The Phantom returns!
 

I was browsing the newly released 2019 Estes catalog and there’s a whole page (92) with the newly re-released Phantom (1207).

My wonderful wife tracked down a mint in package Phantom (then many years OOP) for Christmas in 2011 or 12.

I don’t recall if it has the cutaway engine. I haven’t built it. In fact, I’m not sure where it is right now.

Cheers,
Jon

Your older one will have a cutaway engine of sorts....a vacuformed part and half of an engine casing (some assembly required).

I’m really looking forward to the new release in part to see how the new cutaway engine is done (hopefully better). I’m also more than a little curious of that nose cone in the picture - it looks to be a different shape than the prior one (which is just an Alpha III/IV/VΙ nose cone molded in clear plastic).

I’d love to know when they will be available even though I have three of the older ones - two built up and one in the bag. The built ones both had one fin broken off some time before I got them (as kits), but CA at least gets ‘em back on easily enough. I also replaced the supplied 4-inch lengths of PST-50 with 5.5-inch ones so that they're the same size as an Alpha III instead of being so stubby. Nice to see the new 1207 has also adopted that approach, it appears.

And painting. At least there's no sanding! :D



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I'm going to have to buy one to FLY to ruin the tubing with the ejection charge.
Made an ugly orange mess in the tube of the one I launched in 8th grade with a B14-5.

I have the original "earlier" Phantom model; always take it with me when doing demonstrations and/or assisting in Scout launches. Draws a lot of attention; everyone (especially the adults) want to get pictures of it.

That's not the earliest Phantom, but definitely the style I launched.

Guess you could coat the inside with mineral oil to protect it from the ejection charge.
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Sorry, there is NO painting at all on this model. Even the cutaway motor is ready for display.



John Boren

I was speaking of the older version of the OP's referred to in BEC's post, but it's good to know that the cutaway on the new release is ready to go. :cool:

That is certainly nothing to apologize for!

tbzep was calling me out for my "some assembly required" comment about the vacuformed shell for the cutaway motor in the past 1207s in that I didn't mention the painting as well.

For both of the 1207s I've built (including the one I took to NARAM last year and showed to Ellis Langford at the Reunion) the painting of that cutaway motor was not my favorite part :rolleyes:

I'm definitely launching mine.

I am pretty excited to get another one. I paid way too much for the last one I bought and was a bit worried about messing it up putting it together.

*Stretches, flexes cloven hooves, combs grayish-white beard against nearby bush, taps horn against it to discharge magical flux* It's an earlier Astron Phantom, but not the earliest; ^here^ http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...63/63est10.html is the earliest (1963 Estes catalog) listing of the earliest version of the Astron Phantom (which last appeared in the Fall 1971 catalog: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...2/712est50.html ). The "Alpha III-like Phantom" made its debut in the 1972 catalog: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/no...a/72est060.html . (Interestingly, it looked longer than the later "Alpha III-like Phantom" kits [it was 12.6" long], and the Alpha III kit--as listed in the same 1972 catalog [see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/no...a/72est012.html ]--was 12.25" long, actually 0.35" *shorter* than the Phantom. That was apparently the 'standard' later Phantom's length, though, as a 'randomly-selected' citation, in the 1987 catalog, also listed its length as 12.6" [see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...87/87est60.html ].)

The clear plastic nose cone would also be great for housing a bright light source (especially using one or more halogen bulbs or LEDs) for night flying.

At the risk of possibly involving you in another "intellectually-addictive, Sisyphean task" :-) , I wonder if this second, "Alpha III-like," BT-50 size Phantom (the original Astron Phantom used the 0.736" diameter [BT-20 size] clear plastic payload tubing) used the same fin unit (or fin planform) as the Alpha III, or a different one. BUT:

(NOTE: As Miss Emily Latella [spelling?], Gilda Radner's character on "Saturday Night Live," was famous for saying [after giving disjointed editorial comments], "Never mind." :-) The 1974 Estes Custom Parts Catalog lists the Quasar, Alpha III, and Phantom plastic fin units *here* http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/cu...tnose.html#fins , and the Alpha III and Phantom ones have identical dimensions. [The listings also indicate how much of the trailing tip--a triangular-cut piece--should be cut off to recreate a Quasar fin unit from an Alpha III one, if desired; a 0.313" triangular piece should be cut from each fin's trailing tip to make a Quasar one.])

All three examples of the 1207 Phantom I have in my possession use parts which are dimensionally identical to the Alpha III fin can and nose cone.

A goodly chunk - I don't know right now the specifics - of the 1207 Phantom's run had a 4 inch piece of PST-50 for the body tube. This again includes all three examples I have. However the catalog height dimension was never changed when the kits did. You're suggesting that perhaps the initial 1207s had a 6-inch-long piece of PST-50 which would make that model the same size as the current Alpha VI and the nameless Alpha III sibling in the 5302 Rocket Science Starter Set.

For the two 1207s I've built, as I've mentioned before, I substituted a 5.5-inch-long section of PST-50 so that they're the same size as an Alpha III/IV.

Ah--so some of the 1207 Phantom kits *were* shorter (some of the ones in catalog pictures did look noticeably shorter).

This one has a 5/94 date on the face card. Both the face image and the actual included body tube show the short - 4 inch - body.

The face card text says the overall length is 10.6 inches - but as I mentioned before, I think the catalog pages were never changed from the original 12.6 inches as listed in the 1972 catalog.

I believe the two I have assembled also had this version of the face card.

Thank you for posting the visual confirmations of that! I'm not surprised (but not critical of them, either, since they had--and have--so many data points to keep track of. I imagine the shorter, 10.6" long Phantoms were "SPAVs" ('Standard Parts *Awaiting* Vehicles' :-) [instead of SPEVs, "Spare Parts Elimination Vehicles"]). I actually like the aesthetics of the shorter one better than those of the 12.6" one. I suppose it might even--if one wanted to fly one--be stable without ballast in the nose cone, especially if it used 1/2A or A motors, of 13 mm mini motors in a split plastic 13 mm/18 mm adapter. Also:

William Shatner, between about the 7:56 and 8:36 points *here* (in "Model Rocketry: The Last Frontier," see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIXdx_uUhqA [and here are other links to the film: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_uj71DyTL0 and <in two parts, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqupfFjSJXw & www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISZKIf_2Plw >]), showed and described two Phantom-like rockets. The first one looked like the original BT-20 size one (he and the kids static fired a motor in it), and the other one looked like the current type, except that it appeared to have balsa Alpha fins glued (epoxied or CA'ed, maybe?) onto its BT-50 size clear plastic body tube, and:

Especially on grass, the 10.6" Phantom might make a good low-powered break-apart recovery model. It could use a sufficiently-long, half-width streamer (like the Estes Star Trooper's Day-Glo orange one), and a metallized Mylar version would flash in the Sunlight.

I have built a "phantom Alpha" in which I used a fairly recent bulk Alpha kit but substituted PST-50 for the body tube and PST-20 for the motor tube. The fins are the balsa ones, attached with Pacer Formula 560. I bring that one out specifically to Alpha build sessions and the flying sessions right afterward.

Except for its length (yours is less tall than the one in the film), that sounds just like the one that they built for the film. You could even--if you ever built another one--show how glue "rivets" or TTW fin tabs work, because they could be seen through the PST-50 body tube.

Just to come back to this now that the new 2019 version of the 1207 is out. I put one together last night. The body tube is 5.5 inches long, so it builds into a model that's dimensionally identical to an Alpha III (and is built essentially identically as one as well from a parts and build sequence standpoint).