I actually had a Jetex 50, and the "high thrust" version of that that had cored slugs. This was around 1973, when the Jetex biz was winding down.

I tried building and flying the little balsa stick-and-fin "space ships" in the Jetex book, but trimming and balancing were kind of beyond me at that age. I think I lit my Jetex unit 3-4 times; the models were overweight and just skittered over the pavement.

I really wish the "Rapier" motors had caught on.

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NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

My best Jetex flight was with just a thin balsa stick for stability, like a bottle rocket. I had made a groove on the side of the pellets (or, at least, on the bottom one) and ran fuze along the groove to get a larger burning surface for more thrust. Once the thing was lit and hissing madly, I slung the thing underhanded and sent it off at about a 45-degree angle, or maybe a bit steeper. It flew across the park, across the street, over the houses facing the street, and into the back yard of one of them, as best I could tell. I didn't have nerve enough to try to retrieve it. I guess it flew about 200 feet, getting maybe 50 feet up at its highest.

It was by far my best flight to that point. If I had had any expectation that it would do that well, I would have flown it in the direction of the long dimension of the park, and probably would have been able to recover it. (BTW, this was in Carlisle Park, a one-block-on-a-side park in Lubbock, Texas, probably in 1958.)

Earlier, I built a conventional rocket, with a body tube hand-rolled from 1/32" balsa sheet, a handmade conical paper nosecone, and triangular balsa fins. Painted red, IIRC. "Launched" from my back yard, it went nowhere. The body was burned pretty badly, by hot gasses leaking past the asbestos washer, a frequent problem with Jetex 50s.

This is a Paul Del Gatto design. He design some of Guillow's models including the Fieseler Storch. Fi156 Germany's STOL aircraft. I have that issue and could scan it. PDG did a lot of models back then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieseler_Fi_156

There is a UK plans site that may have these plans and parts. IDK!

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/

Fireman, your first response to your query was from Bill Spadafora. We just lost him to Cancer back in May. He was two months shy of his 65th birthday! We really miss him!

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If it flies, I can crash it!

Thanks for your reply, dlazarus6660, and for the links! I will check both links out.

(Update: I DID get around to checking out those links. The Fieseler Storch was a fun read, and I learned a lot, including that there have been civilian versions. And, I searched Outerzone for "Jetex", but did not see the "Space Explorer"; there are, though, some other Jetex models there that I'd be tempted to build, if new Jetex motors, fuel, and fuze were available.)

Yeah, I had picked up on the fact that the American Telasco "Space Explorer" was a Paul Del Gatto design. He seems to have been an excellent, innovative, prolific, and well loved designer!

I got to see a Fieseler Storch at the Georgetown, Texas, airshow one year, a long while back. It was an amazing little plane. I'm surprised it hasn't been put back into production.

A week or so ago, I checked for recent posts by Fireman, and found nothing more recent than early 2014, IIRC.

Thanks, again, for your reply!

This is an excellent article about the Von Braun ferry rocket that the OP was trying to find a kit model of: http://www.wired.com/2014/09/wernhe...n-ferry-rocket/

I've seen two other plans for Jetex spaceship models, both by Paul Del Gatto. First, the June 1953 Flying Models has "Fixit Wright's Rocket Ship", a small Jetex 50-powered model very closely resembling the Von Braun Ferry Rocket. This has a hollowed balsa fuselage, and sheet wings, canard, and fins. This may be the one Donosauro was thinking of (?).

The other is his "Space Ship", a larger and more complex design which appeared in Mechanix Illustrated (date unknown), and was reprinted in his All About Jetex booklet. The Jetex.org Archive site has this:

http://archivesite.jetex.org/models....html#spaceship

Thanks, tmcatee, that seems very much like what I was remembering. And, even if it isn't, it's a good find in its own right!

Here's a copy of the plans for it that turned up after a quick web search for "Fixit Wright's Rocket Ship": http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...=2346963&page=7

But...I could swear that the plans I saw were specifically a model of the Von Braun ferry rocket. Maybe not, though.

I am busy moving, but, in a few days, I'll be able to get back to searching online modeling archives for the plans I may or may not actually remember. Meanwhile, this is the best find, so far!

I found a copy of the June, 1953, Flying Models, on ebay, and ordered it. Maybe the actual article will jog my memory and convince me, one way or the other. In any case, thanks again!

Glad you liked it. I have that Flying Models magazine, and can tell you there isn't a construction article per se. Rather, there's a two-page Fixit Wright comic (a recurring feature in FM), followed by the one-page plan, and that's it.

The old magazines are wonderful, full of surprises like this.

I seem to remember a relatively recent model rocket version of this design, as well, but it might be the later Disney delta-wing.

Well, the June, 1953, Flying Models got here in Friday's mail, in excellent condition. But, just as you have already pointed out, tmcatee, there really is nothing but the plan page and a comic featuring the model (almost worth the price of the magazine, all by itself, IMO!).