Spring In Rocket City USA

It is a well known fact that spring in the high mountain valleys of Utah comes later than most other places. It is also well known that in mid to late June that a very unique kind of garden begins to bloom in a certain garage at a certain address in Midway. Alas it has been several years since the garden bloomed there but I have recently discovered a very similar garden beginning to bud in a certain garage at a certain address in Huntsville, AL. In fact it is probably fairly likely that one could find this type of garden in almost any garage at any address almost anytime of the year. Yes I am talking about the rocket garden. The typical rocket garden life cycle goes from kit/parts to assemble rocket to various stages a painting to the final finished product ready to leap free from the bonds of the earth.... ish. My current crop includes a few classic varieties that are well known along with three never before seen varieties.
Some of the classic varieties include Orbital Transport, Comanche III, SuperNova, Gemini DC, The Alien Invader and the very nearly impossible to lose Mighty Moe. The never before seen varieties include the Feather Weight, Star Fighter and an as of yet un-named rocket that we will refer to for now as Leftovers 1.

Feather Weight (pictured on Right)
Length: 5.5"
Diameter: 0.736"
Altitude: 760'
Skill Level 1 and a halfish

After I built my Estes SolarFlare kit I decided that I would like to try my hand at a ring tail design and this little guy was the result. The Idea is a motor with fins and a nose cone that will be light enough to tumble to the ground instead of having a parachute or streamer. Will it work? We will See.

Star Fighter (Front)
Length: 20.75"
Diameter 1.18"
Altitude 880'
Skill Level 3 or 4

To be honest I am not sure where I came up with this one, but I like the end result. I guess it is part jet fighter part x-wing part "ooh, this would look cool" all mashed into one rocket. The hardest part of constructing this was filling in the gap between the body tube and the cockpit. But I imagine the paint around the tube fins will be a bugger.

Leftovers 1 (pictured on left)
Length: 7.5"
Diameter 0.736
Altitude 600'
Skill Level 2

This as its temporary name implies is made from leftovers of other projects. From the time I sat down with the leftover parts to the rocket in finished ready to paint form was less than 4 man hours most of which was from 2 am to 5 am when the baby woke me up and I couldn't Sleep.