Friday, November 12, 2010

Vashon Flashback!

Tonight on YORF I read a post from Doug Sams.
He was talking about water rockets from a company called Park Plastics.
Check out the YORF thread HERE
He mentioned a great website where you can look up old Sears Catalogs:
http://www.wishbookweb.com/

I thought I'd check and found the 1969 Sears Wishbook Christmas catalog.
Here's the first rocket I ever owned, the Vashon Valkyrie 2. It was ordered from Sears through the same catalog.
Click on the image to enlarge it.

If you've read my bio, you know of the trouble I had getting black powder engines in California.
This rocket did fly, but not to the altitude advertised. You had to launch Vashon rockets in warm weather. I got the Valkyrie for Christmas and tried to launch it 40 degree weather!
It got 50 feet in the air, tail slid and dug itself into the ground.
Shortly after I got black powder engines.
A few years later, I flew a Estes Coldpower Convertible Shark with better results.

2 comments:

  1. An uncle gave me the Visible V-8 and Visible Chassis kits one year. Shiftable manual transmission along with working steering and brakes. I really wish I still had that!

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  2. Hi Bill,
    I never had the Visible V-8 but built too many other plastic models in the 1960s. Then I discovered rocketry in 1969 and everything changed.

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