Introduction
This model usually causes a lot of buzz, and why not? When you pop a 24mm G55-10 into it, most of the rocket is motor. It's really awesome.

The line is called Rugged Rockets and for good reason. The pre-slotted airframe is a fabric phenolic with no spiral line at all. The fins are made of G-10 fiberglass and are pre-cut. The nose cone is a thick hard polystyrene. The shock cord is made of Kevlar, as are the parachute shroud lines. The rip stop nylon chute has metal grommets. They also include a Nomexparachute shield. The only down side is the launch lug. Its inside diameter is too small and it tends to bind on most 1/8" launch rods.

If you replace the launch lug, flights are straight and very fast even on a D12-7. On the G55-10, it flies out of sight and it does go Mach 1+. On the down side the Nomexshield gets crusty and hard over time. Also the white parachute is impossible to see at the altitudes it can reach.

Faster, faster...
From what I've seen, the lure of a rocket that exceeds Mach 1 and doesn't exceed $100.00 per flight, is quite attractive to newbies. It was for me. I had RockSim 3.0 and so when I got it, I just had to know: will it really go Mach 1.2? You becha. It also goes over 5,000'. At the time I had no concept of what that would mean for a 13" rocket. Oh, but it's a lot of fun.

Construction...
This is a really easy build. The body tube is a very sold fabric phenolic, the fins are G-10 fiberglass. The nose cone is thick plastic as is the launch lug. The parachute is a white rip stop nylon with metal grommets where the shroud lines attach. The shroud lines are Kevlar, as is the shock cord. They also include a Nomex heat shield.

On the good side the instructions are complete and all the parts are there and they are of high quality.

There are a few things they need to fix though. First, the nose cone is very tight. You'll need to sand it quite a bit, but don't do too much. It should be a very tight fit. Second, the launch lug is too small if you're going to boost this rocket on a G motor. With just about any motor this rocket only needs about 12" or launch rod, but it can really whip that rod around. Go with a 1/2" lug. A good way of getting one is to cut 1" off a Bic pen and glue this on for the launch lug. Third, a white parachute is a terrible choice for a small rocket that's going to go over 3,000'. I will be replacing this with a streamer anyway. Fourth, there's not much room in the body tube for the parachute, let alone the Nomex shield. The Nomex gets black and crusty really fast and once it does, it's an impediment to ejection.

Make sure you paint this very bright colors because more often then not, you're going to be looking for this rocket after losing sight of it in flight. Finishing is very easy due to the materials used.

Rating is 3 points on a scale of 1-5

Flight & Recovery...
I've flown it 4 times. The first flight was on a D12-7. The rocket really got up an moved, but it angled off funny. I didn't know why at the time. Then I loaded up the G55-10. This flight was spectacular in a bad way. It bound on the launch rod something fierce and flew off almost horizontal. It was trying to stabilize even as it slammed into the ground at full speed (500+ mph). Total damage was a 1.5" crack in the body tube which was easily repaired.

I repaired the damage and replaced the launch lug. The next outing I started with the D12-7 again. This time it was an arrow straight boost. Real thing of beauty, but the D12 didn't have enough ejection to push the now crusty Nomexout the top. The chute never deployed. The last flight had a nose cone full of tracking powder and an F72-10. Great boost, a couple of people heard the sonic pop. The ejection charge fired almost immediately after the motor quit (had to be a failure of the motor). The nose cone came off at 400+ mph and this tore the Kevlarshock cord right at the top of the body tube. At least it proved you can't zipper a Mach Buster. I got the body back, the nose cone drifted off on the chute.

Unless you've actually shot a rocket of this size to 5000+ feet, you have no concept of how high and how fast this little bugger gets there (or how hard it is to track it).

Rating is 5 points.

Overall...
This rocket is built for speed, not comfort. It's high performance, very stable and very tough. It's a rush to fly it on D12-7 even. Replace the launch lug and there's no real need for a chute, so I'd go with a streamer. You can't help but giggle when you put a G55 motor in it because the rockets is so small compared to the motor. All in all, it's a lot of fun.

Rating is 4 points.