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Handbook
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Fourth Edition
Completely Revised
Latest Facts & Photos
G. Harry Stine
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Founderand past president,
National Association
of Rocketry
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BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY
Handbook of Model Rocketry
Fourth Edition
Completely Revised
Handbook
of
MODEL
w
ROCKETRY
G. Harry Stine
Founder and past president,
National Association
of Rocketry
of
FOLLETT PUBLISHING COMPANY
Chicago
To: William S. Roe
Orville H. Carlisle
and a couple of thousand
young model rocketeers
Appreciation isexpressed to the following
persons and organizationsfor permission to
reproduce photographs: L. Audin, page 204;
Al Kniele, page 125; Tom Pastrick, pages 12
and 203; O. Saffek, pages275, 277, 278, and
327; Don Sahlin, pages236and 238; Arizona
Journal, page 173; Centuri Engineering
Company, pages 17, 98, 231, 260, 270, and
281; Estes Industries, Inc., pages94, 246
(bottom), 247 (bottom), 249, and 268; National
Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration, page
258; New Canaan YMCA, page 320;
Smithsonian Institution, pages 240 and 262;
Thiokol Chemical Corporation, page 264 (top).
y/» All other photographs and drawings in this
bookweresupplied by the author.
7 Text copyright © 1976 by G. Harry Stine.
S76 Illustrations copyright © 1976 by G. Harry
. Stine. Previous editions copyright © 1965,
• q r/nLfx>ri*/ 1re9s6e7r,ve1d9.70NobypoG.rtiHoanrroyfStthiinse.boAlolkrmigahytsbe
'%tJ~'y'J'/ /i //-v//^reproduced in anyform withoutwritten
' 'permission from the publisher. Manufactured
in the United States ofAmerica.
ISBN 0-695-80615-7 Paper
ISBN 0-695-80616-5 Cloth
Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number: 75-13852
First Printing, Fourth Edition
Contents
Preface 6
Introduction to the Fourth Edition 7
1 This Is Model Rocketry 9
2 Getting Started 21
3 Tools and Techniques in the Workshop 34
4 Model Rocket Construction 54
5 Model Rocket Motors 77
6 Ignition and Launching 96
7 How High Will It Go? 123
8 Stability and Shapes 141
9 Multistaged Models 172
10 Recovery Devices 186
11 Glide Recovery 202
12 Building and Flying Large Models 229
13 Payloads 239
14 Scale Models 259
15 Altitude Determination 280
16 Model Rocket Ranges 298
17 Clubs and Contests 316
Epilogue 328
Appendixes:
Important Addresses 328
I
II Calculating Model Rocket Flight Performance
Using the Acceleration Method 329
III Model Rocket CPCalculation 330
IV Rocket Design Charts for Use with Centuri TIR-33 332
V Three-Station Elevation-Only Tracking System 340
VI Sample NAR Section Bylaws 344
Bibliography 345
Index of Tables 346
Index 347
Preface
Every author has a book or story that he has always wanted towrite.
In my case, this is it. I labor under the delusion that it might be more
important than all of the fiction I have done and of broader conse-
quence than much of my nonfiction.
I hope that it may save the hands, eyes, and lives of countless
youngsters who might never have learned about model rocketry
without it. I also hope that it may set many young people on their
course toward becoming astronauts, engineers, technicians, and
other kinds of scientists. Finally, I hope that it may serve as a
guidepost to many people, young and old, who are interested in
rockets.
Model rocketry is my hobby, to which I have given much time and
effort and from which have gained rewards far more valuable than
I
mere money. The basic motive for my involvement in model rocketry
stems from my youth, when many scientists, engineers, teachers,
and other adults freely gave me advice, guidance, help, and the
means to do things.
Once, asked oneofthese men what could doto repay him. "Dothe
I I
same for others when you grow up," he told me. In the space-age
hobby of model rocketry, have found a way to do this.
I
G. HARRY STINE New Canaan, Connecticut August 1965
Introduction to the
Fourth Edition
When this book was originally written in 1963 as the first compre-
hensive model rocketry manual, it was intended to serve as a
complete handbook for model rocketry. tried to cover every aspect
I
of the growing young hobby to keep the beginnerfrom "reinventing
—
the wheel" making the same mistakes as others had made and
learned from. also wanted to lead the modeler into the interesting
I
advanced aspects of model rocketry.
The three previous editions, published in 1965, 1967, and 1970,
respectively, have more than fulfilled these aims. The Handbookhas
had a major impact on the field. know just howeffectivethe impact
I
has been from my conversations and correspondence with thou-
sands of model rocketeers from all over the world.
—
As with any book based on any technology and model rocketry isa
—
technology in miniature the Handbook has gone thoroughly out of
date since the last edition appeared in 1970, just after men first
walked the surface of another world, the moon. This current edition
has required a complete, cover-to-cover rewrite and reillustration.
And, because model rocketry has grown, the book can no longer
cover allthe aspects of model rocketry in great detail. The best I can
do now is to present most of the basics and hope to lead you on to
things beyond the scope of the book. The technical state of the art
has advanced to the point where colleges and universities such as
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Air Force Acade-
my accept undergraduate theses on model rocketry problems, as
well as host annual technical conventions of model rocketeers.
This major revision is based on the factthat I have used the previous
editions as texts for comprehensive model rocketrytraining courses
given for eight years from 1965 to 1973 for the New Canaan
(Connecticut) YMCA Space Pioneers Section ofthe National Associ-
ation of Rocketry. This layout, format, approach, and content are
based solidly on positive, in-the-field feedback from model rocke-
teers of all ages who had fun, who learned something, and who
unknowingly contributed to this Fourth Edition in the process.
They have learned, as you and thousands of others have and will,
that model rocketry is like wrestling with a bear: It is awfully hard to
disengage yourself from it. No other hobby can claim to encompass
as many different areas of modern science and technology. And no
other aerospace hobby is as safe and as easy and inexpensive to
participate in.
Model rocketry—or space modeling, as it is known outside the
—
United States has leaped the oceans to become a medium of
communication between young people who, unlike their antitech-
nology contemporaries, got into model rocketry with starlight in
their eyes. In the process they have "accidentally" discovered what
science and technology are all about.
G. HARRY STINE Phoenix, Arizona December 1975
