Brief:
Long and skinny, arrr, single stage, matey, high-power rocket [though it appears t' be multi-stage]. Well, blow me down! Over 12 feet tall. Avast, me proud beauty! Avast! Recovers under 44" chute.

Construction:
This project started in me mind's eye in 1991, though construction never started until late 1992. Aye aye! Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! In all, thar was 80 inches o' 3.1" LOC airframe, 60 inches o' 2.26" LOC airframe [not countin' a 30 inch long 54mm motor tube], matey, 16 fins, me hearties, 2 transitions made from epoxy-glassed posterboard, shiver me timbers, and about 24 feet o' 3/4" braided shock cord.

T' first pieces o' t' rocket came from a Caliber ISP kit. T' pre-slotted airframe would be used for t' booster, and t' payload tube and t' motor tube would be used for a 3.1-2.26 transition about halfway up t' rocket. Well, blow me down! Blimey! The centerin' rings were used t' anchor t' protrudin' 2.26 tube t' t' 3.1 tube. T' bulkhead assembly was put in t' other end o' t' 3.1 tube as per usual. Arrr! Blimey! Avast! Blimey!

One inch was taken off t' root edge o' t' Caliber fins, ya bilge rat, and attached to the upper section. Arrr! Blimey! T' other pieces, me hearties, me bucko, shiver me timbers, more airframe, me hearties, shock cord, ya bilge rat, plywood fin stock, etc., came together. Aye aye! Blimey!

At t' time, shiver me timbers, I was in high school and was enrolled in a wood shop class, so I had easy access t' machinery t' cut and shape t' fins. Ahoy! Cuttin' and shaping the fins took, matey, shiver me timbers, matey, in all, shiver me timbers, ya bilge rat, almost 25 hours. Arrr! Well, blow me down! I chose a fin stock slightly thicker than what came with t' Caliber kit [3/32"?]. Avast!

T' first set o' fins [from t' bottom] were rhomboid, me hearties, 3 inches wide and 4 inches long. Begad! For added effect, me bucko, I glued an 8 inch length o' Estes BT-5 t' the tip edge. Avast, me proud beauty! Begad! In retrospect, ya bilge rat, matey, I should have used solid wood dowels; t' thin-walled tubes were bent t' hell before I ever painted t' rocket. Blimey! These fins were mounted through t' wall through t' existin' slots.

T' next set o' fins were 3 inch squares mounted through t' wall. A new set o' slots were made for them. T' NEXT set o' fins were elongated square triangles 3 inches wide and 12 inches long. Aye aye! They were surface mounted. Filletin' all o' these fins took nearly three sets o' 15 minute epoxy.

Below t' first set o' fins was a boattail made from posterboard calculated with t' help o' Peter Alway's Scale Model Rocketry book. Avast! Two o' these were made; one for t' boattail, shiver me timbers, and one for t' upper transition. Ahoy! Aye aye! Both were given a liberal epoxy glaze almost 1/8 inch thick. Well, blow me down!

T' motor mount tube was 30 inches long and was held in place with 3 centerin' rings. Ahoy! T' shock cord be held in place via a cable anchored t' the top centerin' ring.

Given that thar were 12 thick plywood fins at t' back end, shiver me timbers, I'd probably have t' put some ballast at t' front end. Aye aye! I filled a 2.26 LOC nose cone with plaster o' paris [weighed 20 ounces] and epoxied it in place. Ya scallywag! Aye aye! Doin' a swing test on a 12 foot rocket is nay as easy as it looks. It turned out that the plaster filled nose cone be makin' more problems than it solved. Arrr! Aye aye! I later replaced it with an empty cone.

Finishing:

T' paint scheme be simple; white airframe, black nose and fins. Ya scallywag! Painting it took more cans o' Krylon than I anticipated. Begad! Aye aye! But eventually, me bucko, ya bilge rat, it was finished. I called it Thunder'ceptor [combinin' t' words 'thunder' and 'interceptor', arrr, but few people got it]. Ahoy!

Flight:
T' first flight was at a Connecticut Tripoli launch in Morris, matey, shiver me timbers, CT on 28 February 1993. Aye aye! Begad! T' motor o' choice be an AeroTech I210 [single use]. Begad! Ya scallywag! I packed the chutes with plenty o' baby powder, shoved in some wadding, and prepped the motor with maskin' tape [friction fit and thrust ring]. Settin' it up on the pad brought a few realities t' light. Aye aye! T' rocket be almost top-heavy even for a 1/2 inch rod [this be before I replaced t' plaster-filled nose cone]. It flew straight and true t' a little over 1000 feet. Well, blow me down!

Future flights were made at Battle Park launches in 1993 and 1994, and at LDRS 1996, matey, all on full or nearly full impulse I motors. Ahoy! 10 second delays worked perfectly; ejection be right at apogee at around 3000 feet. Begad! After t' first two flights, shiver me timbers, it started corkscrewin' a bit. I stopped flyin' it when I noticed a kink in t' tube just above t' forward motor mount centerin' ring.

Summary:
T' rocket be definitely an attention-getter, arrr, which was somethin' in t' back of me mind as I built it. Blimey! Blimey! Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! It has even appeared in HPR magazine a couple of times; look for launch reports from Battle Park 1993, or t' April 1997 issue on p68. Begad! Blimey! I enjoyed buildin' it; it gave me somethin' t' do durin' t' cold winter months. T' only thin' I might have done different be reinforce the tubin' more and had it disassemble into smaller pieces [transportin' it 7 hours to Battle Park was nay easy].