A few years ago a team built and launched a scale Mercury-Redstone. It was 1/3 scale and the launch failed when the engine casing burst. It blew up real good!!!
After losing a few to parachute drift, I built a couple of small Estes rockets that used streamers for recovery - much, much better for recovery. Had one that made over 80 flights, used C engines, I think it was called a Sprint(?)
Had one from the other brand (Centauri?) that used a D-engine. Engine burned through the side just as it cleared the little launcher thing, pretty exciting failure, crazy horizontal gyrations, lots of ducking and running among our little mission control crew!
Trapper John
That pretty much describes how many of my model airplanes met their end.
I was the only kid in school with an active "Rockets" button on his dash....
I used to launch A motor Estes rockets out of the hoodscoop of my Camaro at people in White Castles parking lot from across the intersection.
Anyone else see a potential problem when the person responsible for separation thinks they have exclusive use of the airspace?
Not really. I too have participated in these rocket launches and the people that run them are very safe. They do employ spotters to watch for aircraft and when one looks close they stop the proceedings.
