This was my first time building a Public Enemy kit and it was a very enjoyable experience. The parts are high quality which is always a good thing. The fins being beveled was a very welcome surprise. The thrusters are somewhat fragile. Two of them had chipped slightly during shipping. The chipped off pieces were glued back into place without a problem. The Honest John kit wasn't built stock. Some changes are described below. Others include substituting rail buttons (with standoffs) for the brass lugs and adding an Aeropack motor retainer. The real version of this rocket is a free-flight rocket which is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. First deployed in 1954, the Honest John was classified as obsolete in 1982. The solid-fuel propelled rocket came complete with a launch system, mounted on a truck. This provided the US military with a mobile rocket solution.

Parts List

The PER Honest John rocket kit comes complete with all parts required to build this high power rocket.

Parts are listed as shown in the image, left to right, top to bottom. - payload section - pre-slotted airframe tube with coupler - nose cone coupler - 38mm motor tube - 2 nose cone halves - 2 bulkheads and 1 eyebolt - 3 centering rings - 2 brass launch lugs - 4 beveled plywood fins (1/4") - 4 thrusters (for nose cone) - bright orange nylon shock cord - bright red 36" rip-stop parachute - instruction sheets (not shown in the picture) No decals are included with the kit.

Instructions say to use 5, 15 or 30 minute epoxy to build the rocket. For this review a combination of 30 minute epoxy and West Systems (with colloidal silica for fillets) was used.

Construction

First is the nose cone. The two halves are joined and the extra-long coupler is inserted into the nose cone. 30 minute epoxy was used to join the two halves and where the coupler meets the lower and upper cone cone halve. The four thrusters are glued to the completed nose cone, as you can see in the next image.

The nose cone is very large and impressive looking. Here you can see the finished nose cone next to a 29" long TLP Seawolf. The section where the two nose cone halves join was not filled. This, in my opinion, adds some nice detail to the nose cone.

The motor mount and fins are next. Here, I deviated slightly from the instructions to get three sets of fin fillets instead of two. The shock cord was replaced with tubular Kevlar and glued to the motor mount, between to two top centering rings. The aft centering ring was not yet glued into place. The body tube is slotted all the way to the back. This lets you tack the fins in place and slide the entire motor mount and fin assembly out of the airframe. Next, fin fillets are added. Once the epoxy for the fillets between motor tube and fins cures, the fin can is attached into the airframe.

As the aft centering ring was not yet glued in place, it was removed and internal fin fillets (fin to inside airframe) were added. When done, the aft centering ring was epoxied into place.

Now the external fin fillets can be created, as shown in the image on the right. The body tube has a plastic film around it. When sliding my fingers over it, I could ever so slightly feel the spirals. This, and a previous experience with a similar (not Public Enemy) body tube caused me to remove the plastic film. This is not something the instructions call for. Also, a friend who has build another PER kit did not remove the film and the finish is super-smooth, no spirals can be seen. As I did opt to remove the film, the spirals had to be filled (with wood filler). At this point, the rocket's plywood fins were also filled with wood filler. I also made a small design change. To create more parachute packing space, I joined the airframe and the payload bay with the coupler. I had no plans to use an altimeter with the kit anyway. Some CA was soaked into the top of the airframe and the bottom of the nose cone shoulder. This was done in order to prevent fraying.

Measurements

The PER Honest John flying model rocket measures 54" long and has a 3" diameter. The nose cone has a diameter of about 4".

Finishing

To smooth out the fillets after sanding, some wool filler was painted over the fillets. Once dry, it was sanded off. This filled the large gaps which existed in the fillets. The smaller imperfections in the fillets and elsewhere were filled with white putty. As I had removed the clear frame from the airframe, the Honest John needed lots and lots of sanding. If you don't like sanding, I'd strongly suggest against removing the film. Starting with 100 grit sandpapers, I worked my way down to 400 grit, with three coats of primer during the process. The image on the right shows the high power rocket after its second coat of primer. After the final coat of primer, the Honest John was sanded smooth and painted entirely with Army Green Rust-Oleum protective enamel spray. Did I use the bright orange shock cord? No. Did I use the bright red parachute? No, it was replaced with a 44" Classic Skyangle. Did I paint it green, you bet! This may not have been the best of all ideas from a visibility standpoint... only time will tell. I suppose it could have been worse, like olive drab.

Flight Data

Public Enemy Rockets (PER) doesn't really provide a set of recommended motors. This would be hard to do as each rocket is build differently and varies in weight. They simply say the Honest John will fly on H & I motors or even a J350.

The first flight was on an I161W-M which was a very enjoyable flight. As straight as an arrow and some whistling at the end for an added bonus. Couldn't ask for more for a maiden flight.

For the next flight, an I211W-M was used. Talk about a fun flight, Rocksim had it at 2800+ feet.

Video : Honest John on an I211 I357 Blue Thunder

Once the parachute opened, everything went great, until it landed on a road. Amazingly enough, the fins took very little damage. The body tube did get bend above the fin can. Shouldn't be too hard to fix.

After fixing the rocket, it was flown on an I357. Usually I'm not the biggest Blue Thunder fan, but the Honest John rocks on this motor. Nice, big flame, quick boost followed by whistling and deployment at apogee. Then, for a perfect flight, it touched down closely to the pad.

If you're looking for something to fly on I motors, I'd strongly suggest considering the HJ as a candidate.