When my older brother and I were kids, one of our favorite movies was Flight of the Phoenix. It was about a plane that crashed in the Kalahari desert. After some days of peril and adventure, one of the passengers steps forward and says that he is an airplane designer and thinks he can build an airplane out of the wreckage of the crashed plane that can fly the passengers to safety. The passengers set to work salvaging parts and working under the airplane designer’s direction. In the midst of their effort and increasing desperation, they find out that the “engineer” directing the work is actually a model airplane designer who has never designed an airplane more than a foot long. Nevertheless, they have no choice but to press on, and the reconstructed airplane does indeed fly. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth renting: Flight of the Phoenix
The Flight of the Hindrocket is kind of a similar story, but without the drama–no crash, no passengers, etc. Rocket scientist Rick Vatsaas took my icon as his inspiration, and built an actual rocket, 4 1/2 feet high, and entered a competition in Arizona last weekend. Rick says of the Hindrocket that: “It flew beautifully!”
For those who want the technical details, Rick writes:
We opted for a larger motor than originally planned and used and
Aerotech J570
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