Doug's Rockets
Retired Fleet
Rockets taken out of the rotation - some too precious to fly, some suffering from nagging problems

Upon returning to the hobby, my first purchase was an Estes Alpha.  While she had many flights, after the second shock cord broke, I decided to retire her.
Born the same weekend as the Alpha above, this Big Bertha was retired after her last major wreck.  She's been coupled back together so many times that she's not quite straight anymore :)

I picked up this FSI Echo one at a DARS attic clean-out sale, and converted it to fly on 18mm motors.  After a near miss with destruction, I retired it.  Since FSI is long out of business, I decided she was too rare to keep flying.
Like the Echo above, when this FSI Eos spent the night hanging from a power line, I put it in the retirement fleet to be preserved.

This turd spent years in the making.  The clever idea was to stage two Zoomies off of it.  The staging went fine, but one Zoomie was lost and the other didn't zoom, so Li'l Dougie was retired after only one flight.
Retrieved from a box of kids' toys in the attic, this Alpha was from my first foray into rocketry in 1969.


This Midget was saved from the attic after I became a BAR.  It was included with my original starter set as the "free kit" circa 1969.

Like the old Alpha and Midget above, this Big Bertha was salvaged from the attic and reconstructed to fly once more.
Among the most popular of Estes rockets in the 1960's, my original Streak, Scout and Sprite were long gone when I re-entered the hobby in 1999.  So I cloned these three as a rite of passage.

This two-stager was a long time regular flier for me, and was re-constructed more than once after major wrecks.  When her shock cord mount broke, I decided to put her in the retirement fleet.

These tail-less gliders are called Zoomies, but I just don't have the touch.  Mine have always been more like crashies than zoomies.  One even caught fire and burned when it crashed.  Later, I launched the other two on a booster (see L'il Dougie above) whereupon one flew away and the other glide-crashed to the ground.



Doug's Rockets Homepage
12-23-2008