Flight of the Prometheus

 This week we're going to radically shift gears because...well, I feel like it. We'll get back to the Disney stuff soon, but I thought I'd share something from a few years back that I think is kind of neat. If you don't agree, then you can have TWICE your money back! Whatta deal!!!

As many of you know, in addition to being a collector of "stuff," I have flown model rockets for a few decades. A few years ago I took some scrap rocket bits (yes, that's the official technical term) and built a Star Trek themed model of my own design. I called it The Prometheus, mainly because it sounded cool. Here is my original model...

I printed my own very basic black and white decals. The red nose cone was given to me by a friend after the original white one flew away after the shock cord snapped on one of the flights. 

Oh, by the way, that friend, John Dyer  happened to own a model rocket kit company called Red River Rocketry. He liked the design and asked if he could make a kit out of it. I said, "Sure!" and loaned it to him. You can see his penciled measurements on the fins. When all was said and done, he produced this...

 

His wife is an artist (and art teacher) so she dressed up my simple decals a bit. He changed the engine size from 24mm (D size) to 18mm (A-C size) because of possible liability issues (less power in case the builder messes up). He also added wooden dowels to put it the joints where the wings attatch to make the easier to attatch. Everything else is pretty much the same.

So now I can claim to be a professional rocket designer. NASA, eat your heart out!

Until next time, keep searching for (or building your own) treasure!