Building the Journeyman III And some history of the "ARO"

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Joe's Big Bertha

I like this picture of Joe's Big Bertha so much that a half century later (2018) I made two copies of it in two sizes. (The rocket, not the picture.)   What happened to the rocket in this picture? We have an account from the ARO log book:                                                                                        OCTOBER 3, 1970 Today we had seven rocket launchings in the Cinder Lot.* For the first flight we used Joe's messed up Bertha. We glued the nosecone on and a C6-7 engine in. It went up till it was only a dot in the sky, which is pretty high considering the size of the Bertha. It slowly flipped over and the silver fins reflected the sun, making a starlight effect. About eight seconds into the flight the engine ejected, blowing the entire engine holder out of the back of the rocket. With this new boost in acceleration, the rocket dashed to the ground at greater than 32 feet per second / per second.**  It hit the ground with a tremendous impact, causing the body tube to bend at a 90 degree angle. What was "messed up" about the Big Bertha? The log book doesn't say. I wrote to Joe and neither one of us remember, but I have a faint recollection of the body tube being bent. The life of the rocket was 18 months, first launched in January of 1969 and then destroyed in October of 1970. * The "cinder lot" was the huge parking lot of Temple Stadium (built by Temple University in 1928), located at Cheltenham Avenue and Vernon Road in Philadelphia. It was "paved" with gravel and cinders. (The 35,000 seat stadium no longer exists. In the 1970s the area became predominately African American, and the stadium was repeatedly vandalized. By 1978 it could no longer be used. It was demolished in 1996. Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church occupies the cinder lot today.) ** Analysis of the flight indicates the Big Bertha attained a height of about 590 feet. It then flipped over and fell for three seconds before the ejection charge blew the engine holder out of the back of the rocket. It had fallen 144 feet and was moving at 96 feet per second at this time. If it had just fallen on its own, it would have impacted at 196 feet per second, or 133 miles per hour, but the ejection charge substantially increased this speed.

Temple Stadium in the 1960s. On the right, in the middle of the photo, was the "cinder lot."   The Temple Stadium site in 2023. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0727889,-75.1653715,418a,35y,348.36h,44.85t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu     The Big Bertha and the Bigger Bertha.   The recreated Big Bertha lifts off on August 02, 2018 from a field in Upper Gwynedd, PA.   Here it again on September 16, 2018. It is "D" engine powered, which works very well with a Big Bertha.   The Bigger Bertha lifts off from a cornfield on October 07, 2018 on an Estes E9 engine.   Both of these rockets are excellent flyers. An Aerotech E20 will send the Bigger Bertha almost out of sight.   The Bigger Bertha was made by up-scaling a Big Bertha by 1.6x. This is the amount required to go from a BT-60 body tube to a BT-80. Estes makes a BT-80 nose cone that is the perfect size. All that is needed is to make the larger fin pattern and calculate the length of the new body tube. The rocket is so light compared to its size that you can see here it is competing with the 24" parachute in creating drag.   Two Big Berthas. The smaller one has since been retired (due to the fact that I lose the majority of my rockets). The bigger one went into the woods in the background on the right, and I never saw it again.     The upscale Bertha was so easy to build and flew so well I made two more! The one on the right is a D engine cluster.   Connecting the igniters to the two engines.   An added bonus - if something goes wrong, it will seek out the softest place to crash land!   Notice the color scheme is different near the nosecone. The result of the crash in the photo above.   Launched into the wind. June, 2024. An actual Estes Big Bertha sits on the pad.   A fourth one was built that can hold a 29mm engine. Kellie Roggio is holding it before its maiden flight.   October 1, 2023. Launched on a 29mm E16-4   October 28, 2023. Launched again with another E16-4.     In October of 2024, the red and white Bertha landed in top of the corn, about two feet over my head. Attached to the shock cord is a window alarm from the dollar store. I never would have found it if not for the alarm. I was initially looking in the wrong cornfield!     Journeyman III   I couldn't help myself, I had to upscale the Journeyman.   The Journeyman III. Like the original, it weighs one pound with engine. First flight - July 14, 2019.   An Estes F15 engine sent it almost out of sight.   Here it comes! I didn't expect to see it again.   On its maiden flight it landed a quarter of a mile away on a pile of wood chips. A soft landing, indeed.     This photo taken on June 07,2020.     July 2, 2022. After many good flights, this was its last. It landed in the top of a tree.   Final flight of the Journeyman III.

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