrow with zero roll.

 

[CoyoteNumber2]

+1 for missiles. The more bits and bobs on the side, the better.

 

[Funkworks]

Scale: V2
Sport: Fliskit A.C.M.E. Spitfire

 

[lakeroadster]

My favorite rocket: The next scratch build I see.

It's a moving target.

But @Daddyisabar 's R.A.T.O. Bipe Albatross is in the top 5... top 2 if it was a Hat In The Ring bird

 

[BEC]

Well, based on what I have the most flights on, it would have to be the Estes #1960 Nova Payloader (and the recent bulk-only #1716 re-release). I have had five active examples of the model and have well over 300 flights on them in aggregate. I also did one for Classic Model at NARAM-60 and managed to take third place with it. That one has only flown once, at that NARAM.

I've also done a 2.56x upscale. Here is the current active one, just after ignition of a Q-Jet C18-8W, flying from a 50-year-old Electro-Launch. That was its 21st flight. Its next one will be its 64th. I have another with 101 flights and one (my first one) with 75 flights on it.



Here's the upscale when it was new, several years ago. It had a pretty hard landing its last time out—its seventeenth flight— (fouled 'chute) and is in sick bay. I plan to have it airworthy again for Sod Blaster 3 over Labor Day weekend.



I'm also a bit of an Alpha aficionado after getting in far deeper than I though I would researching its continuous 55+ year history.

 

[JonathanOtt]

I've had a few favorites, among which are the DRM and the Goblin, but my most favorite, for unknown reasons is the (then Centuri) Hornet. It's just long enough to be sleek, but short enough to have that stocky look. The four fins with one black and three yellow just looked cool to me.

I had a Centuri "convertible" (24 & 18mm engines) in the early/mid 80's and it flew more than any other I had in the collection. I flew it mostly on C's (6-5 & 6-7) but remember having a pack of D-12-3 that I wanted to fly. First flight on the D had a premature ejection...like 20' off the pad, and it' was spectacular. I'm glad it was streamer recovery as the resulting zipper wasn't but an inch or so (IIRC). Trimmed the BT back and reloaded...same thing. Trimmed it back again and reloaded...yep, same.

I think my Hornet ended up about 4" shorter than stock. I never flew it again on a D, but many subsequent C flights went fine. I think it got crushed and trashed sometime in '84.

I have a new Hornet, but it is still unpainted and the MMT is not glued in. I want to make it a convertible for 24 & 18mm but haven't gotten around to sourcing the parts. I also want to find the right nosecone for it. The balsa nosecone is too blunt. If I remember, the Centuri hornet plastic nose (#71070) cone was pointed, not blunt like the BNC in the new kits.