I.Q.S.Y. Tomahawk
I wanted to do another Rocketry Online How-to Classroom forum series and polled the readers for a topic. The winner was a class on building a high-power kit, emphasizing proper techniques.
Good first kits are available from many manufacturers, notably
Public Missiles, Ltd.
and
Loc/Precision.
As suggested by Darrell Mobley, the kit I decided to build was the
Yank Enterprises 4" IQSY Tomahawk (with 54mm motor mount tube).
These are high-quality kits with good materials and I'd never built one before.
(Plus, I'm a sucker for scale rockets.)
Note that Yank Enterprises was subsequently purchased by
Loc/Precision.
The series was originally posted in the Rocketry Online forums and is still available here on my site.
The Pictures
![Yank I.Q.S.Y. Tomahawk](images/yanktomahawk/yanktomahawk.jpg)
The Kit
Immediately upon opening the package I was impressed with the kit. The airframe tubes are flexible phenolic and all the parts are good quality. No paper or brittle phenolic tubes and no elastic!
![Yank Tomahawk kit](images/yanktomahawk/yanktomahawkkit.jpg)
You can see the parts from the kit spread out for inspection in the photo above. Despite being a very basic rocket, the kit is well designed and is a good candidate for improving on, as I demonstrate in the H.P.R. Kit Building article.