Halley's Tail

Kit# 1952

Black Plastic Hang Tag

  

Images by Gerry Fortin

Designer: Unknown

Production Years: 1986-1987

Retail Pricing Range: $5.95

Rarity: Scarce

Description: The Estes Halley's Tail model rocket kit #1952 was available only during 1986 and 1987 to leverage the last appearance of Halley's Comet in our inner solar system in 1986. The kit is packaged with plastic black hang tag and a facecard illustrating a rocket in the tail of Halley's Comet; therefore the rocket naming.

Hang Tag (Header Card) Guide

Halley's Tail is a simple 4FNC rocket build with a three color chrome decal. The rocket ejects "a fun flying "comet" with streaming "tail" It is powered by a 18mm engine and Estes estimates that the sport rocket is capable of flights up to 800 feet.

Researching Halley's Comet from Wikipedia produced these findings;

Halley's Comet is the best-known of the short-period comets, and is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime. Other naked-eye comets may be brighter and more spectacular, but will appear only once in thousands of years. During its 1986 apparition, Halley became the first comet to be observed in detail by spacecraft, providing the first observational data on the structure of a comet nucleus and the mechanism of coma and tail formation. These observations supported a number of longstanding hypotheses about comet construction, particularly Fred Whipple's "dirty snowball" model, which correctly predicted that Halley would be composed of a mixture of volatile ices – such as water, carbon dioxide and ammonia – and dust. The missions also provided data which substantially reformed and reconfigured these ideas; for instance it is now understood that Halley's surface is largely composed of dusty, non-volatile materials, and that only a small portion of it is icy. Further reading is recommended at http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/comets/halley.html.

 

Kit Contents: The kit contains a main body tube, plastic nose cone, die cut balsa for fins, 18mm engine mount with centering rings, three color chrome decal, launch lug and instruction sheet.

Availability: This kit is considered to be scarce due to a short release period and occasionally appearances on eBay.

Additional information can be found at the following link;

Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe Plans: Estes1952

Specifications: Length:16.75", Diameter: 0.976", Weight: 1.41 oz.

Recommended 18 mm Engines: A8-3, B4-4, B6-4, B8-5, C6-5

 

Estes Catalog Artwork

 

Back to Estes Database