Suborbital Homebuilts?

Unlike me, Andrew Case is probably too modest to toot his own horn,
but he has a nice piece over at The Space Review about the coming age
of suborbital barnstorming.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/30/2

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The Space Review about the coming age
of suborbital barnstorming.

I remember reading in OMNI about20 years ago about a fellow who was fashioning
his own suborbital manned rocket, using largely pieces of hardware obtained
surplus from NASA or DoD. I can't recall any other details. I wonder if
anyone else recalls more about this, and what happened to the effort?


Matt Bille
)
OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR

Sounds like Bob Truax.

MattWriter wrote:

The Space Review about the coming age
of suborbital barnstorming.

I remember reading in OMNI about20 years ago about a fellow who was fashioning
his own suborbital manned rocket, using largely pieces of hardware obtained
surplus from NASA or DoD. I can't recall any other details. I wonder if
anyone else recalls more about this, and what happened to the effort?

Matt Bille
)
OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR

MattWriter wrote:
I remember reading in OMNI about20 years ago about a fellow who was fashioning
his own suborbital manned rocket, using largely pieces of hardware obtained
surplus from NASA or DoD. I can't recall any other details. I wonder if
anyone else recalls more about this, and what happened to the effort?

This was probably Bob Truax's VolksRocket. Details are from memory, but I
believe the plan involved surplus Atlas LR101 verniers, sea launch and
parachute recovery. One detail that sticks in my mind is a comment from
Truax that the pilot had a 90-95% chance of surviving the first
flight. Doesn't sound very appealing to me, but then again those were the
days when men were MEN.

Another vehicle concept I left out of the article (I'd completely
forgotten until John Bossard reminded me) was the Cerulean Freight
Forwarding Company's Kitten, which IIRC predated the X Prize. They are now
an official X Prize team, though their name has changed to Kittyhawk
Technologies.

.......Andrew
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Andrew Case |
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"VolksRocket" is my recollection also. I believe it used 4 of the Atlas
steering rockets (they're the small rocket engines on the side of the
booster near the tail). I have several of those myself, which I got
from a surplus dealer in North Hollywood - possibly where Truax got his.

Andrew Case wrote:

MattWriter wrote:
I remember reading in OMNI about20 years ago about a fellow who was fashioning
his own suborbital manned rocket, using largely pieces of hardware obtained
surplus from NASA or DoD. I can't recall any other details. I wonder if
anyone else recalls more about this, and what happened to the effort?

This was probably Bob Truax's VolksRocket. Details are from memory, but I
believe the plan involved surplus Atlas LR101 verniers, sea launch and
parachute recovery. One detail that sticks in my mind is a comment from
Truax that the pilot had a 90-95% chance of surviving the first
flight. Doesn't sound very appealing to me, but then again those were the
days when men were MEN.

Another vehicle concept I left out of the article (I'd completely
forgotten until John Bossard reminded me) was the Cerulean Freight
Forwarding Company's Kitten, which IIRC predated the X Prize. They are now
an official X Prize team, though their name has changed to Kittyhawk
Technologies.

......Andrew
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--
Andrew Case |
|

Rand Simberg wrote:
Unlike me, Andrew Case is probably too modest to toot his own horn,
but he has a nice piece over at The Space Review about the coming age
of suborbital barnstorming.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/30/2

Thanks, Rand. I've also put a bunch of peripherally related links on
RocketForge http://www.rocketforge.org/index.php

.......Andrew

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Andrew Case |
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