Thanks for all the responses so far. Keep em coming.

I need to build me one of those Dirty Birds one day. I looked at some online a while back and I was intrigued.

David

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As I recall, the BT-1 is roughly the equivalent to a BT-40. Semroc produces a BT-40 (spiral bound, though) and cones.

So, if you can get a fin unit, you can make a look-alike.

Someday I'll get brave and order fin units, tubes and cones from Firefox. If and when that happens I will let folks know.

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NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

The first ones were fireworks parts that have been around in one way or another since the mid-50's. A spin-fin unit was popular, and another unit with swept back delta fins is still (with some slight changes) in use today in fireworks rockets. These were even sold by Estes in their early catalogs (Vern's parents were in the fireworks distributing business) http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...61/261est6.html

In 1969 (?) MPC started marketing model rocket kits that made great use of plastic parts, including fin units. Estes introduced the Alpha III in 1971, followed quickly by a number of kits that used either integral fin units or built-up plastic fin cans.

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Roy
nar12605

Ah, thanks, Roy. I was going to go to ninfinger and figure out when the red/white Alpha III originally came out. In my mind that's the first use of a made-for-model-rocketry "plastic fin can".

Of course from a nose cone perspective plastic goes back almost to the beginning of model rocketry with the plastic pencil sharpener-based nose cone on the Rock-A-Chute Mark II.

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Like I said, MPC produced plastic fin units a couple of years before Estes did. I purchased an MPC Pioneer at a Augusta, GA K-Mart in March 1970 during the solar eclipse. I think that used the only MPC fin unit that Quest did not bring back in 1992 ( you can see the ones that they did bring back at http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/92qst18.html ).

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Roy
nar12605

That's what I get for skimming....sorry.

I don't have any "back in the day" experience with MPC. I was in the NW corner of New Mexico and got my stuff by mail order direct from Estes (and maybe one order from Centuri). Nothing sourced in local stores (the nearest of which that might have something were 30 miles away).

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

This is a Dirty Bird I built awhile back, I used balsa for the fins and a "thrown together n/c". The original would have used the MMI n/c. Goes straight up.

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I ordered some body tubes and nosecones from Firefox in the .750 range. They couldn't ship the BTs, but the n/c are the fireworks type, slip over the outer dia. Almost the early Estes PNC40F.

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I found one of those swept back fin cans after a fireworks show when I was a kid. I eventually figured out that it was the same thing as what I saw in the Handbook of Model Rocketry - the Dirty Bird III plans. It was supposedly GHS's favorite rocket. I never liked the look of that design, and I never built one. I probably still have that fin can stashed away in the old rocket boxes.

Neat! I've been puzzling over those cones.

Why couldn't they ship the body tubes?

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NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM