Burl Finkelstein's Cool Rockets

This trash can led to RTV's first encounter with Burl. He was browsing our site and spotted a photo of it on the NotRocs page. He wrote to us that once he saw it, he just had to have one for his very own. Yes, we cost Burl some money that day. No, it doesn't have a 75mm motor mount. Yet.

This photo is shown at the risk of enflaming the outrageous rumors about the private lifes of RTV members that already flood the Internet. Burl brags about his supportive, rocket-friendly wife; this photo is offered as further proof that she is fictional.

More evidence visible in the back- ground: the toilet seat is UP!

Burl's 3x upscale of the Estes Silver Comet.

This swell retro bird is even cooler on a K550.

Here the Comet is shown with an upscale of the Quest Galileo.

This was Burl's Level 3 rocket, a scale Phoenix Missile.

The Phoenix shown taking off under the power of an N2000.

Burl is the King of Upscaling. A 2x Estes Mars Lander on an I211.

Later revised to include a slightly oversized parachute tube.

Again on an I211, this time flying with the elongated nose.

Burl's 1/5 scale Pershing Missile. He did an absolutely incredible job on this rocket.

Brad was flattered to learn that Burl built this design after first seeing it on this web page of the RTV site.

Here it is flying on a K550 on it's maiden flight (it's flying with just primer in this photo).

Burl's 7.5" V2 rocket -- one of his favorite designs -- on a J415.

His 10" diameter V2 from Skunkworks Rocketry.

Burl flirting with the future Mrs. Finkelstein.

Burl would have us believe that his wife willingly maintains a shrine to Men in Space standing on top of her dresser. Nice doily, Burl.

His favorite mid power rocket - a 4 D cluster staging to a single D or E. It generally but not exactly follows the Launch Pad plans.

The Lessons Learned exploding little lunar express after all the excess foam was trimmed 3X. He owns a full-size Lunar Express kit that he's never built.

He got into a R2D2 thing. The smallest was a candy dispenser converted to a 13mm motor. The large one will have a 54mm motor when completed -- it started out as a promotional cooler. The others are Estes kits.
Very neat.

"I found crayon rockets to be fast, easy to build, and expendable. I guess I started building them faster than I could lose or crash them. I gave them to the kids and now they don't like me to risk flying their rockets. I fly the stuff that takes me weeks to build instead."

He went thru an insect infestation stage. After losing a half dozen estes mosquitoes he made them bigger until he could find them after flight. Then when everyone else stared upscaling mosquitoes he made micro version. It uses a .030 welding rod as a guide rod.

The hollow fiber glass nosecone from the large mosquito. Burl carved it out of foam and glassed it.

Honest John on a J800 . It is a scratch build with a 6-inch body and a 7.5-inch nosecone.

After studying until he ran out of yellow highlighters, he made the last one into a rocket and went out side and flew it.