What colors/scheme were the real Arcons?

[foamy]

Photos of the Arcon are very scarce. I've found three and none of them are clear on the paint scheme or pattern. Since they're black and white photos—no color is apparent. In what looks like the manufacturer's photo, it's not painted.

Does anyone have information on what these rockets really looked like? Educated guesses?

These are the two best photos I've been able to find.
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee215/Savaje/Artwork%20Album/arcarconlaunch.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee215/Savaje/Artwork%20Album/arcarcon21.jpg

[blackshire]

Peter Alway published a scale data packet on the Arcon that is in one of his books, which NARTS (NAR Technical Services) carry. He covered the Arcon round in your photos and another round that was painted in the Arcas-style (white with red trim and black lettering) "ARC corporate paint job."

[foamy]

Thanks blackshire, an intense search of "Peter Alway" turned up the first paint scheme (the one in the photos above) that I've seen. Looks to be black and bare metal with those two white side pods, whatever they may be. This is about what I'm looking at:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee215/Savaje/Artwork%20Album/Arcon.png
Composited from a scale drawing, the above photo and a very, very small preview image from P.A.'s supplement.

I think I'll reserve the Arca's "corporate scheme" for some time down the road—should I ever build one. The Arcon scheme is uninspired, but it looks fairly industrial.

On a side note: I find it curious that a sounding rocket as small, unsuccessful and as little used as the Arcon, should live on, almost continuously, as a model rocket. Very odd.

[jeffyjeep]

It's too bad that Landru was destroyed, or you could ask him. :D

Thank you. I'll be here all week.

Stay in school.

[foamy]

You've lost me. But then, it doesn't take much.

[jeffyjeep]

Star Trek (TOS), #22, The Return Of the Archons :D

I suppose it would have been funnier if it was spelled the same way.

[blackshire]

Star Trek (TOS), #22, The Return Of the Archons :D

I suppose it would have been funnier if it was spelled the same way.I wonder if the refrain of Landru's hood-wearing goons ("You will be absorbed.") was the inspiration for the Borg's trademark threat/promise ("You will be assimilated.")?

[blackshire]

Thanks blackshire, an intense search of "Peter Alway" turned up the first paint scheme (the one in the photos above) that I've seen. Looks to be black and bare metal with those two white side pods, whatever they may be. This is about what I'm looking at:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee215/Savaje/Artwork%20Album/Arcon.png
Composited from a scale drawing, the above photo and a very, very small preview image from P.A.'s supplement.If memory serves, the white pods were antennas.I think I'll reserve the Arca's "corporate scheme" for some time down the road—should I ever build one. The Arcon scheme is uninspired, but it looks fairly industrial.

On a side note: I find it curious that a sounding rocket as small, unsuccessful and as little used as the Arcon, should live on, almost continuously, as a model rocket. Very odd.I think the Arcon is a perennial scale model rocket for three reasons:

[1] The world's second model rocket kit was a scale Arcon kit produced in the late 1950s by MMI (Model Missiles, Inc.), after their Aerobee-Hi kit was released. MMI's Arcon kit did not come with the finless booster. In the early 1960s, Centuri produced a larger Arcon kit (also lacking the booster) and a two-stage "semi-scale" variant of their Arcon kit called the Arcon-Hi (which never existed as a full-scale vehicle) that had large fins on its booster (Semroc offers "Retro-Repro" reproductions of both Centuri kits).

[2] Like the IQSY Tomahawk (which is also a common scale model rocket despite the fact that only four rounds of the full-scale rocket are known to have been flown), the Arcon was a vehicle for which scale data was readily available.

[3] The Arcon was a simple vehicle, which makes it a good beginner's scale project and makes for a high-performance model. (I do not look down on "simple scalers" such as the Arcon, as I like "boring" 3FNC/4FNC model rockets because simplicity is beautiful, and because they *look* like rockets.)

[foamy]

snip... (I do not look down on "simple scalers" such as the Arcon, as I like "boring" 3FNC/4FNC model rockets because simplicity is beautiful, and because they *look* like rockets.)

I agree. I like building regular rockets for the reasons you stated. I also like retro-futuristic rockets for almost the opposite reasons. They tend to be outlandish in an old-fashioned way and I appreciate nice curves (on whatever).

Antenna pods, eh? They'd be easy enough to make and they'd add a bit of interest and differentiate it from some other, similar rockets. I may do that.

Again, thanks for your insights and the Alway tip.

[blackshire]

I agree. I like building regular rockets for the reasons you stated.The Arcon's clean, uncluttered lines and tapered boat-tail should enable your scale model of it to fly high even on lower-impulse motors. Also, it should have enough excess stability margin to be CHAD-staged ("CHeap And Dirty" staging, using just a booster motor with no fins; the British Skylark 7 and Skylark 12 sounding rockets also used finless boosters).I also like retro-futuristic rockets for almost the opposite reasons. They tend to be outlandish in an old-fashioned way and I appreciate nice curves (on whatever).The folks who select the photographs for the Mischka Press Draft Horse Calendars certainly have a good aesthetic sense for depicting draft mares' curves... For rockets, I certainly concur--the V-2 and its form-inspired descendants (the American MX-774 and the Soviet R-2) do have the classic "Rocketship" look.Antenna pods, eh? They'd be easy enough to make and they'd add a bit of interest and differentiate it from some other, similar rockets. I may do that.They could even be functional antennas. You could build an Estes Transroc 11 meter band (CB band) transmitter using one of the Transroc version schematics here (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/TransrocOwnersManual.pdf ) and connect it to the antennas through a simple capacitor-and-coil "L-match" antenna matching network. The antennas could be utilized as either a radiator-and-counterpoise set (essentially a dipole antenna) or as two radiating elements (connected in parallel to the transmitter's antenna output) worked against another counterpoise (foil or metal mesh wrapped around the inside or outside of the body tube but not directly beneath the radiating elements).Again, thanks for your insights and the Alway tip.You're most welcome.

[foamy]

The Arcon's clean, uncluttered lines and tapered boat-tail should enable your scale model of it to fly high even on lower-impulse motors. Also, it should have enough excess stability margin to be CHAD-staged ("CHeap And Dirty" staging, using just a booster motor with no fins; the British Skylark 7 and Skylark 12 sounding rockets also used finless boosters).

Interesting. I have an Arcon Hi with the non-scale booster that's waiting to be built. The thought that I could just tape on a booster and have it look more scale-like never occurred to me even though I've seen all the fin-less boosters on other folks scale Aerobee's, Iris's and such like. I'll look into that. Thanks again for yet another great tip.

[jharding58]

This is from the ROTW 2000 supplement. I would strongly suggest that you get hold of the original publication and the supplements.

[sandman]

So some of them basically were the same color scheme as the ARCAS.

[foamy]

This is from the ROTW 2000 supplement. I would strongly suggest that you get hold of the original publication and the supplements.

Good advice and thank you much for posting the spec diagrams.

I wonder what the extra section and antennae were all about on the first rocket. Guess I'll just have to buy the books and maybe I'll find out.

If I can make the time, there are photos of the Arcon in a personal collection in the Air & Space Museum's archives. They're in the process of moving to a new location and don't have photocopying capabilities at the moment. I'm sure they'd be of interest.

[jharding58]

You gotta love that cartoon bandage cross taping of the instrument leads on the sides of the rocket. Reminds me of the first time I realized that the "silver stripe" adjacent to the conduit on the WAC was actually duct tape...

[rocket_james]

I have an Arcas by Peter Alway. There are two signatures on the"face card". I cannot read them. One looks Pet Oz and the other Walu ? Any body have a clue?

[Jerry Irvine]

IIRC G Harry worked on both the Arcon and the Asp which is why so much data is available on otherwise unnoteworthy rockets. Also their fins are big enough for a scale model rocket to be stable, unlike the Patriot.

Jerry

[foamy]

IIRC G Harry worked on both the Arcon and the Asp which is why so much data is available on otherwise unnoteworthy rockets. Also their fins are big enough for a scale model rocket to be stable, unlike the Patriot.

Jerry
Hm. I've poked around about as much as I can. Air & Space hasn't replied since about the time of my last post here. I have access to quite a bit of data, but some things are either not extensively documented or have sunk pretty deep. You have to know the person who knows where the bodies are buried.

Any info you can point me to, on the Arcon would be appreciated.

[Ez2cDave]

BW launch photo of the ARCON.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7533/15487516680_532c68e94c_o.jpg

Dave F.

[PeterAlway]

I have an Arcas by Peter Alway. There are two signatures on the"face card". I cannot read them. One looks Pet Oz and the other Walu ? Any body have a clue?

I find this deeply amusing! Yes, my signature is that unintelligible. I don't actually write my name when I sign. I just *think* my name while scribbling!

Petoz Walu

[PeterAlway]

This is from the ROTW 2000 supplement. I would strongly suggest that you get hold of the original publication and the supplements.

The black and silver paint scheme is based on two photos of a flight round. One is the same photo that Dave Fitch posted recently, and the other was the same rocket close up on the launch rail. The photos were B&W, but the black was pretty black, and not likely some other dark color. The silver was clearly bare metal, but of course, it's not impossible that it was anodized some color.

As I recall, only four Arcons flew in one series of launches, so it seems likely that they all had that color scheme, and the pretty Arcas-like scheme was probably just for a display/advertising round.