There's a WHOLE LOT of misconceptions being presented about in these messages about finless rockets...mostly, I suspect, from folks who've never flown finless rockets. Let me clarify, if I may.

Finless rockets obey and react EXACTLY the same way as finned rockets (though in many cases not as quickly) so long as the CG is ahead of the CP. The most obvious GENERAL difference is that the CG on finless rockets must be closer to the middle of the rocket because the CP is closer to the middle.

Finless rockets are typically less affected by wind than finned models. In windy conditions finless models tend to translate more in their flight path rather than rapidly change vector as many (over) stable finned rockets may do...finned rockets generally change vector rather than translate. This is based on my experience deliberately flying quite a few finless models in windy conditions...not just speculation.

Spinning or artificial "active" systems are no more required for finless models than for finned models. Again, this I know from experience. In fact, unless you have a very "fast and smart" active system, the model still has to be stable by CG ahead of CP

It is TRUE, however, that finless rockets don't aerodynamically dampen out out oscillations as readily as finned rockets because the CP of a finless rocket doesn move much, if at all, as angle of attack changes whereas (at sub transonic speeds anyway) the corrective forces of a finned rocket become much greater more quickly as the angle of attack increases...which is also an explanation of why some (but not most) finless rockets seem to "bobble" as they slow at apogee...at slow speeds and high angles of attack the forces to keep the model on a steady course aren't (generally) as great as for finned rockets.

---John Pursley