Rocket cloning ethics

 The Thirfty Rocketeer blog continues...

A fellow Rocketeer learned that I was building a up-sized Der BIG Red Max the other day. I had bought it on a sale from a regional rocket supplier and decided to upgrade it with plywood fins and centering rings to allow more powerful motors someday.


But this has opened up an interesting can of worms that I thought I might share.

Now remember, I bought the licensed kit produced by Estes new in the box, PLUS a separate baggie that holds replacement 1/8" plywood fins and centering rings.  I am not reselling nor producing anything other than my personal rocket with these materials.

So, my friend, who is preparing to build his Level 3 rocket from scratch, asks me if I could give him the measurement of the nosecone for him.  No problem.  It is 12.5" long, and fits into a 3" body tube.

As it's hard to find balsa wood, I figure he's either going to turn his own nosecone on a lathe, or order a nosecone of the same dimensions.  Either way, he's got to match the measurements to make it fit.

A little while later, he asked me if he could get all dimensions of the rocket, to aid him in up-scaling something similar to the Der BIG Red Max.

 I understand how to make measurements, but having never done this, I wonder how complete  data he's going to need.  So I ask experienced rocketeers on a forum if I was missing anything.

Several responded that by downloading a file from RocketSim or elsewhere, that it was easy to scale it up or down and produce a clone of the original.

That night, I finished measuring every aspect of the body tube, motor tube, fins and nosecone and sent it to my grateful friend.   But then I began to wonder about the legality of doing this cloning. Does the original designer have a patient or copyright on the dimensions of a rocket?

I was under the impression that if no one was producing and selling an up-scaled rocket, and you're the first, you have a clear field to do so.  But I'm thinking it may be a slippery slope once you start mass producing fins,  centering rings or nosecones to make the same rocket.

 I have no desire to tear a scab off a problem in the industry, but I wonder to what extent up-scaling or modifying an existing product may impinge on a legitimate entity in our hobby industry.  I began to wonder about the ethics of what we were doing.  And I'm not certain how loudly I want to ask. 

Certainly, I don't want to do damage to a business that is so important to our industry, but I am wondering if this cuts into their business, when one starts to manufacture enough parts that one could build from scratch a substitute rocket.

I'm not going to loose any sleep over this, but I am interested to hear varying opinions on the practice.  Which of the above entities are at risk? Or are any of them at all?

Please post your responses below.


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