This page is a collection of photos of high power launch pads.  Hopefully it can be used to help generate ideas for new launch pad designs.  A few of the pads on this page are available for purchase.  Just follow the web links provided next to those photos.

Underside view.  The legs fit into brackets welded to the bottom of the base plate.  They are held in place with large wing nuts.

An A-frame helps support the weight of the rail and the weight of the rocket while the rail is in the lowered position.

The A-frame is made from 1"x1" extruded aluminum and connecting pieces available from www.8020.net.

Greg Fannin's personal pad.   This is very similar to the one he designed and built for me (Vern).  It has all the same features.

With rail lowered for loading rockets.

This is the classic "Magnum" pad as sold by Magnum Rockets.  As far as I know, it is no longer available.  It works well for rockets sized for H through K motors.

The head will tilt in one axis but other than that, there is really no launch angle adjustments possible.  (Short of putting something under the foot on each leg.)

It's not shown here but this pad does fold into a fairly compact and flat configuration for transport.  This is done by turning the handle that is shown sticking out from under the blast deflector which loosens the crossed legs.  The legs fold together and the blast plate folds down flat on top of them.

One draw back with this design is the flat horizontal blast deflector plate.  It causes a lot of "splash back" from the motor exhaust to hit the aft end of the rocket before the rocket climbs the rail.

This is a custom built "clone" of the Magnum pad.  It is a little bit simpler but basically the same size and also folds up to some extent.

This is Rich Boltizar's personal pad. It's a quadpod head on tubular fold-up legs. It has all the same 360 degree rotation and tilt adjustments as on Vern's and Greg's pads shown above but is smaller.  This pad is slightly more convenient than the Magnum pads because the rocket is higher off the ground.

This pad also allows the rail to be tipped over to load a rocket onto it.

Nathan Tarter built this pad for himself.  It is the same design as some others presented further down this page.  The base has three legs that sit flat on the ground.  It is possible to adjust the launch angle in one axis but no rotation adjustment is possible. 

One of the main drawbacks of this design is just the fact it needs a fairly level area on the ground.

By removing a bolt, the rail can be lowered to be parallel with the ground and will sit on the short vertical stub right behind Nathan in this picture.  This makes it very convenient to load the rocket on to the rail.

A detailed description of the construction of this pad along with some of photos and a list of parts was once posted on The Rocketry Forum.   It is no longer available there but an archived copy of that page can be seen here. 

This is a medium to high power pad that is used by OROC.  It is a quadpod head built onto the top of a leg structure made from PVC pipe and fittings.  Aside from the quadpod head it is very inexpensive to make.  It supports medium sized rockets with up through K-motors but not the larger rockets.

This is a larger pad custom built by OROC.  It has a quadpod style head on a much stronger steel leg structure. The legs can be disassembled for transport.  Note the fifth leg in the middle that really helps support heavy rockets.

Steve Cutonilli (OROC) designed and built this custom pad. It is mostly welded aluminum structure.  He put a great deal of attention to detail into this design.  It also folds up to be relatively compact.

John Lyngdal (OROC) built this pad.  It will easily handle large rockets up through  M and N motors.  The base is made from fairly large diameter (2" ?) tubing.  (Possibly conduit.) Two A-frame end pieces connect with each other across the top using another (3 foot?) length of tubing.  The tower section attaches to this cross member and rotates to the vertical launch position.  The legs have plates welded to the ends of them that allow the legs to be staked to the ground. A large blast plate rests on the ground but is held at a slight angle by some chains.  This pad completely disassembles for transport.  It only has one axis of launch angle adjustment so it needs relatively level ground.

Tower launchers are often used on high performance rockets in order to eliminate the rail buttons and launch lugs.  This eliminates the air drag associated with them.

Bob Yanecek stands next to the tower launcher he designed and built.  It can be assembled with either 6' or 10' rails.  It accommodates a fin span of up to 17" (from body tube centerline) provided there is no rotation during in-tower boost. It also accommodates body tubes up to 16" in diameter. It has tie outs for stability and tiliting purposes.  The entire structure tips over for easy loading.

Three threaded rods with nuts on them allow the rail spacing to be easily adjusted at the top triangle for different size rockets.

Except for the top triangle and the rails, everything else fits into to very compact transportation crate.

This particular pad is one owned by Bill Earls (OROC) and was used at the 2006 FITS launch.

The design allows the rail to be lowered to horizontal via the bearings shown in this photo.

This pad is fairly heavy for its size.  It will handle large rockets just fine.

The upper set of ball bearings allow the launch angle to be fine tuned using a turn-buckle type screw mechanism.  The lower set of ball bearings allows the rail to be lowered for loading rockets.

This is the "medium" sized pad (without rail) from A Launch Pad Company

These are pads built by AeroPac for use at XPRS. They are basically the same design as shown above for Nathan Tarter's pad only much larger. 

Close up of the base.

Rocket locked in the vertical position. A triangular blast deflector is also positioned below the rocket.

The rail can be lowered to horizontal and will rest on the short section of tubing near the left side of this image. 

The rail is raised to vertical and locked into position by passing a bolt through the two vertical plates at the bottom.

This is a similar but slightly different design also used by AeroPac.

Kent Newman (WAC) built himself a little bit smaller version of this common pad design. 

Close up of the joint where the three legs meet.

Simple but effective rocket rest stop at the bottom of the rail.

John Coker has posted design drawings of this common pad design.  Click on the image at the left to view his drawing.

Close up of John's pad.  It shows a slot in the base that allows the launch angle to be adjusted in one axis.

This shows how the rail sits horizontally when ready to load a rocket.

These legs also have tabs on the ends of them that allow them to be staked to the ground.

Another variant of the three legged pad design.  This one lifts the center section slightly off the ground so that it does not need the ground to be quite as level.

This is a custom pad used at the FITS launch in 2003. 

Wedge Oldham's rockets are launched from a very large pad mounted directly to a trailer.  This pad is motorized to move the rocket to vertical.

This pad design is sold by Ron Follweiler and used by MDRA.  It is available at www.ronspads.com.

A view of the X-rockets HyperTek hybrid drop-stem fill system mated to a standard launch rail.

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