Honest John Photo

I was asked by John Missing on RMR for some information on the old Estes BT-55 size Honest John kit. I mentioned a photo that I used to paint my Sport Scale model. The photo, at right, is a shot of the late-model Honest John in a special "test pattern" paint scheme from a test flight at White Sands. Cool, isn't it? Better than that old olive drab type stuff, eh? The photo is from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets & Missiles by Bill Gunston, published by Leisure Books, copyright Salamander Books, Ltd., 1979. The photo is credited to the U.S. Army. Click on the photo at right for a larger (3x, 149K) image.

Research and Development

One of the most interesting areas of the hobby is research and development. Here are some of the reports that I've helped create and links to other reports on the web.

• The Floating Head Piston Launcher
  The Odd Couple Team (Chuck Weiss and Jeff Vincent)
  NARAM-28, August 1986, 1st Place
  • Abstract only
  • The full report
  
  
• Empirical Evaluation Of Optimum Piston Tube Length For A Floating-Head Piston Launcher
  The Crunch Birds Team (Chuck Weiss and Jeff Vincent)
  NARAM-30, August 1988, Did not place
  • Abstract only
  • The full report
  
  
• Boosted Darts In Model Rocketry
  Spaceman Spiff Team (Chuck Weiss and Jeff Vincent)
  NARAM-31, August 1989, 2nd Place
  • Abstract only
  • The full report
  
  
• Aerodynamic Drag of B Altitude Designs of Varying Fineness Ratios
  Wallace & Gromit Go To NARAM (Chuck Weiss and Jeff Vincent)
  NARAM-40, August 1998, 1st Place
  • Abstract only
  • The full report
  
  
• Scale Bash
  Peter Alway
  June 1999
  • The report
  
  
• Super Roc Rocket Gliders
  Research and Development Project for NARAM 42 (August 2000)
  Bumbling Brothers Flying Circus, NAR Team 011
  Robert Alway and Peter Alway
  • The report
  
  
• Ryan Coleman's R&D reports
  • Optimum Shroud Line Length for 50 cm Parachutes (NARAM-41, August 1999)
  
  
• John DeMar's Rocketry R&D Reports
  What's there:
  • 32-Pad Launch Control System Employing Novel Features and Expandable Components (1997, PDF)
  • Hemispherical Iteration Tracking Method (HIT) - Improved Data Reduction for Two-Station Optical Tracking of Model Rockets (1996, PDF)
  • Model Rocket Drag Analysis Using a Computerized Wind Tunnel (1995, HTML)
  • Universal Flight Controller/Datalogger with Model Rocketry Applications (1993, PDF)
  
  
• Tim Van Milligan's/Apogee Components' R&D reports
  
  
• The Development of Lightweight Airframe Components From Drafting Vellum and Mylar Film
  Andrew D Tomasch
  NARAM-40, August 1998
  • The report
  
  

National Association of Rocketry (NAR)

• NAR Northeast Regional Contest Board
• NAR Web Site
• NAR Competition Rocketry website
• ContestRoc discussion group on Yahoo Groups
• NAR Technical Services
• ASTRE Online

Model Rocket Resources

• Rocketry Online! - THE starting point for sport rocketry on the 'net
• Usenet newsgroup - rec.models.rockets

Real Rocket Resources

• NASA Wallops Flight Facility-Sounding Rockets Program
• Dryden Flight Research Center Photo/Movie/Graphics Gallery
• NASA - JSC Digital Image Collection