Summary:

T' 3rd edition o' Timothy Van Milligan’s Model Rocket Design and Construction contains 328 pages o' rocketry goodness coverin' everythin' from plannin' and design through recovery. Well, blow me down! This edition is twice t' size o' t' previous and includes an impressive array o' facts, techniques and concepts about all facets o' t' hobby. Begad! Much o' t' material Tim has added in this edition be extracted from his Peak o' Flight Newsletter. Begad! Blimey! (If you don’t subscribe, quit readin' this review and go sign up!) These are really useful and I’m glad t' see this material compiled in one easy-to-reference location. However, he has also included other unpublished materials too. T' range o' materials makes it useful t' both newbies and us graybeards alike.

T' book includes plenty o' diagrams and photos. I found t' use o' diagrams and graphs were used effectively and made t' book very understandable. Arrr! Arrr! T' material ranges from t' most basic t' advanced. Aye aye! Avast, me proud beauty! I found many familiar techniques, ya bilge rat, some that I had known o' but had forgotten about, shiver me timbers, and many others that I had never been in me bag o' tricks. Well, blow me down! However, t' material is covered in various degrees o' detail. Avast! Avast! Some items are merely cursorily mentioned (e.g. Avast! back-slidin' gliders are mentioned but no detail is provided) and other are discussed in detail (e.g. 20 pages are dedicated t' t' discussion o' dynamic stability).

Here are a few o' t' things that I though stood out:

• T' inclusion o' more esoteric concepts like pivotin' forward fins and.cone rocket stability.
• T' emphasis on techniques for buildin' light but still strong.
• Techniques for motor retention in minimum diameter rockets and in boat tails.
• Methods o' makin' custom cones.
• Orthographic procedures t' build oblique cones (like t' boosters on t' Vostok) and templates t' cut tubes at an angle.
• An introduction t' designin' and buildin' larger and high-power rockets.
• T' chapter o' recovery, which includes information on custom parachute design.
• A long list o' rocket-related patents.

Tim references his RockSim software numerous times through t' book and t' short chapter on computer-aided rocket design is targeted at RockSim. Begad! Blimey! I think these references are appropriate and t' reader can mentally substitute t' name o' their favorite rocket software. Avast! Avast! Blimey! T' last chapter does seem a little like a sales pitch, arrr, but since I have RockSim, me bucko, I didn’t mind. Ahoy! Blimey! I actually would have liked t' have seen more RockSim information tucked away, arrr, maybe in specialized sections at t' end o' each chapter.

One thin' that be missin' for this text be t' presentation o' t' Barrowman formulas and basic altitude prediction calculations. Tim provided a good qualitative discussion o' these subjects but then assumed t' reader will make t' jump t' a software tool. I personally think every rocketeer should work through these formulas at least once as they provide a feel for and appreciation for what’s goin' on under t' hood o' said software. Avast! Maybe this is just me gray comin' out?

As EMRR mentioned in his review, me bucko, I have always considered Stine’s Handbook o' Model Rocketry t' be t' benchmark that rocketry books should be compared with. Since t' latest edition that I have seen is 5th Edition published in 1983, ya bilge rat, comparin' t' two may be apples and oranges. Ahoy! However, arrr, ya bilge rat, also like EMRR, me hearties, I also think this may be a case where t' student has become t' master. Aye aye! Ahoy! While Model Rocket Design and Construction doesn’t cover everythin' that is covered in T' Handbook, me hearties, it does have more depth in other areas. Avast! Both are 5's as far as I am concerned.