Tiger Rockety Type A – a Japanese Jetex 50 clone

Ben Nead, owner of the Tiger Rockety Type A pictured here, says of it:

"[My example was] distributed in Australia by Aero-Flyte Products Pty Ltd, Panorama, SA and, curiously, carries the name 'Jet-X' on the box. I have seen photos of mint copies of the same motor on ebay but with Japanese labeled packaging.

"Mine was originally purchased by a US serviceman stationed in Australia in the late 60s / early 70s. He bought it in a local hobby shop, fired it once, but didn't clean it afterwards.

"The entire thing was almost black when I got it. With the help of a jeweller, I gave it the cleaning of its life. The aft closure cap was completely covered in black soot and rust which soon gave way to pitted brass. A mint condition copy of this motor would have this brass area finished with an electroplating of dark brown (as opposed to bright red) copper based material.

"The level of workmanship is really extraordinary. Notice that when it is disassembled, the small dark copper disc comes off the end of the aluminum casing. The nozzle is supposed to have this copper plating on it as well. You can clearly see the pitted brass underneath where this copper plating was supposed to be."

Photos by Ben Nead

The Type A motor illustrated here used Jetex Red Spot fuel. There was also a Type B (100 equivalent) motor. Both models were dimensional copies of their Jetex counterparts.

The manufacturer was Tiger Manufacturing Inc., 3-1-16 Rokugo, Otaku, Tokyo, Zip 144.

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Bill Henderson contributed these photos of his Tiger Rockety Type A motor, these are now in the possession of Ben Nead.

A special feature of the Tiger Rockety motor was the light aluminium tubular heat shield to protect the model. Note also the hollow central core of the fuel pellets, intended to promote speedier ignition.