Mark I

This was basically built around the engine from parts which happened to be around at the time. The engine mount was made from a 3 1/2" floppy disk label, and the peel off backing. I was concerned that the spent engine might not come out ( I had that problem with the Alpha III) so the smooth backing of the label was wrapped around the engine, and then the label itself stuck around that. A reshaped paper clip was looped over the top and fastened with another disk label, to prevent the engine from just flying up the body.

The body itself was made from a standard sized 'smartie' tube. The three fins were made from double thicknesses of card, mounted through slots in the body, with flaps folded back and glued inside. The engine mount was fixed in place by wrapping it in masking tape until it was approximately the right diameter and then pushing it in along with plenty of glue.

The nose cone was made from a cone of paper fixed to half a wine cork. To get a reasonable amount of stability, lots of ballast was required in the nose. To give you some idea, the finished rocket was about 1/3 the size and twice the weight of an Alpha III. Theoretically there was a streamer recovery system, but it never worked. I only flew it twice, the first time the nose ejected but the streamer did not, however I did manage to get both parts back. The second time the engine ejected from the rear and the rocket was lost.

My first rocket, the MkI.

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