Ashley designed this rocket from scratch totally by himself. He chose the materials and made most of it including the painting. I did help with the glue though. Left is the plan he made first with the Microsoft 'Paint' program.

Manufacture

1. He started off with 4 used 18mm motors and drilled them out (yes, I actually trusted him with my drill). He then stuck them end to end and sprayed them silver.
2. He then sprayed a toilet roll silver. The base of the toilet roll is a piece of corrugated cardboard. A hole was cut in the middle to allow the ejection gasses through.
3. He said that the toilet roll would not be strong enough perched on top of the motors, so the 3 fins would come right up under it for support.
4. He drew out a fin template, marked and cut the 3 fins from a packing box. He then sprayed them white. (I ran glue along the corrugated edges to seal them & make them more aerodynamic).
5. The nose cone was an Estes cone, but masking tape was added to increase the diameter slightly. This may be replaced with a home made vacuum formed one later.

Launch

Using WRASP, we calculated a B6-4 to begin with based on the weight of the rocket. This was stuck to the bottom of the 4^th empty motor. It had it's maiden flight on 13^th September 98 at the SERF's Ichenstoke launch. It's quite an unusual shape and there was much interest. The flight was perfect. Straight up about 100ft. It dropped a way back before the nose ejected off. The parachute was pulled out by the nose and opened about 30ft from the ground. It landed right at our feet. This was followed by a deserved round of applause from the onlookers and a pat on the back from Dad.