Brief:
A 38mm minimum diameter all fiberglass rocket of unparalleled quality.

Construction:
The rocket airframe is spiral wound solid fiberglass tubing. The kit included the main airframe plus a payload section, with a fiberglass coupler and plywood bulkhead. The nose cone is solid resin, with no casting marks. The fins are the molded Acme 38mm fin canister. Motor retention is provided by an AeroPak 38mm aluminum retainer. The shock cord is Kevlar®, the chute by Rocketman, and Alan also included a Nomex® heat shield. Alan even included the Acme conformal launch lugs.

For a rocket that can break Mach 1 without a sweat, this is one easy rocket to put together. The hardest part is milling out the bottom of the fin canister to fit over the AeroPak retainer....just cosmetic. The whole kit can be easily put together in the time it takes 30min epoxy to dry. Just make sure that you sand all of the areas to be epoxied....remember, it's fiberglass, and has to be grooved. Because of the fin canister, this kit is as easy as the Estes E2X kits....I would consider it "almost ready to fly"!

Finishing:
What can I say? Solid fiberglass...no spiral lines, a nose cone without any injection marks....this rocket is almost pristine. The fin canister is the only part that needs a little work. But a coat of finishing epoxy, and you are in business.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
I've flown it 3 times now. I195J, I211W, I435T. The 195J came in ballistic because of a bad ejection charge. Alan sent me a new airframe and it has been rebuilt. The I435T broke mach. Because of the Nomex® shield, no wadding is required. The flight was arrow straight right up to 5000' and came down quite fast on that tiny chute. I'd love to see one of the bigger Kosdon motors in this tiny thing.

Recovery:
The chute is small, but still tough to get into the frame. Alan suggests using a twisting motion to slip it into the frame. I packed the cord in first, and then the chute lines, followed by the chute. The recovery is very fast on the tiny chute, but that is intended because of the super high flights. The Acme canister can take quite a beating, however.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This has got to be the highest quality kit I have put together to date. Alan took every great product on the market and put a kit together. The only problem is that I want to fly a 54mm J800! Guess what....the Transonic II is the 54mm version! The kits are, however, very expensive. But, there's always room for the Ferrari.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5