Hello from Tucson, AZ (USA)

[redmonds]

Hello All, I just found this site, and hope to be a contributing member.
I remember forty years ago (eek!) the small red nose cone and white body rocket you could buy that came with a small hand pump. I seem to remember claims it would go 300 ft up. I don't know if this was true or not, but it sure seemed to go high and fast. Just a jew years ago I saw a copy of one of these rockets at a 99 cent store, being nostagic, I brought it thinking it would perform like I had remembered. Oh how wrong I could be! The pump was so bady made it would not build up any pressure at all. I guess you get what you pay for (99 cents). Forty years ago a kid on the block at a two stage version of this rocket. I have never seen one like it again. The second stage looked like the small red and white rocket and the first stage looked like a larger version of the second stage. Does anyone here (who's old!) know anything about this rocket? Years later I had a all red two stage water rocket, but it was more of a tall tube shape. Any way I have a good air pump with a pressure gage now and I want to build some rockets!

Russ E.

[rockets-in-brighton]

Hello All, I just found this site, and hope to be a contributing member.
I remember forty years ago (eek!) the small red nose cone and white body rocket you could buy that came with a small hand pump. I seem to remember claims it would go 300 ft up. I don't know if this was true or not, but it sure seemed to go high and fast. Just a jew years ago I saw a copy of one of these rockets at a 99 cent store, being nostagic, I brought it thinking it would perform like I had remembered. Oh how wrong I could be! The pump was so bady made it would not build up any pressure at all. I guess you get what you pay for (99 cents). Forty years ago a kid on the block at a two stage version of this rocket. I have never seen one like it again. The second stage looked like the small red and white rocket and the first stage looked like a larger version of the second stage. Does anyone here (who's old!) know anything about this rocket? Years later I had a all red two stage water rocket, but it was more of a tall tube shape. Any way I have a good air pump with a pressure gage now and I want to build some rockets!

Russ E.

Hi Russ, welcome to the forum. I am old, but I don't recall these water rockets from my childhood in the UK, I think they were just a USA thing, but I've seen lots of chat about them and there are a few sites around that have documented them. There are better modern equivalents to the commercial water rockets of old as well, such as Antigravity Research and Pitsco, but I think we'd agree here that it is more satisfying to buidl your own.

[WRA2]

Hello All, I just found this site, and hope to be a contributing member.
I remember forty years ago (eek!) the small red nose cone and white body rocket you could buy that came with a small hand pump. I seem to remember claims it would go 300 ft up. I don't know if this was true or not, but it sure seemed to go high and fast. Just a jew years ago I saw a copy of one of these rockets at a 99 cent store, being nostagic, I brought it thinking it would perform like I had remembered. Oh how wrong I could be! The pump was so bady made it would not build up any pressure at all. I guess you get what you pay for (99 cents). Forty years ago a kid on the block at a two stage version of this rocket. I have never seen one like it again. The second stage looked like the small red and white rocket and the first stage looked like a larger version of the second stage. Does anyone here (who's old!) know anything about this rocket? Years later I had a all red two stage water rocket, but it was more of a tall tube shape. Any way I have a good air pump with a pressure gage now and I want to build some rockets!

Russ E.

I believe you are referring to the Park plastics water rocket. They also made that 2 stage rocket as well. The Park plastics water rocket was the inspiration for the formation of the WRA2

Welcome to the forum

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Hello All, I just found this site, and hope to be a contributing member.
I remember forty years ago (eek!) the small red nose cone and white body rocket you could buy that came with a small hand pump. I seem to remember claims it would go 300 ft up. I don't know if this was true or not, but it sure seemed to go high and fast. Just a jew years ago I saw a copy of one of these rockets at a 99 cent store, being nostagic, I brought it thinking it would perform like I had remembered. Oh how wrong I could be! The pump was so bady made it would not build up any pressure at all. I guess you get what you pay for (99 cents). Forty years ago a kid on the block at a two stage version of this rocket. I have never seen one like it again. The second stage looked like the small red and white rocket and the first stage looked like a larger version of the second stage. Does anyone here (who's old!) know anything about this rocket? Years later I had a all red two stage water rocket, but it was more of a tall tube shape. Any way I have a good air pump with a pressure gage now and I want to build some rockets!

Russ E.

Hello Russ, and welcome to the Water Rocket Forum!

We also got our start with the red and white park plastics water rockets. We had good luck with the pumps when we used them, even though the pumps were very small. The "clone" versions that are sold in toy stores these days have a really bad pump. The main rod is plastic and not metal, so the pump is nearly useless and brakes with minimal force.

We never had a 2 stage version like you describe. Do you have a recollection how the stage system worked? It would be good to see how they tacked the stage problem.

Thanks for sharing your memories!

[Jelo]

welcome!

[redmonds]

I found this picture of the park's two stage and parachute water rockets on vintage toys web site.
Thanks for the park plastics co. lead.

PARKS_SPACE_SHIP_WATER_ROCKETS_BOX_CONTENTS.jpg (179.76 KiB) Viewed 39 times

Here is a picture of the instructions I can't read them.
Russ E.

PARKS_SPACE_SHIP_WATER_ROCKETS_BOX_INSTRUCTIONS.jpg (142.76 KiB) Viewed 39 times

[RebelRockets]

Welcome Russ!

I was able to read a Patent 2,732,657 from those instructions. You can get that patent free online at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2732657.pdf.
It is not so much about rockets but a jet powered toy plane with a parachute.
There is one of those smaller red/blue Park's rockets in my basement now. It was from the plain rocket set I got back in the early 60's. The plastic has not aged well, probably from the heat of so many summers stored in a hot attic.

Dennis

[skip77]

New member adding to old topic - I was remembering my older brother who passed away 5 yrs ago and have many great memories with him because he was a budding scientist. He did all kinds of cool things that I never saw another human attempt - experimenting, exploring, testing his understanding of the world. Well, a couple days ago for reasons unknown to me, images of Bobby shooting his water rockets came back to me. Man, that is one of the earliest memories I have of Bobby doing these kinds of things. We were in the backyard of my pop pop's house. Bobby had the Park's blue and red rocket kit - the plain one because the rockets were short and stubby. He had a little kids plastic beach bucket filled with water and if I remember correctly he would submerge the rockets into that bucket to get them about half filled with water. Then he pumped them up (i thought he pumped them up in his hands and not on a ground launcher - do not remember a ground launcher) but when he shot them off... man did they go! They went so high that we could not see them with a loud HISS and spraying water... I was amazed. Every rocket landed in the backyard just a few feet from us - must have been no wind that day. Bobby would dance around trying to catch them. Just an amazing toy and I was wondering if they could be purchased today? I'm not interested in the cheaply made copies described in the posts above. Wonderful memories - great toys back then, huh?