Persistence of Rocket Dynamic Systems?

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soopirV

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Hi all- a few months (years?) ago, I stumbled on RDS as a once-in-play vendor of some seriously impressive looking HPR kits. It seems the site link I stored has gone bad (https://www.rocketdynamic.com/), and one reference I can find to the company echoes my exact interest- the NorthStar 2-stage at John Coker's page (https://jcrocket.com/northstar.shtml). Has anyone got a bead on the current status of RDS's products? Have they been purchased by anyone? Are plans available in the public domain? As I recall, they had some truly impressive models, but I don't know how technologically advanced they were. Would like to have a chance to tackle them again 20+ years after their launch to see what we can do with the tech we have today. Also, as maligned as they are here, K&S had some awesome designs that would be terrifically fun to clone...any plans available for any of those non-existent kits? Is that considered pirating?
 
No status on RDS for you but rumour was K&S sold rights to the designs.Never heard/saw anything after that. Funny you should mention them as I AM going to clone the Arctic Wolf soon as I already paid for it once. Okay -twice, but I only have one rocket to show for it. Don't get me started......
 
No status on RDS for you but rumour was K&S sold rights to the designs.Never heard/saw anything after that. Funny you should mention them as I AM going to clone the Arctic Wolf soon as I already paid for it once. Okay -twice, but I only have one rocket to show for it. Don't get me started......

Would love to see how you do it! Am not a fan of bringing up the firm again, I remember those threads well...not good times for many people.
 
Hi all- a few months (years?) ago, I stumbled on RDS as a once-in-play vendor of some seriously impressive looking HPR kits. It seems the site link I stored has gone bad (https://www.rocketdynamic.com/), and one reference I can find to the company echoes my exact interest- the NorthStar 2-stage at John Coker's page (https://jcrocket.com/northstar.shtml). Has anyone got a bead on the current status of RDS's products? Have they been purchased by anyone? Are plans available in the public domain? As I recall, they had some truly impressive models, but I don't know how technologically advanced they were. Would like to have a chance to tackle them again 20+ years after their launch to see what we can do with the tech we have today. Also, as maligned as they are here, K&S had some awesome designs that would be terrifically fun to clone...any plans available for any of those non-existent kits? Is that considered pirating?

I built a Nebulous almost 10 years ago. (see https://web.archive.org/web/20080516073749/https://rocketdynamic.com/nebulous.htm) The NorthStar 2-Stage page on the way back machine has some good information on the configuration: https://web.archive.org/web/20080516073949/https://rocketdynamic.com/north_star2.htm When I got the Nebulous the owner was going through some health issues. It was only him and his wife. Nice people, but I suspect they just gave it up.

If you compare the 2 stage north star to the single stage (https://web.archive.org/web/20080516073829/https://rocketdynamic.com/north_star.htm) you can see the booster is 4' 4" while the sustainer is 10' 6". You might contact John Coker who's on the forum here and see if he still has a Rocksim file for it. It shouldn't be too hard to recreate.

Regarding the kits, here is what I can tell you on regarding the components for my nebulous build:
  • Tubes were thick cardboard with a heavy glassine layer. I had to glass them.
  • Fins were standard aircraft plywood, good quality. Didn't come with a bevel though they were through the wall.
  • Centering rings were 1/2" ply.
  • Nosecone was a standard fiberglass ogive nose cone. Nothing special.

The components were similar to LOC precision tubing. I would use the 5.5" LOC tubing and glass it.
 
That brings back memories of when I first got into the hobby! I just checked and no RockSim file for the NorthStar 2-stage.
 
I was probably one of the last to receive delivery of an RDS kit back in the mid-2000's. I have the Orion a big 4" two-stager. My tubing does not have glassine and is meant to be fiberglassed. Couplers are the same and lose fit for, again for fiberglassing. Fins are a high quality birch ply and big--seems like all the designs used large profile fins. I purchased extra couplers and bulkheads to support full booster recovery. When I spoke to the owner he was great to work with. I believe soon after that there was some health-related issues that came up within the family and service and response began to diminish over time.
 
Here's file I have.

Always liked the looks of thier kits, never had any, though
 

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Back in 2000-2001 I built the 4" RDS Moon Rakker and the 6" Northstar. I did my level 1 and 2 certs on the Northstar. The last flight was on a K550 during the Summer of 2001. Then 9/11 happened and purchasing motors became very difficult so I ended up selling everything. Now 20+ years later I decided to get back into HRP and was sad to find that RDS was no longer in business. I really enjoyed building their kits and was looking forward to making more.
 

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