Goodbye Kitty

by Steve Kristal

Introduction: Trying to keep my young daughters interested in rocketry is a constant challenge. Fortunately, the Walmart shampoo aisle gives me plenty of inspiration.

Design: This is your basic 3FNC with a BT-50 body tube and 18mm motor mount. 12" chute on a kevlar shock cord.

Construction and Finishing: Most of the Character Shampoo bottles in the kid's shampoo section have caps that are almost a perfect fit for a BT-50. A coupler epoxied into place with a balsa plug to hold the shock cord makes for a great nosecone shoulder.

The body tubes are a wrap printed onto full-size label paper. The design was from a jpeg found on the web. Rustoleum clear-coat matte was applied after.

Fins are prints of the image desired onto full-size label paper. A front and back are printed for each fin. The front is applied a 3/16" piece of balsa and then trimmed into shape with an x-acto. The reverse is cut out and then applied to the back of the fin. Believe it or not, no glue was used, just the label paper directly onto unprepped balsa. The outside edges were colored black with a sharpie marker. Once glued to the body tube, the fins received several coats of Rustoleum clear coat.

Flight: I've flown Goodbye Kitty about 10 times now. I've had no peeling of either the body tube or the fins. No added noseweight is needed because of the relatively large "nosecone". She flies straight and true and never fails to attract plenty of attention from the little ones who love the kitty, and the adults who hate her.

I've attached the wraps for the fins and body tube for anyone interested in recreating the Kitty. The body tube wrap includes wraps for 2 rockets. The fin wrap includes both male and female kittys. Nosecones are still available at a kid's shampoo aisle near you. Have fun.

Kitty Fins Wrap (PDF)

Kitty Tube Wrap (PDF)