Saturday, August 24, 2019

Tidbits from rocket history...

My friends are well aware I have two passions - rocketry and history. So I very much relish the times when I am able to combine the two, as I have done by perusing old rocketry magazines over the past couple of weeks. In so doing, I uncovered a few things I found to be of interest, which I thought I would share.

The first item is the earliest mention I can find of the existence of a rocket club in the Huntsville area. If anyone reading this knows of the old Madison Rocket Club or Mr. Hudson, please get in touch. I would love to talk with you!
Mention of a Madison Rocket Club in the August 1970 issue of Model
Rocketry. You would think they could spell Alabama right
(Click to enlarge).
Lots of clubs struggle with finding or holding on to a flying field - HARA included. This club note from 1968 shows that the rocketeers over in Dalton, Georgia figured out a way around this issue.

From Centuri's American Rocketeer, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1968 -
Click to enlarge).
There is no way that a club could do this today!

The 3rd item is one of the NAR songs published in some issues of Model Rocketry - the claim is that they were sung at contests such as NARAM. Composed well before the advent of high power and the legal wrangling with the federal government (BATFE), this song highlights the battles to allow model rockets with fire departments all over the nation.

NAR song from the June 1969 issue of Model Rocketry (Click to enlarge).
I am posting this little club note from the November 1970 issue of Model Rocketry because I think this would be an AWESOME name for a TARC team:

(Click to enlarge).
Trip Barber is one of the pillars of our hobby - past president of the National Association of Rocketry, and the driving force behind TARC. However, I did not know that he also possessed the power to make it rain. Check out this short piece from the letters section of the November 1969 issue of Model Rocketry...

(Click to enlarge).
Is it wrong of me to want to try this, which is easily repeated with today's technology?

No comments:

Post a Comment