What was the first rocket you ever launched?

[ewomack]

I don't really, know, but I think it was an Estes Mosquito when I was really, really young many years ago.

 

[skaffgeorge04]

My first flight was in the early 70's. On a dare I couldn't tell you what it was. Of course, in those days I was more about building than flying (hmm, not much different from today, but nowadays I at least make sure to get every build into the air).

My hat is off to those who can remember back that far.

Yes, I'm very lucky to have been blessed with an almost photographic memory, I can remember times dates and places very well.My first flight was in Feburary of 1970.I had just gotten The Centuri Payloader2 and accessories for Christmas in 1969, however my parents kept me from building it until late January, I still don't know why.I can remember being so excited about it i thought i was gonna start running in circles.When i saw that thing leap into the air i was so happy i almost couldn't stand it.That began my life long obsession with rocketry.

 

[Astronaut Cheeseball]

Great kit.I had one of them right around the same time.Flew like a frozen rope every time, beautifully straight and just high enough to make it memorable.Had a bad bunch of D12's that destroyed it and the Maxi Brute V-2 I had.That was close to forty years ago!Guess I'm one of the old dogs now.

Great story I built mine with minimal supplies and just the directions back then in a dark garage. I thought it would look exactly like the box art RTF when I opened the box lol . Each one of the series Maxi-Brutes were purchased by friends and built at the same time. We all showed up ready to launch admiring the difference in each others rockets like something out of the movie Stand By Me. Flew it a few times that day at a local park recall it didn't go very high but very straight. Sadly ended up in a tree and hung their for the remainder of it's short life until finally vanished one day without a trace.

 

[skaffgeorge04]

Loved the Maxi Brute Pershing.There's one on Ebay right now.I would snap it up in a minute if I could but I just can't afford it right now.I did have one once but on it's last flight it did a power prang right into the pavement so that was the end of that.

 

[russell_t]

Estes Astron Sky Hook, in 1969. I was 11 years young.
Red Electro-Launch pad, with a black launch controller.
That controller might make for an interesting TinkerCAD project.

 

[GlennW]

I do not have a photographic memory so I have to guess! I'm gonna say it was my Alpha III around 1979ish. The years took their toll and although I still have it, it's unflyable and so I have used it for spare parts.

 

[Gerald]

Not the exact rocket, but my first one was from Estes and designed for launching "Mice". Yup, before the Tree huggers, PETA, and other groups got onto their high horse and started their BS on everything, Estes used to sell a Mouse Rocket kit. It was in 1969 when I got into rocketry and it was in Science class. We launched mice and got to take the rockets home to play with after the experiments. My dad and me launched mice we caught in a live trap my dad made. This rocket shown is my mockup of the old "Mouse Rocket". This thing sure does surprise everyone at a club launch !

 

[John Kemker]

Back in 1972, for my eighth Christmas, I received an Estes WAC Corporal from "Santa." I put it together, then my Dad and our neighbor proceeded to paint it Gulf Oil blue and orange.

 

[AeroPack]

My first rocket launch was in 1965 with a plastic vinegar/baking soda rocket that came in a chemistry set. My first black powder rocket launch was in 1967 with an Estes Apogee 2-stage using a B14-0 for the booster and a C6-5. Not sure if the C6-7 was released yet, but it didn't matter as I only got the booster back and never found the upper stage. After that I dialed it back a bit and got an Estes WAC Corporal. It lasted a lot longer.

 

[skaffgeorge04]

The Apogee was one of the few Estes rockets I never had,if tried to fly that around here I'd never see it again.The rocket eating trees around here have a big appetite.My Centuri Nike Smoke drifted away on me using a B6-4 on a cloudless and windless day.It just sailed away into a clump of trees behind a cyclone fence at the old high school football field.Didn't even boost that high.It was only the second one I'd ever lost there after years of flying.Sure do miss that old bird.

 

[tab28682]

Centuri Javelin in 1969 in Shreveport, LA.

 

[skaffgeorge04]

Centuri Javelin in 1969 in Shreveport, LA.

That Javelin was a real spitfire for a small kit.it would go out of sight virtually every time, we barely got it back most of the time.If it flew into the clouds it was impossible to see.

 

[psmcginnis5]

Astron Sprite about 1969. Launched from a borrowed square plastic battery box launcher into an overcast sky. Never to be seen again. It was the fall with leaves on the ground and an unpainted rocket.

 

[lakeroadster]

Estes Alpha.. early 70's.. the red and white version.

 

[tsmith1315]

Astron Sprite about 1969. Launched from a borrowed square plastic battery box launcher into an overcast sky.

A Sprite!

I had older brothers and don't remember life without rockets flying in the yard beside us. The earliest, foggiest memories are a Scout (the gauze was curious), and a mosquito that was just so little it was exciting. Probably '69-'70. Not too long after came a psychedelic Big Bertha that I still associate with Steppenwolf. Fittingly, it went too high and never seemed to come down- my brothers & friends chased it a long way on their motorcycles and came back empty handed.

About the same time as the BB came my own first rocket, a Sprite. I had help building it and Sprites are still dear to me.

My father wouldn't buy a launch pad/system. So we would straighten out a coat hanger, pull the longest fuse from a pack of firecrackers, and use a rock under a fin to give it a little ground clearance. I still have the coat hanger skills.

 

[laming]

It was in 1964 or 65 while attending Central Michigan University. A friend, my future wife and I would occassionally skip Psychology Statistics class and head to a large field that is now peppered with apartments. I loved the Estes Aerobee and will be cloning it soon. Time flies but the memories remain.

 

[rocketcharlie]

I cant remember the exact year in the 60's, but model rockets were not allowed to be sold in California. My brother and I would stuff an aluminum film canister with matcheads. The top had a small hole drilled in it for a Jet X fuse that would also function as a nozzle. We would put this "motor" in a cardboard tube with fins scotch taped to it and fly it.

This is why making manufactured kits illegal was a terrible idea.

 

[don carter]

The year was 1959. I was 10 years old. It was in a schoolyard near my house. The rocket (as I recall) was either an AEROBEE or an AEROBEE-HI. The motor was an Estes. I can’t remember which one. Maybe a C-6. My dad was with me. It was during the height of the Space Race. WOW! That thing took off and flew straight! Everything worked perfectly! I kept flying that rocket and graduated to a 2 stage rocket. It too flew perfectly! I don’t remember it’s name! I love rocketry! That was 62 years ago and I STILL love rockets and flying them!!!

 

[skaffgeorge04]

It was in 1964 or 65 while attending Central Michigan University. A friend, my future wife and I would occassionally skip Psychology Statistics class and head to a large field that is now peppered with apartments. I loved the Estes Aerobee and will be cloning it soon. Time flies but the memories remain.

The Aerobee 300 was always my favorite kit.I had one back in the early 70's but on it's first flight it just disappeared and I never saw it again.Never even saw it fly, one second it was there and the next it was gone.Semroc now has one in production so I'll be getting one soon.It's been over fifty years since I started but it's gonna be a lot of fun to start over again.I may have stopped flying but it never stopped being fun, time to get back in the saddle again.

 

[BEC]

Estes Alpha III, A8-3, October of 1972. I got the old Estes Alpha III Starter Kit for my Ninth birthday.

Just like this one; same box and everything!

View attachment 456575

It's interesting that that's NOT an Alpha III in those catalog pictures.

I don't recall which was my first. It was likely either a Streak (50 cents at the time) or a Sprite (75 cents at the time). This would have been sometime in 1968. The earliest picture I have is of my first original design which was also rocket #5, and it's actually a scan of a newspaper picture showing a friend of mine and I with that model on a Tilt-A-Pad. The picture had a caption about the Shiprock Jr. High Science Club and my plans for a science fair project. It was published in late October, 1968. I was in the seventh grade.

Amazingly I still have that model and that Tilt-A-Pad, though some of my rocket stuff from back then is long gone. I can relate to John Boren at Estes telling us that naming a rocket is the hardest part. Written on that model, in India ink, is "Nameless One 1".

 

[tab28682]

That Javelin was a real spitfire for a small kit.it would go out of sight virtually every time, we barely got it back most of the time.If it flew into the clouds it was impossible to see.

I got a number of flights on mine before it finally crunched in. Rarely flew it on more than a B and an A was more common.

Model number two was a Centuri Payloader II. Another great classic kit. After a number of flights, it ended up stuck in a rocket eating free about 70 feet up. Was up there for more than a year. Finally came down. I salvaged the nose cone and payload section, but the rest was useless.

 

[Jay Rairigh]

Estes WAC Corporal about 1967. I made a MUCH better and larger parachute for it! The parachute deployed and it kept going...up and out of site. Never saw it again.

I actually ordered the 38/29mm WAC Corporal kit from ASP this week for my 2nd WC build.

 

[don carter]

You know, I realize that big rockets with “BIG” motors are fun. But I’ll be darned if I don’t think small rockets with small BP motors are just as fun at times. Is bigger really better? I don’t know. I DO bigger sure is more expensive!! LOL!!

 

[don carter]

I meant to say I DO know bigger is more expensive!!!

 

[Culprit]

The first rocket I ever launched, or ever saw launched, was the Estes Discovery Starter Set #1440 that I got for Christmas in either 1986 or 87. Here's the picture from the 1987 catalog.

 

[Fishhead]

Estes Beta as a single stage on an A10-3T on an asphalt parking lot at the local college in July of 1977. Pretty much all I thought about for the rest of the summer. 25 years later I finally flew a Beta as the two stager it was intended to be. Straight up, straight down. That day I learned I learned to scrape the nozzle of the sustainer stage to get rid of anything that might have been left from the production process. Also learned to take pics of the finished build BEFORE the first flight, as can be seen in the photo.

 

[Buzzard]

Summer of 1967. Built from a Centuri parts assortment. Been flying ever since.

Chas

 

[Hobie1dog]

Goblin in the summer of 1969

 

[Dave Pritts]

Astron Scout c. 1963 (I think) on a 1/2A motor. No paint. Interesting motor flop tumble recovery as I recall. Just could not imagine, at the time, what that big hole in the side of the body tube was for.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Mine was an Estes WAC Corporal that I painted white/red instead of yellow/black (and I'm from the Pittsburgh area?!?!). Anyway, I don't remember the year or how old I was but I turned 12 at the end on 1967 so maybe summer '67 or '68? I was sooo careful, and to be honest I think my dad gave some half decent guidance... and I had that little red Estes "box of batteries" launch pad. We had a clear, almost windless afternoon in the field between the elementary and junior high school.

In my zeal to make things perfect, "loose" was not in my vocabulary... so that beauty went straight up, turned around and headed straight back down, engine case tightly taped in, nose cone firmly in place... And funny when something is coming down from a distance like that, no matter which way you move it looks like it's coming right at you! So after a false start or too, we finally just broke and got away from the pad. The rocket impaled planet Earth about 10 feet from the pad, and I was so disappointed! One flight and done!

But the field was soft. I took it home, completely crestfallen... but Dad pointed out that it could be repaired, so with a slightly shortened body tube and a reasonable slip fit on the nose cone, it successfully flew the next time out.