Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - 2021 New from Estes Designer Signature Series Kit

Quote:

Originally Posted by shockwaveriderz

here are 3 G.H.Stine designs from the early to mid 50's ....these are models, ie, not model rockets.... the FAFNIR was on the cover of the GHS book " ...And A Star to Steer Her By..." circa 1953...GHS handmade this model 4 to 5 years before model rocketry existed....the exhaust is cotton balls . This are just models, not flying model rockets although I'm sure they might be able to be converted. this book: https://www.amazon.com/Spaceship-Ha..../dp/097076040X has all the detailed drawings of them. GHS books also has drawings of them . The Absyrtis is in Contraband Rocket. Also check out Rocketman and Starship Thru Space. The last pic is GHS with his cat Cosmos who was a character in his book Starship Thru Space. This isn't a very good pic but if you look real closely next to the FAFNIR is a scale rocket to give you an idea how BIG the FAFNIR would have been in real life. The launchpad is depicted in a drawing of the cover of Rocketman.

Thanks for posting the pics of G. Harry's rockets. I see you have the Athena in there, as well. I am almost done with a RC RG of the Athena from the Saturday Evening Post story "The Day the Rocket Crashed".

Big fan of the Spaceship Handbook. Used the Athena drawing in there to scale my RC RG version. It is BT-80 sized with Dynasoar Rocketry/Frank Burke style Depron flying surfaces. Done except for a custom 3D printed nose cone and the canopy fairing. Pic attached. Have a PNC-80 on there for now. If the custom printed cone takes too long, I will put a paper hat on it and go ahead and fly.

The rockets from G. Harry Stine's stories were fairly huge. The Athena as designed (as interpreted by Jon Rogers) was 136 feet long. The Fafnir was 303 feet long and the Absyrtis was 197 feet long. The BT-80 Athena works out to 1/46.15 scale.

Anyone know if the Antar design was featured in one of his stories? And, are there other G. Harry Stine fictional rocket designs floating around out there, besides the ones in the Spaceship Handbook and the Antar?