General

As of today, Fliskits has Nell kits in stock. Only a few so move quickly if you want one.

I have those 3 days in March marked on my calendar. If the trailer is needed, I should be able to get it there. If not, I can transport what will be required.

Guy.

I should be able to help out on the 16th. But it's a little too early to commit now. I have a built Nell that's flown several times, and a replica launch stand for the Nell. I don't know if it matters, but my Nell is not finished to look anything like the original.

I have reserved time to drive up from Virginia. I flew an Art Applewhite flying saucer at the golf course during the NARCON event and would look forward to helping out. I have unbuilt Fliskits Nell and L-13 kits and would be willing to get those built and test flown, if it would help. And the Estes 1:200 ready-to-fly Saturn V is a good demo rocket.

I’ve helped out at a couple of events using the Estes Cosmic Ray snap-together kits with A8-3 motors. Those go together quickly, annout 15 minutes, and the couple of hundred foot flight is reasonable for small areas.

Best wishes,

Will

I'm willing to help that day. I do have a Nell kit but only partially built. I will try to have it completed by then.

Bruce

Checking in ahead of the town meeting tomorrow.

1. Who is willing to help with the launch on March 16?
2. Will we use the trailer or are we going to grab supplies and bring them separately?
3. Who has a Nell kit built to launch that day? I'd suggest we have a few on hand.
4. Does anyone have a Saturn V and willing to launch that day?

Best,

Pete

A working replica sounds prohibited given today's safety standards. Or at least more effort than I'm willing to go to. I like the Frick-n-Frack suggestion.

Had another meeting with the town last night. We discussed some of the expectations and logistics for the day of celebration. Here are the highlights:

1. The town is planning for north of 20K people at the event on the 16th. They are treating it similarly to the 4th of July celebrations with remote parking and busses to transport people to the golf course.
2. We are approaching the school department about giving the kids the day off to participate/attend. If that happens, we could consider having some launches earlier in the day for/with the kids. The library might get involved to have some building sessions in advance.
3. I suggested cordoning off the location of the actual launch to allow people to take pictures of the monument, etc. That's where the original stand would go as well as a full scale replica of the rocket. The local voc is handling restoration of the town's full scale replica.
4. Questions were asked about whether CMASS would have a full scale replica to display and/or launch. I don't have those skills but would happily participate in the project. Time is short though to get it going. Is there anyone that would like to lead the effort?
5. We would launch from a central location on the golf course to allow for maximum crowds around the launch. We can work on the physical location as well as stand off distances with the town once we decide what we're launching.
6. We are currently working with reenactors for the event. We'd have to figure out how to incorporate them into the launch.

That's all I have for now. Happy to hear your thoughts.

Pete

Another idea is a Frick-n-Frack drag race using A8-0 motors. I have launched mine successfully in my front yard using that motor combination.

One idea is launching a few small rockets simultaneously with two 80' crepe paper streamers attached to two of the fins. I've done this a number of times; the rockets get to only about 100', and it is always a crowd pleaser. Another idea is to launch the Fliskits UFFO rocket with twelve 80' crepe paper streamers. This is also a crowd please. I've done this a number of times as well, including at the golf course in 2019 as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo moon landing. I do have pictures of both types of streamer launches, but it will take me some time to dig them out.

From Google Maps, it looks to be about a trapezoidal (almost square) area roughly 1300' by 1450'. It's now a golf course in Auburn named Pakachoag. By NAR rules (safety code launch site dimensions), that puts it at G impulse or lower, and there are numerous trees in the course. However, you can do a lot with a G impulse motor!

If we created one to launch, it would need to conform to all of the safety requirements. So probably no metal except maybe engine casings but then again we need to look at the size of the potential launch field, tree proximity, number of people that might attend, how much space we'd need just for safe distance from launch pad, etc. I'm not sure it's feasible given the size and impulse that may be required to get it off the ground. I'm not sure there's enough field available for that. It needs to integrate well into an event that may be about a launch, but isn't only about launching.

Do you envision this full scale Nell to be a working model that can be launched? And if so would it be made of metal like the original? ...but fly with a solid rocket motor as opposed to on liquid oxygen & gasoline?

We had our weekly meeting last night at Goddard's house in Worcester. It's a work in progress, but pretty cool to be there. Goddard was born there and lived most of his life there. His wife stayed there until her death. Not many of their possessions because WPI and Clark auctioned them off after her death. Sad.

There is a new National Space Trail being created with memorials to be installed across the country. They are focusing on Massachusetts right now and several markers have already been installed including in front of Goddard's house. You can find deets here: https://www.nationalspacetrail.org/

It currently looks like it will be a week long celebration so that WPI can be included (spring break). Auburn will have 2 events, one on Saturday the 14th for families to rededicate Goddard Park and the second event on the 16th at the launch site. They asked me to handle comms between Auburn and CMASS. They may want launches of some sort on both days but I can tell you that Goddard Park is tiny. Not sure that will be feasible.

For the 16th, we are hoping that Clark will bring out the original launch stand to Auburn for the events. I will push pretty hard for that one. Currently an idea has been floated for 100 rocket launches on the day including a full scale of Nell. In the time frame they want, this is not going to be possible or fun unless we launch volleys of rockets. For the finale, I thought it would be really cool to start with Nell and then proceed through the rockets that got us to the moon in order with the Saturn V as the final flight. I told them that we are mulling the idea of a full scale replica of Nell, but that there is nothing certain yet.

I was also told that Estes has created a kit for the 100th anniversary and that it is in production. I think that I will also be involved in driving that effort. The details weren't available but I think it was to be a smaller scale Nell kit but not certain.

There is a desire by some in the group to pursue some sort of world record for launches that day and involve rocket clubs around the country. It's not really something that I want to own, but we'll see.

As an aside, Charles Slatkin, the owner of the house offered CMASS the space for our meetings if we'd like. He really wants to see the space get used. If we are interested, I can arrange for it.

Here are some links to news and event pages:

https://goddard100th.org/

https://thewondermission.org/

https://nss.org/the-goddard-100-student-contest-celebrating-a-century-of-rocketry/

Happy to answer any questions.

Pete

It's on my calendar, but not on the EcoTarium calendar yet....

https://ecotarium.org/calendar/

Robert Goddard's Nell rocket was 11' 3" tall. A full scale model will be quite the project. Anyone have any sources for scale drawings etc.? Scale up the FK model?

Here's that article from NASA for their 2003 Nell rocket engine replica project...

2003 NASA Nell Rocket Engine Replica Project

It's great to have an Auburn resident (Peter) who is on the committee for this historic event!

When I spoke to Steve Coleman (Auburn fire chief and committee member) and Charles Slatkin (independent rocketry education/outreach advocate and committee member), they described a number of exciting ideas for the Auburn event on March 16th. One major thing that seemed missing, though, was a launch of a full-size Nell model. There are several people who have the scaled-down Fliskits model, but I think it would be a lot more impressive to launch a full-size model. I'll be looking forward to Peter's report back from the meeting tomorrow on this idea, and I hope there are some CMASS members like Kolya who are interested in building it.

As Howard indicated in his post below, myself and three other CMASS members are working with the Worcester Ecotarium on its celebration event scheduled for March 14-15, 2026 (the Auburn anniversary event is on March 16th). The Ecotarium has a small field, where we hope to launch the Fliskits and other smaller models. We're also going to have a display table inside the Ecotarium building.

I'll update this message thread as plans develop.

I am now on the Auburn committee for the celebration planning and execution. My first in person meeting with the committee is tomorrow night. I will report back here on progress and decisions.

As far as participation, I am happy to provide any local support and also own the FK Nell kit. In case of rocket eating trees, we should probably have a backup or two. I am also building a scale stand for the kit.

Definitely interested in a full scale Nell.

Additionally, there is a lovely paper written by NASA back in 2003 about their reconstruction of the Nell. It includes a great breakdown of the engine itself. It would be pretty cool to have a demonstration of how the liquid rocket itself works. This could be just a simple 3d printed cutaway or, if people are feeling ambitious, a metal demonstrator.