The Ripley Ohio Association of Rocketry, NAR Section #851 Senior Advisor Tom Zachman (left) and fellow Rocketeer Jake Franklin (right) were honored by the Wright Stuff Rocketeers NAR Section #703, Dayton, Ohio at the 2023 Christmas Party and Awards Program. Photo by Jane Zachman
The Ripley Ohio Association of Rocketry, (ROAR) NAR Section #851 Senior Advisor Tom Zachman and fellow Rocketeer Jake Franklin were honored by the Wright Stuff Rocketeers (WSR) NAR Section #703, Dayton, Ohio at the 2023 Christmas Party and Awards Program. The Wright Stuff Rocketeers is one of the largest sport rocketry clubs in Ohio sanctioned by the National Association of Rocketry.
Randy Boadway Senior Advisor and President of eRockets presented to Tom Zachman a plaque commemorating the recent flight of Tom’s “Modified Wildman Punisher 3.1” near Cedarville, Ohio on October 22, 2023. His aluminum tipped fiberglass rocket screamed skyward on a red plume of fire breaking the sound barrier within less than four seconds reaching a speed of 1301 feet per second or 887 miles per hour then climbing to an altitude of over two miles high smashing the previous altitude record at the WSR High Power Rocketry Launch site and finally gently landing successfully over a mile away from the pads.
To memorialize his achievement Tom’s peak altitude mark is now designed by veteran High Power Rocketeers of the Dayton rocket club as the “Von Zachman Line”. As a side note last year Tom’s sport rocket was featured in the lead article in “Sport Rocketry Magazine” a bimonthly publication of the National Association of Rocketry.
Not to be outdone a few minutes later in the program Randy Boadway announced that Jake Franklin a fourteen year old rocketeer from Ripley, Ohio was the recipient of the “Best New Volunteer of 2023” award. Jake notably worked for hours without a break at the National Museum of the Air Force “Rocket Day” at Wright Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton, Ohio aiding hundreds and hundreds of mostly young families fly their very own just constructed sport rocket many for the very first time. Mark McBride Secretary of the Wright Stuff Rocketeers calculated that 665 sport rockets were launched in that single day at a rate of nearly a rocket accelerating from the launch pads every thirty seconds for over six hours.
Tom Zachman and Jake Franklin can be seen launching their firebirds along with other members of the Ripley Ohio Association of Rocketry at the RULH High School Lower athletic fields, the Moran-McCaughey Sport Rocketry Range at Howland Road, and other launch sites. Their rocket club is open to the public with a Facebook page giving further details.
