Your favorite Rocket of All Time

[gladiator1332]

Just wanted to see what people's favorite rocket of all time is, just to get a general opinion and maybe some buying ideas.

My favorite rocket of all time is the Deuce's Wild!
It was a ton of fun to build, I have not yet gotten to launch it, I have to put my 12v launch controller together, but from the pictures I have seen this rocket is amazing!

 

[Stymye]

Estes bt80 V2 or the Big Bertha

 

[rbeckey]

Estes BT 80 V2 or 10 inch 29mm saucer.

 

[sandman]

My absolute all time favorite is my Astron Interceptor.

Signed and launched (Yea...he signed it first and told me "we" HAD to fly it!) by Vern Estes... he even packed the chute!

It took me a full 8 hours to put the decals on!

Definately retired now!

sandman

 

[astronboy]

This is an easy one for me. The one and only Mars Lander. I still fly my original that I built in 1978.

A close second in the old ESTES BT-55 based V2. This was the first rocket I ever cloned when returning to rocketry almost 2 yrs ago.

 

[Silverleaf]

Well, I have different all-time favorites::

Mission Series:
Saturn V, Vostok, Mercury Redstone and Little Joe series

Missile:
Terrier - Sandhawk and Sandhawk configuration and Nike Series configurations

Payload:
Delta and Ariane series, and Energia - Buran / SST

For hobby :
Sandhawk - killer flights, and IMHO the best flying model rocket ever

Saturn V - the slow majestic feel of the model on liftoff takes me back to the day of the real flight.

Nike Smoke - off the pad...Sweet !

Shuttle with Stacks - on a higher impulse D, this bird is very nice.

I've yet to order a Duece's Wild from Jim at Fliskits, simply because I'm waiting anxiously for my local store to start carrying his products - which at this writing sounds likely. 8)

 

[Steward]

That is an extremely difficult question...
My answer would be...anything with fins that flies...flies up and flies fast...

 

[rocwizard]

My favorite real rocket would be the Super Loki Dart, for the small category just cause Mach 5 has its appelaing properties to me In the large actual rocket group, definiely the Saturn 1B (one word: cluster, need I say more)

As far a my own personal rockets, the AT Arreaux is my favorite small bird (In planning is its big brother), and for then there is a tie between my 7.5" Sumo and my beefed up PML Matrix for the large category. Ahh, heck, I love 'em all

 

[jflis]

oh man, this is a killer question.... !

for my current flying fleet it would be a tossup between the A.C.M.E. Spitfire and the Tres

From my past?

Scratch: Deuce's Wild! (yea, that was a very early scratch build of mine )

Kit: Sprint and/or Drifter

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Check the archives - there was a long thread on this topic only a few months ago.

Low power - Goblin.
High power - Cloudbuster 110 (my own design). Here's the third one in 1992. Power was an O3000, liftoff weight was 74 lb.

 

[cydermaster]

This is the £1,000,000 question! (and at the current exchange rate, thats alot of $s )

Truth is, I don't have a fave of all time. My loyalty keeps changing. At this moment in time, my fave is the Fliskits Corona - long, sleek, and sexy (for want of a better word). As I type this, I'm looking at my (unflown) Fliskits Tres and Estes Renegade knowing that one of these two very cool models are very likely to claim my Corona's title.

 

[xxxREKxxx]

Black Brant II is just a classy looking rocket. You gotta love the needle nose. A friend had one back in the 80's and we flew it a lot until he got his hands on a big E. Even with streamers it was gone. I just picked one up this week. I don't know why I waited so long to replace it. It's primed and waiting for the white paint. I had a great time building the Drake, it was nice to actually do some modeling instead of gluing some fins on a tube. In terms of prototype, I'm kind of partial to Sparrow and Hawk (my father worked on both). I got lots of pictures as a kid.
Bob

 

[loojack]

I have three, first the old Estes V-2, the one with the balsa nose and tail cones. second, the Fliskits ACME Spitfire is the most amazing looking kit I've seen, can't wait to start mine! Last but not least is the Vostok, Peter Alway's simplified version...loojack

 

[jflis]

do you have any idea how wonderful it is to realize that this thread, only 12 posts deep (not counting my own posts) mentions our products 6 times!

thank you!

 

[astrowolf67]

That's a tough question!!

I've got four favorites:
Estes Fat Boy, cheap, sturdy, and easily modified for many different motor setups

Estes BT-80 V2, nuff said

Any size Black Brant II, one of the most beautiful paint schemes in my opinion

Last, the Fliskits ACME Spitfire, which my wife loves and claims as hers!

 

[marvSRG]

Tom...wasn't that O3000 your Cloudbuster 110 flew on a Vulcan Hellfire? I wanna say this because I remember that you mentioned flying a big Vulcan O Hellfire in the early 90's and posted it on ROL. Is this the one? Also, I noticed that the big Cloudbuster is the same design you use for those little 13mm ones you fly on C20's and D40's...come to think of it, I think I remember you telling me that they were called Cloudbusters. Heh. Just keeping the design in all sizes, I guess?

I'll chime in on my favorites too...there's no way I can decifer that! I'm getting the feeling that my LOC Ultimate will be my favorite when finished, but I love my first rocket, the Alpha III (the original one gone...sniff ), my AT IQSY Tomahawk is another great flier, and I LOVED my NCR Big Brute...until it crashed on a bonus delay , but I'll build a new one someday. But if I had to pick just one, I would probably say the Big Brute.

 

[Silverleaf]

Jim,

I may be wrong about this..so if I am, I'm sure the rest of the forum will slog me with a full-sized Down Right Ignorant clone - weighing in at "only" 850 pounds.

I personally believe the reason your kits are well recieved is because their well thought out and fly so well, and because your a visible owner who is a regular/mainstay at TRF.

Add to that your customer service, and your dedication to the Hobby, and well if they- meaning your products, were not good, well we'd have known about it long ago, so that all adds up to products that are well recieved.

If I had the extra money, you can be sure I'd be ordering a Duece from you post haste, some custom parts from Sandman ( especially trying to save up for a possible Little Joe clone kit of his (*drooling in advance* ), Flying Silverad for his custom centering rings/parachutes, and Ray Dunakin for his booster hardware ( for my 1/16th scale 8 foot DMF3 Delta 3 ) and trying to decide whether I want to find someone to do a vacuform Buran Shuttle for a Energia-Buran scratchbuilt project I'm considering.

You guys, along with all the great projects and people here, are the reason why I love this place so much. You all have products that make our hobby better, and more fun...and after all, that is the bottom line.

Cheers,

 

[Adam Selene]

of the stuff i've built and flown:

Edmonds Deltie Airshow! what a great rocket. fun to fly and everyone watching always loves it.

I still have a soft spot for my Aerotech Initiator, the first mid power that i built.

Still sitting in their packaging wait for me to build them:
the Flis Duces Wild and Acme Smokehouse,
PML Lunar Express, my level one project.
Edmonds CiCi 2 stage

gliders? what makes you think i like gliders?

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Originally posted by marvSRG
Tom...wasn't that O3000 your Cloudbuster 110 flew on a Vulcan Hellfire?

The O3000 was in the third one, 1992. In 1990 I flew 2 on Vulcan O1500 Hellfire motors. These motors were barely O's at 21500 N-s, the O3000 was about 23000 N-s.

Also, I noticed that the big Cloudbuster is the same design you use for those little 13mm ones you fly on C20's and D40's

I've made Cloudbusters in most diameters from 10.5 mm to 150 mm (B2 to P9000).

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Originally posted by marvSRG
I'll chime in on my favorites too...there's no way I can decifer that! I'm getting the feeling that my LOC Ultimate will be my favorite when finished.

I don't have pictures of my Ultimate since I lost it in 1989 but it flew well on motors from 3 E30's to 7 G40's. I do still have a 3" diameter version with 7 24 mm mounts and the Ultimate Max, 5.5" diameter with 7 38 mm mounts.

Here's my mom with the 3" version:

 

[Rocketjunkie]

And here's Mom with the Ultimate Max:

 

[TheRadiator]

Hmmmm, favorite rocket.... it's hard to choose just one, but if I had to, I'd say the Super Big Bertha

 

[Mike]

Out of stuff I've built I'd have to say the Flying Jenny...I only built it to use up some balsa!

 

[rabidsheeep]

oh jeese... any of my rockets... kinda attached alot towards my pheonix (if i ever flew it and lost it my friend who helped me on it would stab me)... the funniest rocket was definately a 3 staged aztec me and my friend modified... it went up perfect, speedy as hell, and then when the ejection charge went off it made a 90 degree turn to the left, shot off, then the other charge went off and the 2nd booster was still on so there was an internal fire... never did see that one again...

 

[vjp]

Hmm, I replied to this thread yesterday, but my message disappeared - shades of M.I.B.!

Anyway, my favorite has got to be the Estes Mars Lander, since it was the most challenging, unique and futuristic model rocket that I ever built as a kid.

Second place (even though I never built one as a kid) - Saturn V.


Maybe if this new Manned Space Initiative goes forward, we'll have a chance to see how realistic Estes' design for a Mars Lander was!

 

[eugenefl]

It's taken me a while to thoroughly think my response over, but I've come to a few choices - for LPR it's a toss up between my Estes DER V-3 and a newly cloned Citation Patriot. The DER V-3 flies great on C11-3s and D12s for small fields. It's been in my fleet since I was a kid. Lot's of sentimental value there. The Citation Patriot is a workhorse. It's seen about 12-15 flights now. I've modified it to use dual Thrustline 12" chutes. Looks great in flight and recovery! For MPR/HPR, I LOVE my 3" scratch Bull Pup. It looks great and flies straight and true.

 

[Fore Check]

I'm an Estes Goblin nut. Clone scale, Upscaled, Downscaled, I love 'em all.

There's a couple other object's of my obsession that I now have to be built. These were my absolute favorites growing up as a kid.

Namely, the Manta Bomber

The sister ship, the Attack Craft Orion

and the Starship Nova

 

[sandman]

Fore Check,

I had to do some digging to find this...posted it over a year ago!

https://www.rocketryforum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=5412

sandman

 

[Fore Check]

Nice!

Is it yours?

I just got one (unopened, unbuilt) off the ROL auction. Actually, I won it before Christmas but it just arrived this week since I had them hold that shipment, too.

 

[n3tjm]

Lets see... my favorites are:

Aerotech:
Initiator, Arreaux

Estes: Blue Ninja

Fliskits...
ACME, DW... those are the only ones I have built and flown so far... but I seen the Tres and the Richter Recker fly numerious times... I love those too.

LOC: American Spirit (Stretched Ultimate) and Magnum
I dream about a Bruiser EXP with J450 and 2 J500's