get free cooties with that rocket?

Yesterday I was going through some old floppies from the '80s and '90s and brought back some memories.

It thundered and rained this morning.

Here's the planned decals for the Whorl. Somebody said that they looked girly, but it was the first good idea that popped into my mind and it fit the rocket. The colors are just standard printers magenta and cyan to make the thing easier to print.

Sometimes, I feel that it's nice to have one good inspired idea at the start and run with it. Otherwise, you have to force yourself to come up with many variations, and pick the best one and still have a lesser inspired idea for all that extra work and effort.

The original decal was whipped up in Freehand back in the fall of '99, right before fate threw me the Fun Rockets detour. The original name was the Vortex, but I went to RCTHA and found that Quest have already beat me to that handle. The name for the original prototype was the Quixote, from the windmill connection, and the next prototype was the Dervish because it whirls.

I tried to apply a Bauhaus type geometric purity and simplicity to this rocket since most helicopter recovery rockets are quite clunky and cluttered in their designs and appearance. I take a little pride in that the final prototype had nine less parts than the original.