I wonder about that second balsa block. Obviously, the one is needed to couple the payload to the main airframe. But the other does not look bored thru, although it's not at all clear.

My take has always been there was no aft block in the booster (versus the K-40 Midget, for example, which had one). So that leaves the charcoal-gray ring and the balsa block both forward of the booster motor.

I always assumed tape-together staging. However, this rocket dates back to the earliest days when staging was still iffy. Perhaps there was a block between the two motors. If the one balsa block is bored thru and used as a coupler, it would have been glued into the forward end of the booster. This implies the sustainer motor would have been recessed into the upper stage. This also leaves the paper ring as the sustainer engine block.

If, OTOH, the bored-thru balsa block was used as the sustainer motor block (similar to the Astron Mark which had a bored-thru balsa block), then the paper ring would have been used as an aft block on the booster leaving the motors to suffice as the coupler. And this still implies the sustainer motor is recessed.

Basically, I can't see how they use the one balsa block without it being bored. And I can't see how they used both the balsa block and the paper ring without recessing the sustainer motor.

In my mind (with benefit of time for staging to be perfected) for this rocket, I would have used the paper ring as the sustainer motor block, tape-together staging with the sustainer motor sticking out as the coupler (ala the Midget), and simply not used the other balsa block. Obviously that's not how it was done.

I'm very curious to know what's in those Apogee1 instructions

Doug

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