Salvage One Vulture

[techrat]

Howdy hive mind....
I believe I have enough bits to start working on a "Vulture" from the film/TV Series "Salvage One", which starred Andy Griffith as a junk man wanting to fly to the moon and salvage all the stuff left there by NASA... The rocket was infamous for looking like it was actually built from scrapyard bits, and as TV shows go, it had that low-tech vibe that appealed to me so it's always been something I wanted to build as a flying rocket.

I'm using a BT-80 tube as the main body, I've got some BT-55 for the engine pods, along with some balsa nosecones I can whittle down into the engine pod nosepieces. It will be 24mm motor mount and I have no idea yet how I'm going to fabricate the cement-mixer capsule-nose, but I'll figure something out. I can fabricate most of the other bits from balsa, but the landing legs may need to be light hobby-grade plywood.

Anyhow, being a TV series that was pre-internet, there aren't a whole lot of photos out there. Maybe if I scour issues of STARLOG from the late 70's I can find something good, but if anyone has some good images/plans, let me know. I did a search here on TRF, but while it is mentioned a few times and even Estes did a prototype that never went into production, there ain't much, so, if you're sitting on a mountain of reference material, now is the time to share!!

Thanks!!

 

[Art Upton]

Howdy hive mind....
I believe I have enough bits to start working on a "Vulture" from the film/TV Series "Salvage One", which starred Andy Griffith as a junk man wanting to fly to the moon and salvage all the stuff left there by NASA... The rocket was infamous for looking like it was actually built from scrapyard bits, and as TV shows go, it had that low-tech vibe that appealed to me so it's always been something I wanted to build as a flying rocket.

I'm using a BT-80 tube as the main body, I've got some BT-55 for the engine pods, along with some balsa nosecones I can whittle down into the engine pod nosepieces. It will be 24mm motor mount and I have no idea yet how I'm going to fabricate the cement-mixer capsule-nose, but I'll figure something out. I can fabricate most of the other bits from balsa, but the landing legs may need to be light hobby-grade plywood.

Anyhow, being a TV series that was pre-internet, there aren't a whole lot of photos out there. Maybe if I scour issues of STARLOG from the late 70's I can find something good, but if anyone has some good images/plans, let me know. I did a search here on TRF, but while it is mentioned a few times and even Estes did a prototype that never went into production, there ain't much, so, if you're sitting on a mountain of reference material, now is the time to share!!

Thanks!!

Plenty here : https://duckduckgo.com/?q="Vulture"+from+the+film/TV+Series+"Salvage+One",&iax=images&ia=images

 

[Art Upton]

https://www.geocities.ws/ghl3/salestes.html

 

[Art Upton]

3D model

https://www.geocities.ws/ghl3/sal3d.html

 

[Art Upton]

TV rips are on You tube as well, just need to search:

 

[tsmith1315]

I swear someone posted detailed drawings here very recently, but I can’t find them anywhere.

Maybe pulled due to copyright?

 

[Art Upton]

I swear someone posted detailed drawings here very recently, but I can’t find them anywhere.

Maybe pulled due to copyright?

They lead to a website that no longer exist; based on cheap hosting servers that went bankrurp about 15 years ago.

The Geo Site I posted above is about the only one that is still up from the old links.

It has an Estes kit, paper rocket and 3d rocket on it. With Videos on Youtube I doubt it was pulled due to aa copyright of the film or TV show.

 

[neil_w]

What do you plan to do for fins?

 

[techrat]

Thanks!! That 3D model is probably my best reference as the photos are nice and sharp as I would *like* to make my model as accurate as I can (although given my skills, there may be many compromises in my future). And of course, somehow, I need to make this a flyable model, preferably, without clear fins. I'm thinking if I can form the bell nozzels from a mesh, I can get enough drag there that they act like fins. But I need to really think that part through...

 

[tsmith1315]

I doubt it was pulled due to aa copyright of the film or TV show.

So confusing. There were a few drawings, with very good detail. Posted here recently.

 

[tsmith1315]

https://salvage-1.webs.com/thevulture.htm

 

[BABAR]

A rocket of this class deserves a display stand.

This may solve your stability problem.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/hiding-your-fins-in-plain-sight-240-calories-of-fun.47954/

 

[lakeroadster]

What do you plan to do for fins?

In honor of Andy Griffith and his long and illustrative career, allow me to introduce.

Vulture On A Ritz...

Mmmm, Mm, Goooooood Rocket... Good Rocket!

 

[johntherocketeer]

Scrap a kid's toy cement truck for the front section....Might be heavy that way though.

 

[techrat]

What do you plan to do for fins?

Here's my latest thought after looking closely at this rocket.....

It doesn't need fins.

It has 3 landing legs, which, while they themselves don't stick out that much, have 3 landing pads that, in the TV show, were represented by truck wheels and tires.
If I oversize those pads just a bit, they should introduce enough drag to make the rocket stable.

 

[lakeroadster]

Here's my latest thought after looking closely at this rocket.....

It doesn't need fins.

It has 3 landing legs, which, while they themselves don't stick out that much, have 3 landing pads that, in the TV show, were represented by truck wheels and tires.
If I oversize those pads just a bit, they should introduce enough drag to make the rocket stable.

Uhm... I'm going to say Nope ( based on my experiences with my Cygnus Probe).

At best what you get is a stable flight during thrust... then instability during the coast phase, which is the majority of the flight.

 

[Art Upton]

Here's my latest thought after looking closely at this rocket.....

It doesn't need fins.

It has 3 landing legs, which, while they themselves don't stick out that much, have 3 landing pads that, in the TV show, were represented by truck wheels and tires.
If I oversize those pads just a bit, they should introduce enough drag to make the rocket stable.

For flight make the legs really long , like a Sputnick

 

[Art Upton]

For flight make the legs really long , like a Sputnik ball rocket

 

[teepot]

I know you don't want clear fins. But I have a suggestion. There all kinds of clear plastic ornaments in lots of shapes. Perhaps a ornament that looks like a Christmas light bulb. There called fillable ornaments and come as two halves. You could paint the inside to look like flame and put the bulbs into the engine bells. The ornaments come in all kinds of sizes. You might attach some clear balls to the bottom of the legs. I have the clear balls from 29mm to 4" and have used the bulbs as nose cones. I really like the rocket.

 

[JMS58]

Howdy hive mind....
I believe I have enough bits to start working on a "Vulture" from the film/TV Series "Salvage One", which starred Andy Griffith as a junk man wanting to fly to the moon and salvage all the stuff left there by NASA... The rocket was infamous for looking like it was actually built from scrapyard bits, and as TV shows go, it had that low-tech vibe that appealed to me so it's always been something I wanted to build as a flying rocket.

I'm using a BT-80 tube as the main body, I've got some BT-55 for the engine pods, along with some balsa nosecones I can whittle down into the engine pod nosepieces. It will be 24mm motor mount and I have no idea yet how I'm going to fabricate the cement-mixer capsule-nose, but I'll figure something out. I can fabricate most of the other bits from balsa, but the landing legs may need to be light hobby-grade plywood.

Anyhow, being a TV series that was pre-internet, there aren't a whole lot of photos out there. Maybe if I scour issues of STARLOG from the late 70's I can find something good, but if anyone has some good images/plans, let me know. I did a search here on TRF, but while it is mentioned a few times and even Estes did a prototype that never went into production, there ain't much, so, if you're sitting on a mountain of reference material, now is the time to share!!

Thanks!!

The series is available free to watch on crackle.com. Your post made me do a google search and I found it there. Just finished watching the first episode. Pretty corny. I would bet that Andy Griffith wasn't too proud of it. Anyway, you should be able to get multiple views of his rocket there.

Hope that helps,
-Jeff

 

[BABAR]

Uhm... I'm going to say Nope ( based on my experiences with my Cygnus Probe).

At best what you get is a stable flight during thrust... then instability during the coast phase, which is the majority of the flight.

View attachment 582537

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

 

[techrat]

The series is available free to watch on crackle.com.

Now THAT is news.... Although, like now watching re-runs of the Six Million Dollar Man, you realise how bad TV was back then...

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Now THAT is news.... Although, like now watching re-runs of the Six Million Dollar Man, you realise how bad TV was back then...

What do you mean??? (Actually, the Death Probe did scare the bejeezus out of me.)

 

[ratchet01]

Paper model,use as templates.
https://web.archive.org/web/2014102...anaveral/launchpad/9782/PaperVulturePlans.zipModify,adapt and overcome !

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

Found this video.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Found this video.

Funny, cheesy, low budget and that scene likely took 3 days to shoot.

 

[lakeroadster]

Funny, cheesy, low budget and that scene likely took 3 days to shoot.

We are all so spoiled...

 

[JMS58]

Now THAT is news.... Although, like now watching re-runs of the Six Million Dollar Man, you realise how bad TV was back then...

That is what I thought after I watched the first episode of Salvage 1. Then I went back and watched the pilot. It wasn't bad, and I just finished watching episode 2. It was pretty good. Now I'm binge watching the series and it's all your faults!!

 

[GlenP]

I thought part of the motivation, as the premise of the show, to recover the NASA junk on the moon was because of all the gold foil on it. Fun memories.

 

[KenECoyote]

I remember watching this as a child and I was in wonderment... sometimes you can't go back and watch the same again since it can't hold up to your memory (or to modern ungrainy videos).

Regardless, I think this is an awesomely cool rocketry subject!