All Rocketry Blogs

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 1 - Like A Kid In A Candy Store (2018-08-06)

Saturday, August 4th, 2018, I made the 80 mile trip from Castle Rock to Pueblo to attend a much anticipated event - the NAR 60 year anniversary Rocketeer Reunion.  Despite traffic delays on ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 2 - An Old Rocket Buddy (2018-08-06)

I'm going to start this reunion series on a more personal note. This is a picture of myself and one of my best friends who happened to travel out here from Virginia to attend the reunion - Mr. ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 4 - Something For Us Glider Nuts (2018-08-07)

At the NAR reunion, there were several display tables lined up against one of the meeting room walls that contained a lot of very interesting models, photos, and artifacts from the early days of ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion. Part 5 - Presentation Opening Remarks (2018-08-07)

Halfway through the reunion activities, the central stage and podium were open to presentations by the various NAR dignitaries who were present. To start things off, Reunion Coordinator Trip Barber ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: A Very Busy Blogger (2018-08-07)

The next couple of weeks are going to be a very active time for me here on the BlastFromThePast Blog.  I will be putting out an unprecedented two or three posts per day! Besides ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 8 - A Few Old Rocketeers. (2018-08-09)

Actually there were more than a few in attendance at the reunion... Here is a pic of Tom and Linda Milkie: Back in the old days, I used to read and re-read all of the fine articles and plans ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 9 - Back to the Display Tables... (2018-08-09)

Here are a couple more interesting displays that were set up on the tables. The first is a very interesting item from the dim and distant past.... Rather than describe this item any further, I ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 11 - Another Interesting Display (2018-08-10)

Moving along to more of the display tables; This tribute to Len Fehskens was set up by John and Wini Labreque. The display was loaded with lots of photos, news clippings and meet ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 12 - Vern Estes Takes The Stage.... (2018-08-11)

The second speaker of the evening was Mr. Estes, who gave a nice talk on the early NARAMS and his history with them. Amazingly, Vern has been to 58 of the 60 NARAMS! During his speech, ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 13 -More Fine Displays (2018-08-11)

Another one of the display tables held a large collection of early Canaroc model rocket kits.  This presentation was provided by Mr. Denis Lufkin (NAR 96987).     On ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 14 - Lee Piester at the Podium (2018-08-14)

The next member of model rocketry royalty to give a talk was Lee Piester, the man behind Centuri Engineering. Lee gave a very interesting speech, relating the story of his conversion from ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 15 - One Final Display (2018-08-14)

The last item on the row of meeting room tables was my own small display of NARAM-11 ephemera.    Included was an official meet program that was distributed to visitors to ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 16 - The Museum of Flight Silent Auction (2018-08-15)

The final presentation of the evening was given by Pat Fitzpatrick and Geoff Nunn on the subject of the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Brief updates were discussed concerning the monumental task of ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60 Year Reunion, Part 17 - Wrapping Things Up (2018-08-15)

Well, boys and girls, This post pretty much completes the series on the NAR 60th Year Rocketeer Reunion.  I had nearly as much fun writing and putting together this material as I had ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: Maiden Flight of the Mark II Rock-A-Chute (2018-08-20)

For this post, I thought I would back-track a couple of years to November 3rd, 2016, the day of the maiden flight of the Mark II.  This is the same bird I took with me to the NAR Reunion in ... [Read More]

Blast From The Past: NAR 60th Year Reunion, Part 18 - A Very Cool Steampunk Rocket! (2018-10-17)

This post about the reunion is a tad bit late. I had taken this photo at the event of this rocketeer and his very impressive upscale 'Steampunk' Orion Starfighter.  ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Aurora Flight Sciences (2009-07-23)

Besides hosting the Old Rocketeer's Reunion during NARAM-50, Aurora Flight Sciences designs and builds cool flying things. Wired's Danger Room discusses the flight test of their prototype Excalibur ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Dark Shadows (2009-08-31)

The 'gothic' soap opera Dark Shadows , which ran on ABC between from June 27, 1966 and April 2, 1971 was in retrospect probably one of my favorite shows. Being a kid when it first aired, I watched ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Mega-Review: Art Applewhite Delta Flying Saucers (2010-12-20)

At the time of this posting, Art Applewhite is offering no less than 10 versions of his Delta Saucer design, two of which are free downloads.  This is a cluster of reviews covering three of ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Review - Art Applewhite 18", 38mm and 54mm Delta Flying Saucer (2010-12-21)

This is a review of a pre-production version of Art Applewhite's 18", 38mm and 54mm Delta Flying Saucer .  Its construction varied somewhat from the production model. Nonetheless, it is ... [Read More]

DTH Rocket Blog: Speech Recognition Troubles (2010-12-29)

Somebody can't come up a hot tip of Baja hot spots to protect the bond does the courage to the public can call toll T2 PP pop up all below are all now that a scale of the downside schedule as a nose ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Review: Massive Gassive (2011-01-22)

This is a cluster rocket based on a Crayon bank, which will help eat up my stash of D12-0s. It has one central 24mm motor mount surrounded by a ring of six motor mounts. On three sides, there is an ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Review: 58mm JATO (2011-01-23)

The 58mm JATO is a 29mm-powered rocket that resembles a rifle cartridge. The lower section is 3" in diameter and it transitions to 54mm. I bounced around between names and settled on this one, which ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Mega Review: Art Applewhite Catch-All (2011-01-24)

This post presents several additional Art Applewhite products: Cone Rocket Hourglass 24mm Super Cinco MicroMaxx Flying Saucer Plans Cone Rocket As the name indicates, this rocket is a simple cone ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: In celebration of the reunion of the 4 amigos... (2013-03-24)

It appears I may actually fly a rocket or two in April and I will get to do so with three of my kinda/almost long-lost rocketry pals. To celebrate I'll dump some more old photos that I've found. I ... [Read More]

Rocket N00b: In Need of Inspiration (2015-09-22)

I have been in the market for a table for my Rocket Room. I was thinking of getting a folding table - a six-foot long, plastic top folding table, the sturdy kind you find at your finer non-profit ... [Read More]