Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Hangin' Out With 'Mr Cineroc' - Part 2 - The Mad Scientist

In a November 17, 1977 letter, Herb sent along this photo...

Referred to as his 'Mad Scientist' picture, it shows Herb and the launch of a two-staged Vigilante carrying, (what else?) a Cineroc. 
Here are Herb's comments on this particular flight;

"I am enclosing a photo a friend took of me with one of my Cinerocs going off.  I fired the camera on a two-stage D12 powered Vigilante.  It was launched at a field by the World Weather Building in Suitland, Maryland, about 30 minutes from where I live.  The Vigilante has to be adapted a bit to fly it D power and with a Cineroc, but once done it flies really nice."

Herb liked to get very much up-close and personal with his rocket launches.  This was so he could switch the camera on as close to T minus 0 as possible, while another rocketeer did the launch button pushing for him.
He found that he could usually squeeze as many as five flights onto a single Cineroc film pack. Herb felt that having the camera sitting idle while filming the launch pad during a countdown wasted a lot of that valuable film time.