Vector Force

The Vector Force is a modern Estes kit. Very good quality balsa fins on my kit, thick and sturdy. You can see the design is inspired by air defense missles. Rather tall, but somewhat heavy because of the two reducers. Because it has two reducer stages it has two seperate payload tubes. Estes tells you to glue the payload tubes, but why? Good idea if you want to be sure the rocket doesn't seperate in flight or to make sure you don't over-pack them, but why waste two very nice payload bays? I just make sure they are always good and tight with some masking tape. Mine is painted school-bus yellow and gloss black to better match the included decals. Added about 3 heavy coats of clearcoat for a really deep shine. String stability tests with a C motor required about 20-ish grams of noseweight, but now it flies really straight up with little weathercocking. The top payload tube has vent holes for a barometric altimeter. I've recorded flights in excess of 400 feet with C6 motors. This is my modern go-to rocket. I tried a test flight with composite D engine, to see if I can kick this puppy past 1000 feet. I made it, but it cost me a bit more than the $10 for the engine! This model measured 150 feet on a B6-4, 420-442 feet on a C6-3 but only 386 on a -5, and an incredible 1121 feet on an Apogee D10-7 engine.