Jimmy Good Toad's Rocketry Designs page

I began designing rockets at the ripe old age of 10. My very first design was a large semi-scale (can't remember the exact rocket, but it was an atlas), that used the parts from a damage 1/100 scale Saturn V for parts. I continued to design and build in this manner (called "kit-bashing" by its fans) until I started to get into designs that called for parts from many kits and I realized that it would be easier and cheaper to buy just the parts that I needed.
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As time went on, my designs got more and more elaborate. Fortunately, my skills grew as well. At some point, late in my rocketry career, I noticed something that bothered me. Rockets that had been in the Estes catalog for YEARS had begun to vanish from those exciting glossy pages. The FarSide, Mars Lander, Trident, AstroCam, Starlight, Sprint, Sprite, Cobra, the list goes on and on. In came the shiny and new, and not always better! Some of those old designs STILL have it over the best of the new! (hey, nostalgia can be a horrible thing sometimes!)

Remember the Birdie? The Spaceman? Aaahhh, those were the days! A 4 engine cluster Saturn 1B... ...WOW! I happened onto a set of instructions for an Astron X-Ray and decided to scratch build it. It was great! So I sought out more such plans from the collections of my rocketry buddies (mostly from Arnie Paye). This kept me going for a while when I decided to build an Alpha, but I didn't have a BT50 (.950" DIA) for the body tube. All I had was a BT70 (2.217" DIA). So I said, "what the heck!" and I built a scaled up version of the Alpha. Man, did THAT look sharp! I quickly grabbed my older catalogs and looked up all those old favorites. That's when I began creating detailed designs of scaled up and scaled down versions of these most popular models.

I also continued to design creations of my own and I will be discussing them in these pages. For now, I only have a couple of designs converted for display on the web (They're PDF files, so you will need Acrobat Reader to view them). More designs and discussion will follow from time to time.

Note, the PDF files may not have converted to exacting scale. Should you decide to build these designs, be sure to verify the scale of the drawing by checking the notes assigned to each design listed below.

Name	Size	Comments
Micro Dot �1990, Flis	27KB	Smallest conventional rocket ever designed. (1/2 the weight of the Estes Mosquito, or less!). This is a difficult model to balance. Be sure to perform a highspeed stabilization swing test and perform your first launch in a clear area. For scaling purposes, the body tube is a BT05.
FROG �1990, Flis	7KB	Profile and cutaway view of two versions of a Russian ground to air missile. Instructions, dimensions and patterns are not provided (this is for an experienced MR designer). This design can be constructed as a single stage or two stage, as shown by the cutaway view (no design is provided for in-flight ignition of the second stage, you're on your own...) For scaling purposes, the body tube is a BT50.
Corona 1/2 �1990, Flis		Page 1 of 2. Corona is a single-stage sport model designed for the 7th New England Model ROcketry Convention (NEMROC VII). This page shows a profile of the finished model as well as the fin patterns, fin guide and shock cord mount. For scaling purposes, the body tube is a BT50.
Corona 2/2 �1990, Flis		Page 2 of 2. Corona is a single-stage sport model designed for the 7th New England Model ROcketry Convention (NEMROC VII). This page shows all of the assembly instructions (NOTE: Minimum written instruction provided. Experienced modelers will be able to figure out what's missing...) Kit parts list can be found in the labels shown in the instructions. This design makes for a beautiful, unique model that has a stable, true flight path. A great addition to anyone's collection!
Styrofoam �1990, Flis	8KB	A couple of profile views of some model rockets I've built from Styrofoam cups. I got hooked on this from Pearl River MODroc convention (Thanks a lot, Dick Nelson!) I've fallen in love with these things. I will be including a detailed help sheet on designing and building these marvelous monsters!