Seize the Sky: A Builder's Guide to Model Rocketry

I Like This Book it Help Me To Build Better Rocket .And You can Watch It Fly. Thank You from Mr B

Not what I expected for the price. A good deal of quality information and some very handy tips. I especially liked the "project" topics. However I was very dissapointed in the quality of the illustrations and photos. I've seen better results photocopying pictures. Some looked like they were copies of copies taken from a NLQ dot matrix printer. I probably wouldn't recommend it to my rocketry (B.A.R.) friends.

Great lecture if you love rockets.

The most notable factor about this book is the low quality illustrations and photos. The majority of photos have horizontal banding lines running through them. Those lines are either scanning artifacts or poor quality printing. Some images have a greyed background where it should be white, and that is indicative of someone scanning an image and not setting the white point correctly. Others have jagged edges that are indicative of a scanning resolution that is too low for commercial printing. It almost seems as if though the book were photocopied on a copier with a bad drum. I'm sure it was professionally printed, but that's the look that comes across. There are some illustrations that are so lightly printed that portions of the illustrations themselves have dropped out to where there are blank areas in them. The printing quality of the text seems OK, so I'm guessing that the illustrations and photos are all scanned images that lost their contrast in the process of being processed. About 6 of the pages are out of registration so badly that the page numbers at the bottom of the pages are partially cut off. This book would appear to have been self-published with perhaps the author using a vanity press company. The quality level is very indicative of that type of work. Unfortunately, the printing quality really takes away from this book because the content deals with the author's exceptionally good modeling skills, and the poor quality production takes away from being able to appreciate the projects that are presented in this book. The author previously wrote articles for Launch Magazine and those articles were very nice and the production quality was top notch. The price is way too high for the quality that exists here. Better choices would either be the "Handbook of Model Rocketry" or "Model Rocket Design and Construction" by Tim VanMilligan of Apogee Components.

I found this book to be a treasure of modeling tips and techniques. There are plenty of photos throughout the book to help teach beginning to advanced rocketry techniques. (I didn't notice any problems with my copy regarding printing or photography.) If a person just wants to talk rocketry, this is not a book for them. This is a builders book. From DIY motor retainers to glider trimming, I found it to be a nice addition to my rocketry library.

Well-written and very effectively organized, Mario Purdue’s “Seize the Sky: A Builder’s Guide to Model Rocketry” is a valuable reference for model rocketry beginners and experts alike. Perdue explains the nuances of model rocketry in clear language, in a pleasant, easily readable style. His writing is virtually conversational in tone, as if he was standing beside you at the workbench, casually sharing pointers as he deftly applies a layer of paint or carefully measures an airframe. The text is illuminated by a wealth of exceptional illustrations and clear photographs. After explaining the fundamentals of model rocket construction, most of the book is broken into chapters that detail specific projects. As someone who grew up in the height of the Space Age, who literally listened to the Saturn V boosters being test-fired at nearby Marshal Space Flight Center, I was particularly intrigued with Perdue’s model projects that revisited the early rockets---the Atlas, Titan II and Saturn---that carried our Nation into space and onto the Moon. As the hobby of model rocketry continues to evolve, I strongly hope to see more writing from Mario Purdue. I’m sure that he has helped many to achieve their dreams of flight, and hopefully he will be able to share his more of his knowledge with others new to this lofty avocation.

Fresh ideas, hints, techniques. Nice illustrations and photos - and lots of 'em. Instructions are easy to understand. Younger readers shouldn't get lost in technical jargon, and experienced modelers will find plenty of meat. Would like to see a little more color in a sequel.

This book is way too much "Look what I did!" and way too little of "Look what you can do". There are lots of interesting projects but there's way too little information on how to recreate them or how to do similar projects of your own. If you're looking for a muse, this might be enough to get the juices flowing. If you're looking for a how to, there are far better books out there.

Bon livre qui résume la fabrication de fusées de modèlisme. En anglais . Pas le meilleur livre mais pour les débutants c'est pas mal.