Brief:
For the most part, I'm not much of a scale fan but through the years there have been several scale rockets that I always had an itch to build. The original Estes Mercury Redstone was always a favorite, as were both versions of the Little Joe. Another member of this club was the Bomarc. Bomarc kits are seldom seen since Estes discontinued their version

Construction:
When I saw the Empire Rockets kit on an ROL auction in the fall of 2003, I placed a bid and, much to my surprise, I won the auction. That should have been the start of a beautiful "man meets rocket" story. It wasn't.

When the kit arrived after a delay of several weeks to correct a problem with the ramjet cones, I found that there was a problem with the ramjet cones. I emailed Empire about the problem and was promised a replacement set, but no set ever arrived. Just that quickly my ardor for the project evaporated like a steam cloud. After that, whenever I noticed a post on The Rocketry Forum (TRF) asking about Empire Rockets, I told my story just to keep anyone else from winding up with an incomplete kit like I did. Apparently the Empire folks keep an eye on TRF, because in February, 2006, a whole new Bomarc kit showed up on my doorstep without explanation.

The parts list:

• 1 BT-55 main body tube, 17" long
• 2 BT-50 ramjet tubes, 6" long
• Balsa nose cone
• 18mm motor mount
• 1/8" balsa fin stock
• 1/4" balsa dorsal conduit
• 2 1/4" balsa ramjet pylons
• 2 balsa ramjet cones
• 2 round toothpicks
• clay nose weight
• 17" parachute
• snap swivel
• barrel swivel
• Kevlar® shock cord
• 36" elastic shock cord

The second Bomarc kit arrived in a plastic bag with no header card or hang tag. All of the parts were in good shape and the ramjet cones fit like I always hoped my first set would. I found the instructions to be decently written albeit somewhat complicated. (Although I should add that since this was marked as a skill level 4 kit, I didn't think they were excessively complicated.)

Construction wasn't difficult and there was nothing that I'd have considered as a "gotcha". Making sure things square up isn't difficult, and taking the time to do this makes a definite difference in the finished model. I have to admit, I was more than a little impressed with the model that resulted from my efforts.

Finishing:
I flew the Bomarc unfinished due to time constraints. I had taken the time to fill, seal, and sand all the balsa and tubes so it was ready for paint. It would have looked great as a desk model once it was painted and applied the decals. If only I'd have kept it on a desk. From a cosmetic standpoint, all I'd suggest for this kit is a better set of pictures for painting. I'd also suggest that Empire should include decals.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
Empire recommended a B6-4 for the first flight, but I went with the C6-5 due to the weight of the model. The model balanced near the front of the ram tubes which seemed within reason. Winds were topping out about 6 to 8 mph, but were more consistently around 3 to 5 mph. This also seemed within reason.

The rocket looked fine on the way up until around the 50' mark when it suddenly changed from vertical to horizontal almost as if it was rebounding off of an unseen glass ceiling. It flew back over the flight line and for a moment looked like it was going to hit one of the large concrete bases that were left from the towers that once stood at the VOA. It just missed and disappeared behind the monolith. I was disappointed and slowly began making my way over to pick up the pieces.

I found the rocket sitting near a black patch of grass. It took me a moment to realize that the grass was black because it was burning. I yelled to the two guys I was flying with and between the three of us we were able to get the fire out before the fire department arrived. (If nothing else, I developed a whole new respect for firefighters--that's tough work.) In the end, the body of the rocket was spared, but the nose cone, parachute, and shock cord were destroyed. I was pretty sure my Bomarc days were over.

Several weeks later, it began to gnaw at me. This kit had been sent to replace an incomplete earlier kit, and I still had the parts from that first kit down in my shop in a bag. After locating the nose cone, I mated it to the body of the second kit and set out to find some information about trimming a Bomarc for flight. Someone who'd had experience with trimming the Bomarc suggested that I trim it so that the CG was 1/2 inch in front of the ramjet cones. I stuffed enough clay into the plastic cone to bring the CG up to that point. I then waited for a scheduled flight weekend that wasn't either rainy or windy. Then I waited some more. It took until May for us to get a suitable weekend, but it was worth the wait. With nothing but a very light breeze I loaded the Bomarc with the B6-4 that the directions specified for the first flight.

Once again, the C6-5 proved to be the Bomarc's nemesis. This time the rocket didn't even leave the pad looking like it would go straight. Instead it swapped ends and landed in the tall grass, fortunately still damp from rain the previous night. It smoked through the coast phase, then blew the nose cone into the soft earth, officially ending its career as a flying model.

Recovery:
Recovery was a bit hard to judge as the parachute was only used on one out of the three flights. One parachute melted in the fire, the other one worked on the one flight but never got unfurled due to the third flight being on the ground before the boost phase had ended.

Flight Rating: 2 out of 5

Summary:
After two years and three months, I was really looking forward to flying this rocket and I was determined to put the customer service experience behind me. The Bomarc builds great and I have no doubt that it would make a great looking bird when finished, but based on what I saw, it has no business flying without modifications or, at the very least, trimming instructions that are as detailed as the build instructions.

PROs: Decent quality parts. Well thought out assembly instructions.

CONs: Terrible customer service. No trimming instructions.

Overall Rating: 1 out of 5