Your first rocket kit.

[Micromeister]

Originally posted by paulk
Don't know why, but I like that one too. There was one on display at Narcon, cool.

-Paul

Me to!
I'm downscaleing it to micro-maxx motor, T-3 body with T2+ gliders

 

[NUBlackshirts]

Estes Mosquito circa 1980.

 

[pricey]

Quest model kit

 

[the unknowen]

ESTES Airwalker

 

[wickball]

Estes X-Ray, around 1966.
wick

 

[racerx]

Mini Mean Machine, if I recall...

 

[RimfireJim]

I think it was an Estes Arcas, circa 1972. Picture I found on the web looks about right from my memory. It was a great flier - wish I still had it. Not sure what happened to it, as it's not at my parents' house anymore.

Second rocket was an Estes 2 stage, but not the Beta, but bigger. Also circa 1972-73. Anyone have an idea which model this might have been?

Third and final rocket as a youth was an Estes Mercury Redstone, the one with the wooden dowel tower. Kit K-41. I remember really enjoying building and flying that one. Don't have it anymore, either. I think I might have donated it to my local hobby shop for display.

-Jim

 

[Red Baron]

Der Red Max - 1985

 

[Daedalus]

Mine was an Estes Cold Power starter kit bought from Hamleys toy shop in London, I'm guessing about 1975.

I can clearly remember the stock orange and white colour scheme. I'm not sure what the model was as it doesn't look like any of the cold power kits I have seen on the web but it may have been an Alpha. It was a full balsa fins and nose cone kit and came with motor, propellant wooden launch pad and cable release operated launcher and an adapter kit to allow use of solid motors if they ever became legal in the UK

About 25 years later I got back into rocketry with a Quest IQSY Tomahawk.

 

[bigone5500]

Guys these sound like some great kits...I wish I could have seen some of these . Keep 'em comin'!

 

[Sailorbill]

First kit Astron Scout in the early 60's and I still have it. I also still have my Gemini Titan and parts of my Camroc. I built a few rocket gliders that never flew. Built some Centauri stuff including the Black Widow two stage rocket.
I have included a picture of my two surviving rockets.

 

[BobH48]

Originally posted by bigone5500
Guys these sound like some great kits...I wish I could have seen some of these . Keep 'em comin'!

Here's the picture of my Astron Sprite. I've been told it's pretty ugly but I just wanted a rocket and didn't bother with all that filler and sandpaper stuff. Brush painted with Aerogloss dope.

 

[sylvie369]

Estes Alpha III, from a starter set, in 1972. I painted it purple. It probably flew only once or twice. I remember that one fin stuck in the ground and then snapped off on the first flight. I glued it back on.

After that I had an X-Ray, a Drifter, a V-2 (the old BT-55 version), an Arcon, an Orbital Transport (still my favorite), and maybe one or two more. All destroyed in a catastrophic housecleaning while I was at college.

 

[OverLord]

Estes Alpha in 1976. I was 9 years old at the time...Just bought my 9 year old son one last weekend..


Mike

 

[mikeyd]

MRI Wac Corporal, about 1967, I was 9. I used testors wood glue, and brush enamel paint, had a heck of a time keeping fins on it, but still have it in original paint, cracked and all.

 

[JSvolfan]

My first rocket came in a little starter set from Estes. It was a x-15 that flew on a-10 motors, came out in about 1976-77. I was 9 years old at the time. I have not seen one of those sets since. I think it is a rare find. The first time I flew it I was hooked.

 

[OverLord]

is it me or did most of us get/fly our first rockets at age nine?

 

[Nate]

Originally posted by outasight13
Estes Twister, part of one of the many Super shot "boxed walmart" sets Estes has had over the years. It is the smaller rocket in this picture.
Good times.....

that set you posted there is the EXACT starter set I got. Both those rockets, and the launch set up when I was about....4ish. I lost one of them on the second flight, and the first one I lost about 6 flights later.

 

[Stewart32]

My first rocket was one "manufactured" in 8th grade shop.

As I recall, the nose cone was made of cork and hand shaped. The body tube was frabricated by rolling several ply's on dowels.
The fins were heavy card stock. The clip was cut and bent in house as well.


Every part with the exception of the motor was fabricated in the shop. The motors were Estes B6-4.

Before starting on the manufacturing process, the shop teacher started with the static demonstrator model (the Phantom?).

I was hooked the minute I saw the demonstrator model and especially so once the smoke cleared.

I wonder if any public school systems will allow rocket motors to to be on the premises, what with 911 and other madness now a days?

 

[Goddard]

It was so long ago... yet seems like just yesterday...

you know... some of my better ideas never got off the ground.

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by Stewart32

I wonder if any public school systems will allow rocket motors to to be on the premises, what with 911 and other madness now a days?

I have yet to have a school refuse model rocketry in the classroom. Sometimes you have to have a discussion with the administration, but they always seem to go well.

 

[fyrechaser]

Astron Alpha......1968 or maybe 69. Wish I still had it!

 

[frankenhead]

Alpha III starter kit . Flew alot until I used a C in it and floated away.

First real build was the Estes Blue Bird Zero. Dammm , I loved that rocket. Thought about building an upscale version of it.

 

[DJDeadParrot]

Estes Ninja built at a summer camp in Massachusetts in 1989.