A recent addition to my fleet, the Semroc SPEV is a great little (big!) rocket. The SPEV officially stands for "Space Exploration Vehicle" however rumour has it that it's really a "Spare Parts Elimination Venture"... Either way, this is a rocket that you will either love or hate! A retro-repo kit originally released by Estes in 1972 and looks every bit the vintage.
The number of parts that Semroc have packed into their customary plastic bag is impressive -
- 3 different sizes of body tube
- 2 transitions
- Stubby little nosecone
- Laser cut fins
- Decals, Recovery & Engine mount
The original mounting position for the parachute is in the first (largest) section of body tube directly below the lower transition. I decided to drill out the centre of the transition and put the parachute in the middle section of body tube. I figure that this will do two things - It puts the parachute furthe away from the hot ejection gasses and I will be able to use less wadding.
I have flown it twice on C6-5's and very happy with the performance.
Painted up as per the illustration (or as best as I can figure since they only show one side of the rocket!!). The results are a very NASA-esque looking rocket that stands a little over 2" tall :)