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About Airplanes & Rockets

Kirt Blattenberger, Webmaster - Airplanes and Rockets

Kirt Blattenberger

BSEE - KB3UON

My Engineering Web: RF Cafe

Carpe Diem! (Seize the Day!)

Even during the busiest times of my life I have endeavored to maintain some form of model building activity. This site has been created to help me chronicle my journey through a lifelong involvement in model aviation, which all began in Mayo, MD ...

Airplanes And Rockets Copyright 1996 - 2026

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the Airplanes and Rockets website are hereby acknowledged.

My Main Modeling Websites

Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) - Airplanes and RocketsAcademy of Model Aeronautics

Tower Hobbies logo - Airplanes and Rockets

Tower Hobbies

Horizon Hobby logo - Airplanes and Rockets

Horizon Hobby

Sig Manufacturing - Airplanes and Rockets

Sig Mfg

Brodak Manufacturing - Airplanes and Rockets

Brodak Mfg

Philip with His First Estes Alpha Rocket

Philip Blattenberger preparing launching his Estes Alpha model rocket - Airplanes and Rockets

Like just about everybody else who flies model rockets, I began my model rocketeering adventure by building and flying an Estes Alpha model rocket. When it came time to introduce my son, Philip, and daughter, Sally, to model rocketry, an Alpha was the natural choice. The photos below were taken in our yard in Smithsburg, Maryland, sometime around 1991. As you can tell by the severe angle of the launch pad (custom-built), the winds were rather high that day.

Estes 1971 Model Rocketry Catalog - Pages 16 & 17Pages 16 and 17 from the 1971 Estes Model Rocketry Catalog are shown to the right.

Specifications:

Price = $1.50

Length = 12.25" (31.1 cm)

Body Diameter = 0.976" (24.8 cm)

Weight = 0.8 oz. (23 grams)

Philip Blattenberger launching his Estes Alpha model rocket - Airplanes and RocketsA very cool picture, if I do say so myself. A Minolta 35 mm SLR camera was used with 400 ASA film. It was taken sometime around 1992, before digital cameras.

Estes Alpha rocket kitBelow is the Estes Astron Alpha model rocket kit that I purchased on eBay. I specifically wanted one of the original kits that does not have plastic fins and nose cone.

 

Here is a list of my other rocket models.

 

Estes Alpha rocket kit

Plastic Scale Model Kits - Airplanes and Rockets