Model Rocketry in Life Magazine (and extra: Where Are They Now?)

[Royatl]

Google now hosts Life Magazine's photo archives. Close to 20% of the entire archive is now online, so I thought I'd check and see if there was any model rocket coverage. Don't know if these ever made it into the magazine, but here they are. Gordon Mandell, Charles Duelfer, and a misidentified Willy Ley.


http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=0944a8a739ed34c9

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=71c6905b12b9b0b6

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=8ceb5c611e28c8ec

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=e31d5dc29eaad416


Charles Duelfer appears to be this guy : http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june05/duelfer_4-27.html

[kurtschachner]

Wow, nice photos. Those were the days, eh?

Perhaps you should email them and try to correct the name. I've found most everyone to be quite responsive when I've contacted them.

P.S. If you enter in "model rocket" or "model rocketry" or "rocket" you get some more hits, many of which are uber cool. Like this one:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7b4311fb57478bc7&q=model+rocketry+source:life&usg=__GcCL26_R1xJsqqPDNA9A5y9RpD8=&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmodel%2Brocketry%2Bsource:life%26hl%3Den

I don't know why but I just love the whole pipe-in-the-mouth thing going on there. It's so retro :)

[Royatl]

Wow, nice photos. Those were the days, eh?

Perhaps you should email them and try to correct the name. I've found most everyone to be quite responsive when I've contacted them.

P.S. If you enter in "model rocket" or "model rocketry" or "rocket" you get some more hits, many of which are uber cool. Like this one:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7b4311fb57478bc7&q=model+rocketry+source:life&usg=__GcCL26_R1xJsqqPDNA9A5y9RpD8=&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmodel%2Brocketry%2Bsource:life%26hl%3Den

I don't know why but I just love the whole pipe-in-the-mouth thing going on there. It's so retro :)

I only included the four photos that directly related to the model rocket hobby.

There is an interesting series of photos from a Pacific Rocket Society launch from 1951, including a few photos of an amateur rocket that impaled a car.

And there's a series of photos about the inventor of the Alpha 1 soda/vinegar rocket.

[kurtschachner]

I only included the four photos that directly related to the model rocket hobby.


Yeah, sorry I didn't mean to hijack your thread. Not that I've ever done that :rolleyes:

There's just a lot of great pictures there. You gotta love the one that says "Hostess Mrs. John Levy (C), wearing a mask as she models dress for rocket travel at the Atomic Ball."

The Atomic Ball. I love it.

[jadebox]

The photo of 11-year-old Charles Duelfer with the rocket is in the September 25, 1964 issue of Life which features an aerial view of a Saturn V over Cape Canaveral on the cover. The article is titled "Boy Rocketeer and his 'Bird'."

-- Roger