Steve Eves Launches World's Largest Model Rocket, Takes Your Lunch Money

Growing up, most guys have a rocket phase.  We build Estes model rockets, we go to rocket camp or maybe just a rocket museum if we had the meanest parents in the world who refused to send us even though our sister got to go to horse camp.  We pretend to be astronauts, we have rocket birthday cakes, rocket t-shirts, rocket-flavored foods, a rocket shrine, a restraining order from Neil Armstrong…  The only thing we didn’t have was the world’s largest model rocket.  Why?  Because Steve Eves of Lake Township, Ohio, has it, and there can only be one.  This weekend he launched all 36 feet and 1600 pounds of it and proceeded to strut around the launchpad demanding to know how all the assembled onlookers liked them apples.  Pics and video from the launch, after the jump.

The 1:10 scale model has nine engines and generates 8,000 pounds of thrust.  Which raises the important question, at what size does a model rocket cease to be a model rocket… and become an actual rocket?  Steve Eves has been silent on the issue, typically prefering to let his rocket do the talking.  Eves has recently been spotted at many of the chicest clubs in New York and L.A. and is rumored to be dating Chloe Sevigny, Lady GaGa, and Orlando Bloom.

More pics at Gizmodo, more info at Rocketry Planet.