Brief:
Long and skinny, shiver me timbers, single stage, arrr, high-power rocket [though it appears t' be multi-stage]. Aye aye! Over 12 feet tall. Blimey! Recovers under 44" chute.

Construction:
This project started in me mind's eye in 1991, though construction never started until late 1992. Ya scallywag! Begad! 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], ya bilge rat, me bucko, 16 fins, 2 transitions made from epoxy-glassed posterboard, matey, and about 24 feet o' 3/4" braided shock cord.

T' first pieces o' t' rocket came from a Caliber ISP kit. Ya scallywag! T' pre-slotted airframe would be used for t' booster, shiver me timbers, and t' payload tube and t' motor tube would be used for a 3.1-2.26 transition about halfway up t' rocket. 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.

One inch be taken off t' root edge o' t' Caliber fins, me bucko, and attached to the upper section. Well, blow me down! Ahoy! Blimey! T' other pieces, matey, more airframe, matey, shock cord, plywood fin stock, etc., came together. Arrr! Begad! Blimey!

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

T' first set o' fins [from t' bottom] were rhomboid, 3 inches wide and 4 inches long. Well, blow me down! For added effect, I glued an 8 inch length o' Estes BT-5 t' the tip edge. Ahoy! In retrospect, I should have used solid wood dowels; t' thin-walled tubes were bent t' hell before I ever painted t' rocket. 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. Well, blow me down! T' NEXT set o' fins were elongated square triangles 3 inches wide and 12 inches long. Well, blow me down! They were surface mounted. Filletin' all o' these fins took nearly three sets o' 15 minute epoxy.

Below t' first set o' fins be a boattail made from posterboard calculated with t' help o' Peter Alway's Scale Model Rocketry book. Avast! Begad! Two o' these were made; one for t' boattail, arrr, and one for t' upper transition. Both were given a liberal epoxy glaze almost 1/8 inch thick. Avast!

T' motor mount tube be 30 inches long and be held in place with 3 centerin' rings. Well, blow me down! Blimey! Blimey! T' shock cord be held in place via a cable anchored t' the top centerin' ring. Begad!

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

Finishing:

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

Flight:
T' first flight be at a Connecticut Tripoli launch in Morris, shiver me timbers, CT on 28 February 1993. T' motor o' choice be an AeroTech I210 [single use]. Avast! Avast, me bucko, me proud beauty! Blimey! 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]. Well, blow me down! Settin' it up on the pad brought a few realities t' light. Aye aye! Avast! Blimey! T' rocket was almost top-heavy even for a 1/2 inch rod [this was before I replaced t' plaster-filled nose cone]. Blimey! Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! It flew straight and true t' a little over 1000 feet.

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

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