Madcow Rocketry U.S. Army Little John Missile

I built this huge kit in my garage at home with the garage door open. The neighbors stared, open-mouthed, as they drove by. There's still a guy in a rubber tree suit with binoculars in the park across the street.

The LITTLE JOHN was a free flight artillery rocket designed to deliver the explosive power of heavy artillery. It could carry either nuclear or conventional warheads. Designed primarily for use in airborne assault operations, the highly mobile LITTLE JOHN rocket system complemented the heavier, self-propelled HONEST JOHN systems. The LITTLE JOHN reached the field in November 1961 and remained in the Army inventory until August 1969.

So, be prepared to get to know your neighbors a little better if you build one of these. You might even get the opportunity to get to know the local constabulary.

The Madcow Rocketry 4-inch (10.2 cm) diameter Little John Missile is a HPR capable model in every aspect. You'll find that it is the perfect rocket if you'd like to get your Level-1 High-Power Certification because it is very robust to handle the stresses of high power flight. And it is a simple rocket to build, so you'll be able to get ready for your certification flight in a short amount of time.

This is a tough appliance, engineered around functionality. It ain't pretty. All your friends will want to pick it up and examine it closely. But they'll be careful.

The kit comes with high power cardboard tubes, a thick-wall polyethylene-plastic nose cone with a heavy duty moulded-in attchment point for the shock cord, 1/4-inch thick plywood fins using through-the-wall attachement, a 1/2-inch wide tubular nylon shock cord, and a 36 inch diameter nylon parachute. It even comes with a flame-resistent chute protector so you don't ever need to use recovery wadding.

All in all, this is an awesome rocket. I recommend that you get one today

Premium Quality Body Tubes - The tubes in this kit are thick-wall for extra strength. They'll easily handle the high thrust of big motors. The surface is slick and smooth, which makes marking lines on them easy. Finishing is also a breeze, since the spirals are tight and require little filling. The fin slots are pre-cut and are a perfect fit for the plywood fins.

1/4-inch Thick Plywood fins - No whimpy lite-ply in this kit; these fins are made from 5-layer thick, high-density, premium plywood. You'll never break these babies, and you won't have to worry about fin flutter on high-speed flights. Plus, they are laser cut. This makes them perfectly uniform, and saves you the time of doing the stack-sanding yourself.

Through-the-Wall Fin Mounting - Tabs on the base of the fins are slipped through slots in the body tube and mount directly to the engine mount tube. This makes the fins extra strong.

38mm Engine Mount Tubes - This rocket is designed to handle high-power size engines, like the G through J size rocket motors. You can fly the Little John on 29mm G motors, but you'll need an optional 29-38mm adaptor.

Plywood Centering Rings - Like the fins, the 1/4" thick plywood used on the rings is 5-ply to make them extra strong. The rear centering ring epoxies to the fin tabs, which results in an incredibly strong fincan.

Glossy vinyl decals - The laser-cut decals are pressure-sensitive stickers that are ready to apply. They come with tape backing on both sides of the letters. You peel off one side, slap it down in the right position on the rocket, and then peel up the other side. There is no glossy plastic that hangs over the edges of the lettering to distract from the appearance of the rocket. The plastic is black, so if you want white lettering like we did, you can spray the rocket white first, let it dry, and use the vinyl lettering as a mask.

Rail Buttons. With a kit this big, you don't launch from a rod. You use a long extruded aluminum rail. The Delrin-plastic rail buttons are included with the kit and fit the standard size rail launchers used by many clubs throughout the country. The rail buttons screw through the body into the plywood motor mount centering rings, which is an elegant engineering touch.

Solid steel recovery system mount. This beefy eyebold fastens through a laser-cut hole in the forward engine mount centering ring.

Madcow believes that if you're considering this kit, you know a few things about rockets. The kit is astonishingly simple to build, and the instructions are par for the course. So you're on your own when it comes to such minor issues as motor retention and stability.

The main reason this is a Skill Level 3 is that the instructions call for epoxy as the primary adhesive. This may be a little bit overkill, as the through-the-wall fins are nicely machined and the fit itself makes them quite strong when assemblied with wood glue.

Epoxy can be messy and cause an allergic reaction in some people. Adult supervision and nitrile gloves are recommended when working with epoxy.

This Little John Missile is a big rocket that uses heavy wall tubes. While the tubes don't make the rocket any harder to assemble, the finished rocket does require extra safety precautions when flown. Patience and aquired flying skills to know when NOT to fly are just as important as quality construction techniques.

You'll need to download the Rocksim file for this kit and use it. No nose cone weight comes with the kit, but you must add nose weight for all of the motor options. You need to determine the correct nose weight for the heaviest motor you intend to fly, and mark the center of pressure on the rocket so you'll never try to fly a motor that makes the rocket unstable. Ever see an I or J powered skywriter? It's not pretty.

Click on the above image for a larger picture of the Little John Missile on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The museum piece has a different fin configuration, but it's the same cool missile.

Tools needed to assemble this rocket kit:

• Pencil
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Masking Tape
• Hobby Knife
• Wood Glue or 5-Minute Epoxy

To Launch This Rocket Kit, You'll Also Need:

• Rocket Motors (Not included with this kit - See the motor selection above)
• Launch Pad (see below for suggestions) & Launch Controller (Not included with this kit)

Q. What launch pad should I use for this kit and other high power rockets?

A. We recommend the Gun Turret pad. With its all steel construction, and tilting head, this pad was developed specifically for people that want something that makes it easy to load and launch those oversize rockets.

Q. What launch controller can I use to ignite the motors?

A. We offer two different controllers that can be used for mid and high-power size rockets. The Aerotech Interlock and the Pratt Hobbies GO-BOX Controller.

Q. How do I go about getting High Power Certified?

A. Click here for more information on getting Level 1 certified.

Q. Question

A. Answer

Q. I need help selecting motors. What should I do? Can you teach me how to select them myself?

A. Watch this YouTube video - How to Select Model Rocket Engines

We encourage you to learn the proper motor selection technique. Please watch our YouTube video that will walk you step-by-step through the process