Alpha-1

[SEL]

Does anyone know what was used as the 'Oxidizer' in the old Alpha-1 rocket kits?
Picked one up on ebay that came w/3 drums of 'Fuel' (baking soda ?), but I haven't been ableto find any info on the other powdered ingredient is.

Sean

[ghrocketman]

I have one of those that my Dad gave me.
He had it as a toy in his youth.
The "oxidizer" was powdered Alum which when dissolved in water is an acid that reacts with the "fuel" Baking Soda to produce the CO2 that pressurizes & launches the rocket.
I can tell you from trying it out, it flies DISMALLY low (under 75') and makes a mess on the lawn.
A decent toy store water-rocket will fly higher.

[Ltvscout]

The "oxidizer" was powdered Alum which when dissolved in water is an acid that reacts with the "fuel" Baking Soda to produce the CO2 that pressurizes & launches the rocket.
Is it Alum? I thought it was maybe a powdered citric acid.

[ghrocketman]

I think Citric Acid would work equally as well (or as bad depending on your perspective).
What was with mine was labeled "non-toxic", so I tasted it MANY years ago (20 or so) and it sure tasted like Potassium Alum (used for making pickles) to me. (Foolish, I know and would never do something like that now)
Using straight white vinegar as the "oxidizer" produced flights that were consistently higher.

[SEL]

Is it Alum? I thought it was maybe a powdered citric acid.

The 'Rocketeer's Journal' called it 'citric bicarbonate'. Newer versions use vinager and baking soda.

Sean

[Richard Hull]

The Alpha-1 was a product of Texaco Experiment Inc. based in Richmond Virginia.

I was an amateur rocketeer (zinc and sulfur / nitrate and sugar - metal missles, etc.) from 1957 until 1966 and was a member and president of the (RARA) Richmond Amateur Rocket Association. One of our mentors and advisors was Dr. Jerry Burke, a scientist at Experiment Inc. That company produced this little alpha-1 missle not so much for money but to advance a safer venue to amateur rocketry.

The company specialized in low altitude sounding rockets and designed the pressurized CO2 "cricket" to indicate low altitude wind patterns for meterologists.

I had several of these alpha rockets in slight variants. All of them used sodium carbonate and Citric acid. Later, the cheaper bi-carbonate was used.

As near as I can recall, the rocket appeared first in the 1959 time frame and had a rather short sales life, perhaps two good years. It was a great performer going up 100-200 feet or so. I am not sure if any other company bought the rights to the missle and continued its sale beyond 1961.

Today it would be classed as extremely hazardous as the missle streamlined back to earth like a lawn dart. The missle was not a featherweight, either. It had a special rubber nose point that was carefully chosen, according to Dr. Burke. I know that I was stunned when on a few occasions our missle dove straight into the paved street near my home. It would hit nose first and rebound or bounce back up in the air fully 20 feet or more! The rocket would, often, on a soft grassy lawn, embed itself up to its fins!

This is a rather rare item today, especially if the entire kit is found intact.

[stefanj]

I had one. Woolworth's carried the rocket and fuel reload packs. Circa 1966-67.

The instruction sheet showed a multi-stage version.

I could barely read at the time and never got it working by the time my toddler brother broke it.

[Richard Hull]

Thanks for the update noting a possible variant and later production.

Apparently Texaco did sell the rights. I know Dr. Burke noted that the lawn dart aspect for the missle return caused Texaco to leave the field to avoid any liability and discontinued it in the early 60's.

The successor producer may have modified it to two stage. I am unfamiliar with any upgrades. But, to answer the original question, the original "fuel" and "oxidizer" contained in the little drums was Sodium Carbonate and Citric Acid.

By the time you were playing with your upgraded alpha-1 missle in 1967-68, I was out of college and in the air force in Vietnam.

[Royatl]

The Alpha-1 was a product of Texaco Experiment Inc. based in Richmond Virginia.

I was an amateur rocketeer (zinc and sulfur / nitrate and sugar - metal missles, etc.) from 1957 until 1966 and was a member and president of the (RARA) Richmond Amateur Rocket Association. One of our mentors and advisors was Dr. Jerry Burke, a scientist at Experiment Inc. That company produced this little alpha-1 missle not so much for money but to advance a safer venue to amateur rocketry.

The company specialized in low altitude sounding rockets and designed the pressurized CO2 "cricket" to indicate low altitude wind patterns for meterologists.

I had several of these alpha rockets in slight variants. All of them used sodium carbonate and Citric acid. Later, the cheaper bi-carbonate was used.

As near as I can recall, the rocket appeared first in the 1959 time frame and had a rather short sales life, perhaps two good years. It was a great performer going up 100-200 feet or so. I am not sure if any other company bought the rights to the missle and continued its sale beyond 1961.

Today it would be classed as extremely hazardous as the missle streamlined back to earth like a lawn dart. The missle was not a featherweight, either. It had a special rubber nose point that was carefully chosen, according to Dr. Burke. I know that I was stunned when on a few occasions our missle dove straight into the paved street near my home. It would hit nose first and rebound or bounce back up in the air fully 20 feet or more! The rocket would, often, on a soft grassy lawn, embed itself up to its fins!

This is a rather rare item today, especially if the entire kit is found intact.

they come up with some regularity on EBay.

One of the more interesting scale entries at NARAM-13 in 1971 (in Aberdeen, MD) was a full size model of a Texaco Cricket. With it's tiny fins (which I assume were fold-in's on the real one, for tube launching?) it didn't fly very well.

[Richard Hull]

I don't doubt that a model rocket of the full sized crickett flew poorly.

The real cricket was tube launched. As it was an impulse launch rocket it attained maximum speed after traveling only 2 body lengths. Thus, the tiny fins were more than enough to make it fly straight as an arrow. Model rockets are not very fleet of foot off the pad and have a protracted burn time for the most part, thus the terrible flight characteristics of an exact, full sized replica of the crickett.

Not enough air over the tiny, true-to-scale, fins early in the flight.

[GregGleason]

Very interesting history. I have never heard of this rocket before until this post, so thanks SEL.

Man, do I really like the box art! It is very Rocket Retro (or is it Retro Rocket).

Greg

[RWmarlow]

I cobbled together a "semi-scale" Texaco cricket in the early Seventies...It did have oversize fins...and even on a B14-5 i remember it "coned" on the way up. I think it flew twice more thay day... but after a hard landing at the AARA home field the damage to the fiber fins (the adhesive backed card off of polaroid film) i think it went into the parts bin

RM

[Richard Hull]

The alpha-1 is loosely modeled after the V-2.

Once the chemicals were loaded in it with the liquid part in the nose of the rocket, you placed the sloted fuel chamber with the lockdown nozzle part into the inverted missle using a special supplied wrench. The rocket was then placed up-right on the lancher and the reaction began. After about 30-60 seconds you pulled the lanyard, unlocking the retainer pawl, allowing the rocket to literally impulse blast off the pad in a fine mist that was, hopefully, near neutral ph.

Note* There was a safety feature on the alpha-1. Realizing that kids and amateurs would inevitably push the boundries by stuffing in more chemicals to boost altitude and to avoid a catastrophic rupture of the missle body, they made the launch pad support pin a tiny bit smaller than the nozzle outlet and used a rubber "o" ring seal. Thus, anyone attmepting to triple load the thing and hold off launch for a couple of minutes would just see the o-ring seal fail and the fizz blow by it.

We altered one, machining a new launch pin to rather tight tolerances and used a double o-ring and got the rocket to over 300 feet. Fortunately, we never had that rocket rupture.

Some clever guy with modest skill sets could probably use this technology to make an interesting performer in these modern times that would shame the old Alpha-1 performance. No fire, either, from burning motors. Hmmm.....

The cost per launch using vinegar and baking soda could be virtually zip!

__________________________________________________

I actually saw real cricketts launched thanks to Dr. Burke who invited us to a special mutiple launch showing at the university of VA in the early 60's. That thing really moved, too! The spray radius was about 25-30 feet around the tube

[Cohetero-negro]

Does anyone know what was used as the 'Oxidizer' in the old Alpha-1 rocket kits?
Picked one up on ebay that came w/3 drums of 'Fuel' (baking soda ?), but I haven't been ableto find any info on the other powdered ingredient is.

Sean


Sean and others,

I have often wondered if the mechanism for the 2-stage version of the Alpha was the impetus for the ejection/staging mechanism for the Vashon rockets?

in principle they are the same; high pressure holding the stages together with a bladder section, and then the lower pressure in the bladded allowing the stages to separate and the second stage doing its 'conservation of momentum' venting to propel it. Just wondering.

Jonathan - Still more, tell me why?

[SEL]

Sean and others,

I have often wondered if the mechanism for the 2-stage version of the Alpha was the impetus for the ejection/staging mechanism for the Vashon rockets?

in principle they are the same; high pressure holding the stages together with a bladder section, and then the lower pressure in the bladded allowing the stages to separate and the second stage doing its 'conservation of momentum' venting to propel it. Just wondering.

Jonathan - Still more, tell me why?

Not sure how it works as I don't own one. If anyone's interested tho,
there is one up on ebay : http://cgi.ebay.com/LUNAR-1-TWO-STAGE-ROCKET-MOON-ROCKET-SCIENTIFIC-PRO-66-/260630569358?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3caecae18e (http://cgi.ebay.com/LUNAR-1-TWO-STAGE-ROCKET-MOON-ROCKET-SCIENTIFIC-PRO-66-/260630569358?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3caecae18e)

S.

[Cohetero-negro]

Not sure how it works as I don't own one. If anyone's interested tho,
there is one up on ebay : http://cgi.ebay.com/LUNAR-1-TWO-STAGE-ROCKET-MOON-ROCKET-SCIENTIFIC-PRO-66-/260630569358?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3caecae18e (http://cgi.ebay.com/LUNAR-1-TWO-STAGE-ROCKET-MOON-ROCKET-SCIENTIFIC-PRO-66-/260630569358?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3caecae18e)

S.


Yep that is the one.

I have a couple, one MIB and othe other used but complete.

The second stage is held in place by the pressure of the first stage. There is a membrane that is inside a nipple that expands and causes the friction fit of the nipple inside the nozzle of the second stage. The nipple is an extension of the first-stage tank (pressure vessel).

Once the pressure decreses in the first stage tank, the pressure slowly decreases in the nipple, the pressure of the second stage pushes the nipple/first-stage away, and now you have stagging.

This is VERY similar to the way in which the Vashon models would operate but not as fancy and with the tolerances of the Vashon kits.

Just wondering if the idea of the Vashon creators was influences by this kit? It would appear so...

Jonathan