Nike Missile Kits
 

For anyone who is into flyable "rockets" and especially those who might be ex Nike Ajax or Herc vets:


The Nike Ajax on the left is 55" long. These are balsa (sand away) and cardboard tubes, decals, etc. They are not plastic snap together.Plan to take many hours to build...but when you are done they are sweet!

They are certainly sweet, but I doubt I could bring myself to risk that many hours of labor on a flight that could end in tragedy... it would end up being a display only if I built it... :)

Actually I can't bring myself to fly these either. I spent many hours building....so I plan to just look at them. Kinda like I do with my Lugers, just look! Oh, for those who are scratching their head about the word Nike, yes there were Nike's before the shoes everyone knows.

Re: Nike Missile Kits
 

Well that won't do...

I "know people" who used to rush together sacrificial Revell car/plane models for the sole purpose of destruction by firework :D. Sometimes the glue wasn't dry.

Jack

Actually these are "kits" custom made in Michigan. Some of the components (all are balsa or cardboard made for the flying rocket bunch) are preformed and need additional "forming" to complete their particular shape. But you better get out your Exacto knife, 600 sandpaper, Elmer's glue, stick pins, mini wood clamps, Dremel drill and have fun. The Nike Herc on th right took me about 40 hours to build over a period of 2+ months. The Ajax on the left about 35 hours. It still needs a 'chute. Building and collecting these are similar in regards to Luger collecting.....time and money as kits run about $70.00 (plus incidentals). Not near what the cost a gun is but compared to plastic models, well you get the idea. Since these are models of actual missiles in use during the cold war there is some history behind them.

www.ed-thelen.org for more info on the history of Nike Ajax/Hercules missiles. Oh, one last note....these are US Army missiles *not* Air Force.:)

Nice toys!
Well done...

Zeke knows, but most of you may not know that as my last assignment on active duty before I retired from the Army, I served as the communications chief for a Nike-Hercules unit in northern Italy in 1986-1988.

Those weapons certainly had a long service life... being used by Nato allies well into the 80's and possibly early '90s... and were maintained to be as serviceable as they were on day one right up until they time they were taken out of service.

With the last version of the "warhead" they were still a formidable deterent to a sky full of enemy planes... thankfully we never had to fire one with that warhead ...

10 years ago when I had time on my hands I built and really enjoyed flying model rockets. These were kits from Estes Rockets in Florence Colorado. Depending on how much detail you wanted I would guess a pretty intricate kit with an attached glider would take a couple of days. The kits were complete, detailed and came with a neat parachute to retrieve the model. I flew many of them dozens of time over. They would reach an incredible height.
The real joy was in flying them though. That prooves the work you did was good.... it could look pretty but....If it didn't fly correctly.
Wish I had the time..it's an interesting hobby, especially for children to learn.
Jerry Burney

Have a funny story about Estes rockets Jerry... two years ago my oldest grandson was visiting for the summer and toward the end of his visit we bought him an estes kit. it came with 5 rocket motors suited the size of this small rocket... well when he had burned the 5 motors and he has saved his allowance we went to Walmart to get some new motors.

They were out of the exact model motor that came with his kit, but reading some other kit packages on the shelf, we determined that the other kits could use either the motor that came with his kit or another model motor... Walmart did have the second model number so we bought a couple of those and took them out to the local park to light one up...

It turns out that the motors were similar in size, but the new motor was MUCH more powerful than the original equipment that came with his model rocket... when he touched off the first motor, the rocket accelerated much faster and farther than we had previously experienced. Even with binoculars we couldn't even see the rocket after it left the launch pad...

I thought I saw what looked like the parachute deploy, but it was so high up I couldn't follow it continuously... we NEVER saw that rocket come down... and never saw it again... :D We laughed all the way home...

I sent him back to Arizona with money to buy a new kit and the CORRECT motors for flights back home...

John, That's exactly what happened to me when a buddy of mine and I built the first rocket we ever made! It simply disappeared into space! That's when I decided bigger was better and bought an SR71 Blackbird that was 4 feet tall.
Now that thing was spectacular when it lifted off!
It's a cool thing to do with kids.
Jerry Burney

With a little modification, some of them launch very nicely out of a LAW........

Wilhelm, I am sure you are correct! Especially one with front and rear fins. This type would slide along easily in a tube.
The Estes kits/rockets have a short section of soda straw glued top and bottom. This lets you slide the rocket onto a section of steel rod for a guidance system.
When I was a little kid we used to take Christmas wrapping tubes and a loader would light pop bottle rockets and shove them in. You could aim pretty good!
Training for my Military years!
Jerry Burney