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Image Source: VIDEO by Roy Dawson Realtor - YouTube |
If
you think that your Estes Almost Ready to Fly model rocket is pretty cool, then
take a look at the largest amateur model rocket ever launched and recovered!
On Saturday
25th April 2009, Steve Eves smashed two world records in one go with
the launch of his 1/10th scale model of the Saturn V rocket that he
had built in his garage. The 36ft tall rocket was both the largest and the
heaviest model rocket to have ever been launched and successfully recovered.
The single
stage monster model rocket was powered by nine model rocket engines. It had eight,
13,000 Newton-second N-Class motors, and a 77,000 Newton-second P-Class motor.
That was enough to send the 1,648 pound Saturn V model rocket soaring to an
altitude of 4,440 feet.
Steve Eves
said that it was never his intention to break any records, he was just working
away on his rocket when, one day, he realised that he was attempting something that
no one else had attempted before.
What made
the launch of the Saturn V model rocket doubly impressive, as if the sheer
scale wasn’t enough, was that the launch went without a hitch. Large model
rockets are notoriously difficult to launch and recover, because there so many
potential points of failure. Even NASA expects problems with 1 in 10 of their rocket
launches and Steve Eves had only the one chance of a successful launch.
Steve’s Saturn
V model rocket project began when he started to think back the days when, as a child,
he watched the Apollo launches on TV (Yes, some of us are old enough to remember
that!}. He then got hold of some schematics for the Saturn V rocket from the
internet and old NASA drawings. Steve, who by day is an auto-body repair
specialist, built a skeleton and body from plywood and then coated it with fiberglass. Even just coating the body with fiberglass took him six hours.
The total
cost of the project came in at around $25,000 and that included the $13,000
cost of the rocket engines. Slightly
more, then, than you will have to pay for a model rocket from the Model Rocket
Store!
Those $13,000
engines only burned for 10 seconds, but as you will see from the following video, it was
an extremely impressive ten seconds of model rocketry magic.
The recovery
of the rocket was so successful that it could be launched again, but Steve Eves
said that he didn’t want to risk it twice. Instead, the largest model rocket
ever launched has been retired from service and is now on permanent display at
the Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama.
Of course,
we can’t offer you a model rocket of this size at the Model Rocket store,
because Amazon doesn’t have a truck big enough to deliver it! However, you
really should check out the amazing Estes Saturn V model rocket below. It’s a Level
4 Skill level model rocket that stands at 43.25 inches tall and it will reach
an altitude of 350 feet. It’s a real collector’s piece!
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