This formerly Blackhawk R&D rocket is now fully owned and produced by Aardvark Rockets

Brief:
A stand-off scale model of the Russian AA-9 Amos missile. Paper tubes, basswood fins, Alumilite nose cone and mylar streamer.

Construction:
All the parts were top shelf. Paper BT-50 body tube, BT-20 motor mount. Paper centering rings and engine block. Fin stock is 1/16" basswood. Nose cone is made from the casting compound Alumilite. I got an extra piece of basswood with the kit. The fins are easily laid out on one piece of the supplied basswood. The recovery system consists of a Kevlar® string anchored to the motor mount, a long length of 1/8" elastic and a 1 mil mylar streamer. The heavy cast nose cone is necessary to make this little rocket stable. You don't have to add any more nose weight. It also finishes nicely and is very strong.

The instructions are not Quest quality, obviously set up and printed on a home computer. However, the innards aren't all that tough, so the simplicity doesn't detract. The steps are logical. Motor mount first, then fins, then wrap up the recovery system. The diagrams showing the fin placement are clear. The fin patterns and body wrap are sufficient. While the front wings are easy to mount, the aft control surfaces are tricky. They set very close to the wing, so you must take pains to make sure they're parallel, but they have a very small root which is hard to get square. Patience is required. At the time I put them on, I was concerned that the aft fins would be subject to breakage. Flying the model bore this out. When you put these fins on, give some thought to extra reinforcement. A good way to do this is with some gauze, soaked in glue, applied to the roots like a fillet.

The Kevlar® string extends a long way from the body and the elastic is nice and long too. The heavy nose cone could give your AA-9 Amos "Estes Dents" if the shock cord was shorter, so kudos to Blackhawk R&D for thinking this through. The best way to attach the recovery system is to tie the elastic to the Kevlar®, and the elastic to the nose cone. Measure about 6" in along the Kevlar® thread from the body tube, attach the streamer here. This will allow the rocket to descend as shown in the diagram. I was in doubt whether the streamer would be enough, but I was wrong.

The only thing I don't like about the rocket is it uses friction fit for the motor. I prefer a motor clip and they're easy to add.

Finishing:
Lot'so fins, so think about how you want to finish them. I did it with three coats of sanding sealer sanding in between coats. This did enough. The spirals on the body were very subtle so I let my primer fill them. I use Kilz primer, which goes on thick, and sands well. One coat will fill the spiral and remaining grain on the fins. It's a pain to sand these fins because of the lack of root area on the aft fins. Still it's a cool looking model. There are very, very few picture of this rocket, and I've never seen a color picture, so let your imagination run wild. Most missiles are going to be grey or white in color. There are no supplied decals due to the lack of existing scale data. I'll bet you could come up with a very convincing look by stealing decals from a 1/72 scale Russian fighter model.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
Recommended motors run the whole gamut of 18mm motors. I would also add the A10-3 with an adapter. Use a short delay for A motors, medium for B or larger. This rocket has a very heavy nose, and lots of fins, so it has a lot of drag. On the other hand, it's pretty small. My flying field was a local park with grass underfoot. The park is a good size baseball field and two soccer fields. The wind was light, but I never worried about this rocket leaving the field. Boost on a Quest A6-4 was rapid. The delay was about 1.5 seconds too long, so an Estes A8-3 or A10-3 (with adapter) would be spot on. Simulations put the altitude around 175'.

The Boost on a B6-4 was more satisfying. Nice high flight and the ejection occurred right at apogee. Simulation shows the altitude at about 525'.

An Estes C6-5 put the rocket up about 1070' and it looked all that. Again, the boost was very straight, fast and pretty. When I got to the C motor, I noticed that one of the tail fins was loose. I taped the fin to the front wing and it held just fine. This is rocket is easy to field repair too. All in all, this is a sweet flier.

Recovery:
I brought a 9" parachute along with me because I doubted that the mylar streamer would be sufficient. The nose cone weighs 0.8 oz and the whole rocket is nearly 1.5 oz. However, I put the streamer near the body, and let the nose cone pull the rocket to the ground. It worked perfectly. The descent rate was rapid and the body stuck out sideways. When the nose hit, the body could slow those last 18" or so. One aft fin got knocked loose after the A motor, but I think this was the one aft fin that wasn't on as well as I liked. No other aft fins showed signs of wear. Had I reinforced the aft fins with gauze or very light fiberglass, they'd handle it fine. The recovery system is a big plus for this rocket. It allows you to fly this small rocket with big motors from a small field. I never walked more than 50' to get this rocket back, even after the high C motor flight.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
I'm excited about this rocket line. The prices are amazing ($9.00 to $10.00) which makes them some of the best values out there. This is one of the smaller rockets in the line, but it's really unique. I took this rocket in its primer coat to the UROC meeting and it created a lot of buzz. I'll tell you what, I'm buying a few more of these rockets. I think that the sounding rocket models such as the Black Brant, Astrobee D or SCUD would be great beginner rockets. The final plus is that Blackhawk R&D uses PayPal which makes buying on line really easy.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5