Model: vik10kit.pdf (470 KB) Instruction: vik10ins.pdf  (600 KB) Rocketstand: vik10stand.pdf (240 KB)

History

After viking 7, the viking rockets were totally redesigned to carry a larger amount of fuel and a heavier payload. Fully loaded the new viking weighed 6.800 kg against the 4.500 kg of the viking 7. 

The diameter of the body was increased, the fins were delta shaped and equipped with small roll control jets. 

On June 18, 1953 an attempt to launch the Viking 10 went wrong, when the engine section exploded. Some how the rocket team managed to salvage their burning rocket and on May 7, 1954 they were able to launch the viking 10. The viking 10 reached an altitude of 219 km (136 miles) - about the same altitude as viking 7. One of the viking 10 most distinct feature was to large antennas, which were used in an experiment to probe the ionosphere. Along with this Viking 10 carried some other experiments. 

The viking program ended with viking 12. It was simply too expensive to use so large sounding rockets.  

But that wasn´t the last chapter in the rockets story. The viking rocket was used as the first stage of the vanguard launcher.

Sources for this model 

On the web:

www.designation-systems.net

Beggs aerospace - The viking rocket

www.astronautix.com

White Sands missile range museum

NASA Sounding Rockets, 1958-1968, A Historical Summary

Rocket rivalries - Smithsonian Institution

Books:

The viking rocket story (1955) by Milton W. Rosen

Rockets of the world by Peter Alway,

"Science with a vengeance - how the military created the US space sciences after world war II" by David H. DeVorkin:

International Missile and spacecraft guide, Frederick Ordway, III
 
The History of Space Vehicles, Tim Furniss