Auk Evaluations

Auk 1:
During the late 1950’s the space race began. This was a race to see who could achieve the most space firsts, between the USA and Russia. Sonny, O’Dell, Sherman, Roy Lee and Quentin live in Coalwood, West Virginia.The space race inspired these boys, who decide to call themselves the Rocket Boys, to make their own rockets. The BCMA (Big Creek Missile Agency) was born when Sonny called a meeting with his friends in his room and discussed how he wanted to build rockets. With the help from the a man at the town’s machine shop, Mr.Bykovski, the BCMA built its first rocket, called Auk I. The rocket was named after an extinct bird that was unable to fly. Auk I was equipped with a wooden bullet shaped nose cone, an aluminum tubing body, fins, and a soldered washer at the bottom. The boys mixed together black powder and postage stamp glue to act as fuel for their rocket. The rocket flew up 6ft, and then fell back down. The rocket boys later found out that the reason their rocket stopped flying was because the solder melted. The BCMA was happy with the result from the rocket, because it was their first ever rocket to fly.

Auk II:
The Auk II was based off of corrections from Auk I. For example, it was discovered in the last rocket that the solder had melted because the heat from the fuel burning was too hot. In order to fix this problem, it was decided that a weld was going to be used instead of a solder. This would hold together better and help the rocket fly higher. Also, in order to be able to weld the washer onto the rocket, the body had to be made out of steel. The new replacement for the washer was a slice of steel bar stock with a hole drilled in the middle, which was then welded onto the bottom of the rocket by Mr.Bylovski....

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...After Sonny brought home the win, all of Coalwood was happy for him and the BCMA. In celebration, the BCMA decided to make 6 more rockets and fire them off all day long after graduation. They advertised the launch all over town, and people came from all over to watch. The final rocket that they launched for the day was actually fired off by Homer Hickam Sr., Sonny’s father. Considering that his dad had never been supportive of his rockets, Sonny was honored and grateful to have his dad pull the string for the last rocket ever launched by the BCMA. Auk XXXI was 6 ½ feet long, and 2 ¼ inches in diameter. The rocket shot off into the air, becoming smaller and smaller as the crowd stood in awe watching the 6ft rocket become a tiny dot in the sky. Auk XXXI flew over 31,000ft, just under 6 miles, making it the most successful and memorable rocket the BCMA ever launched.