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1[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Raygun_Gothic_Rocketship.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:260:[[http://www.raygungothicrocket.com/ Bang, zoom, straight to the Moon!]]]]
3
4->''A diagram anatomised the stages of the Saturn V already shed by the ''Apollo 11''. The spacecraft now looked surprisingly like the bullets of Verne or Méliès, though sleek aluminium-steel-glass-phenolic rather than rivet-studded brass.''
5-->-- ''Moon Moon Moon'', by Creator/KimNewman
6
7During different eras, people had different stereotypical visions of future spacecraft. Sometimes it came from the movies, and sometimes it bled into the movies from real life. This design is a classic — it's the standard pointy-nosed, sits-on-its-fins spaceship. This piece of RaygunGothic comes from the time when T-bird fins were actually seen as futuristic rather than retro. Spaceships were more likely to be referred to as rocketships by excited seven-year-old boys, and the designs could feed off the ongoing space race and concurrent developments which were based around a long steel tube with a pointy tip that had fins on the bottom and belched flames out of its base to reach for the skies.
8
9While once the definitive spaceship image, nowadays you generally only see these as parody or homage. Their typically phallic shape is a common target for mockery. However, with the advent of vertically landing reusable rockets with cold-formed stainless steel hulls, this design is now starting to become VindicatedByHistory.
10
11A few features are particularly common. The design will often necessitate a vertical take-off, and the fins are frequently used for the rocket to stand on, leading to one of the style's alternate names: "tailsitters". Thus many will have three or four fins. Also, unlike modern rockets, these typically don't discard stages to lighten their load for the trip, so the entire rocket goes into space and back. Note that in a setting with more than one style of spacecraft, this design will generally be used by humans. Aliens generally used its nemesis — the FlyingSaucer. For the modern equivalent, see StandardHumanSpaceship.
12
13Only very indirectly related to the small rocket motors used to provide retrograde thrust to an orbiting spacecraft (which even the earliest [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace Space Race]] orbiters had).
14
15----
16!!Examples:
17
18[[foldercontrol]]
19
20[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21* The Luxion-class starships from ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}''. The same counts for [[http://www.toponeraegunbuster.com/gunbuster-episode-five33.jpg Buster Machine 1]] and the [[http://www.toponeraegunbuster.com/images/gunbuster-extra30.jpg Cosmo Attack Fighters.]]
22* In ''Manga/OutlawStar'', the eponymous CoolStarship is a GenreThrowback to this trope, looking like both a classic Retro Rocket and the [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/X-15_launched_bw.jpg X-15 hypersonic rocket plane.]] As a bonus, it launches vertically from planet surfaces, dramatic countdown and all.
23* ''Manga/{{Remina}}'' features an example of this trope being played straight in the form of the rocket the Japanese government and rich people use to escape Earth for the titular PlanetEater Remina. This imagery ties in quite nicely to the rest of the aesthetics Ito used in the series, which sit somewhere between RaygunGothic and CassetteFuturism.
24[[/folder]]
25
26[[folder:Arts]]
27* ''Art/SpaceFantasyCommemorativeStampBooklet'':
28** The stamp on the left has three dart-like silver ships, with excessive fins and one or more thrusters.
29** The humans in the centre stamp are wearing jetpacks and a snub-nosed [[InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace bubble helmet]] that makes them look like their suit is designed for rocketing around in the atmosphere.
30** The stamp on the right has three red rockets with an oblong shape and three fins. A line of these ships appears, growing smaller and smaller, in each stamp to the left of this one, ending in the centre.
31[[/folder]]
32
33[[folder:Comic Books]]
34* ''ComicBook/BlackHammer''[='=]s Colonel Weird pilots a cigar-shaped, lands-on-its-fins rocket ship, befitting his role as a RaygunGothic space adventurer gone horribly wrong.
35* These showed up in a number of stories from the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse by Creator/CarlBarks, such as "Island in the Sky" and "The Loony Lunar Gold Rush". This was back in the early [=1960s=], when UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace was in full swing and the idea of space travel was very popular.
36* Inverted in the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' (originally published in 1958) -- but [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant it's not the ''trope'']] that was [[InvertedTrope inverted]]: their clubhouse was shaped like this kind of rocket, point down in the ground!
37** In a [[AudienceAlienatingEra Glorith-timeline comic]], the rocket was a kid...
38** In a crossover between the ComicBook/JusticeLeague and ComicBook/TheAuthority, a rocket of this kind, used by the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes, was mocked as a five-year-old's idea of a rocket.
39* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': In the older comics published by Fawcett, Dr. Sivana frequently built spaceships, and they were always designed this way. In one four-part story the big ship carried a couple of smaller one-man ships, which were used by daughter Georgia Sivana and son Sivana Junior.
40* Franchise/{{Superman}} is almost always said to have arrived on Earth as a baby in a "rocketship", and the little ship is almost always depicted this way. John Byrne made it round instead of pointy, but even his version was recognizably a rocket. The only major exception is the movie version, which was a spiky crystalline sphere.
41* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'s'' rocket from ''[[Recap/TintinDestinationMoon Destination Moon]]'' and ''[[Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon Explorers on the Moon]]'' is an interesting case as it's combined with a [[ShownTheirWork frighteningly prescient]] depiction of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar space program. [[http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3p.html#tintin Blueprints and launchpad shown here.]] The plot is only [[DuelingMovies slightly similar]] to the American film of the same year, and the rocket's external appearance is based on the German V2. In its trips to the Moon and back, a 180-degree rotation has to be performed mid-flight to ensure that it lands with its tail fins down.
42* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: While the Amazons have {{space plane}}s there are plenty of nice aesthetically pleasing rockets used for space travel, like the Venus Rocket built at Holliday College. Though that rocket was not meant to be manned, instead containing instruments to gather data about the planet Venus.
43[[/folder]]
44%%
45%%[[folder:Comic Strips]]
46%%* Anything used by ComicStrip/DanDare.
47%%[[/folder]]
48
49[[folder:Fan Works]]
50* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'' is ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi magazine story. The United Nations Rocket Ship ''Voyager'' is a [[AntiMatter contraterrene]]-powered torchship explicitly described as a cigar-shaped tailsitter. In one scene, B'Elanna Torres is PlanningWithProps while explaining the theory of FasterThanLightTravel.
51-->"Imagine this is ''Voyager''..." B'Elanna picked up her spoon, then reconsidered, replacing it with the squeeze-tube which was more appropriate to ''Voyager'''s shape.
52[[/folder]]
53
54[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
55* Syndrome's rocket in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' resembles retrofuturistic concepts of rockets with giant fins (considering it takes place in a 1960s-esque setting), although it has a re-entry/glider stage that separates from an expendable booster, and doesn't land vertically.
56[[/folder]]
57
58[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
59* ''Film/DestinationMoon'' might be the Trope Codifier.
60* Though ''Film/WomanInTheMoon'' got there first back in 1929.
61* ''Film/KingDinosaur'' has one, and it's painfully fake. (It gets recycled in other sci fi films, too.)
62-->'''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Crow]]:''' YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe
63* The second ''Film/MenInBlack'' film has this type of ship as part of the SpecialEffectsFailure ShowWithinAShow.
64* Honorable mention goes to ''Film/TwentyMillionMilesToEarth'', and ''Film/WhenWorldsCollide'' has a variant which [[http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3091372032/tt0044207 adds wings.]]
65* The ''Film/RocketshipXM'' is likely the most phallic Retro Rocket ever seen, until TheSeventies porn spoof ''Flesh Gordon'' of course.
66* Speaking of humorously phallic rockets: Dr. Evil's rocket in ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'', whose shape is described in a HurricaneOfEuphemisms.
67* The War Rocket Ajax in the ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'' film.
68* The spaceship in ''Film/EarthGirlsAreEasy'' is very much an homage ship. Not a 'tailsitter' but very close to the 1930s ''[[Film/FlashGordonSerial Flash Gordon]]'' serial ships.
69* The P-1 spaceship from the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' film ''{{Kaiju}} Daisensou'' (a.k.a. ''Monster Zero'' or ''Film/InvasionOfAstroMonster'').
70* ''Film/CatwomenOfTheMoon'' and the remake ''Film/MissileToTheMoon''. Unfortunately while keeping within this trope the rocketship [[SpecialEffectsFailure changes shape several times]].
71* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies almost completely avert this, with spacecraft appearing in every shape and size ''except'' the classic rocket shape. The Techno Union Hardcell-class ships from ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' are an exception.
72* A gigantic one appears in ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. [[spoiler:It's an Ark that will destroy the atmosphere if launched.]]
73* The Starfire in ''Film/QueenOfOuterSpace'', except when it's launching from its pad and [[StockFootageFailure looks like a completely different Atlas rocket]].
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Literature]]
77* Creator/RobertAHeinlein used this design for spacecraft throughout his "Solar System" novels, published in the 1940s and 1950s. ''Literature/RocketShipGalileo'', ''[[Literature/SpaceCadetHeinlein Space Cadet]]'', and ''[[Literature/TheRollingStones1952 The Rolling Stones]]'' are all good examples that give detailed descriptions of their ships both inside and out. Fellow science fiction author Jerry Pournelle once quipped[[note]]at the 1993 Worldcon[[/note]] that such rockets landed "just as God and Robert Heinlein intended."
78* In the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'', the Consul's starship is specifically designed to fit the Platonic ideal of "space ship". This ideal, at least according to the author, is that of the Retro Rocket.
79* ''Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy'' features an [[TheAllegedCar outdated]] Selonian-built starship that launches and lands vertically, with the crew seated facing what is the top of the ship while landed.
80* The anthology ''Old Mars'', edited by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin and Gardner Dozois, which homages PlanetaryRomance stories set on Mars, has a rocketship [[http://www.georgerrmartin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/oldmars.jpg on the cover.]]
81* ''Literature/DoctorOmega'': How the spaceship Cosmos is described.
82* This pops up a lot in early Creator/RayBradbury short stories, where this design is explicitly described as a standard method of interplanetary and interstellar travel in the future.
83* Oddly averted in the ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' universe -- for all the various shapes starships come in, one rarely if ever sees one of these. May be justified, though; the traditional rocket shape is optimized primarily for fast movement through an ''atmosphere'' (if only for purposes of breaking free of it before fuel runs out), and once a species gains FTL capability in this setting it probably also gets {{antigravity}} and at least some [[DeflectorShields force field]] technology along with that, basically eliminating that concern and allowing ships to be designed with ''space'' travel in mind first and foremost.
84* The titular light freighter in ''Space Angel'' (by John Robert Maddox) is a classic tail-sitter.
85* Strangely, played mostly straight in Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''[[Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark Invasion]]'', despite being written in 2005. It's not an homage or a parody either. The novel is set before humanity's first forays into interstellar space. The ships of the [[SpaceNavy United Space Forces]] are even stated to be descendants of the old 20th century space rockets. While most of them tend to be based on the Moon, Mars, or Mercury, which helps them take off and land with the lower gravity and less dense (or nonexistent) atmosphere, a few are shown to land and take-off from a spaceport on Earth. Largely averted in the subsequent books, when ImportedAlienPhlebotinum allows for larger, more powerful warships to be constructed that utilize ArtificialGravity for propulsion and for generating Earth-norm conditions aboard. Ships are no longer built with the floor facing the engines and the fact that the larger ones are at least a kilometer long means that they are also not designed to land on Earth.
86* The [[WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens cyclotron-powered]] ''Comet'' used by PulpMagazine hero Literature/CaptainFuture looks like an inverted teardrop (though not in the anime where it's an ISOStandardHumanSpaceship).
87* ''Literature/TheSpaceMerchants'' has a rocket fitting this description on the cover of the original Ballantine edition. It more or less fits the story's description of the Venus rocket as "the bloated child of the slim V-2's and stubby Moon rockets of the past."
88* ''Literature/MyBestScienceFictionStory'':
89** A very simple (and small) dart-like rocket with four large fins appears on the top of the 1949 Creator/MerlinPress cover, with a dotted line extending behind it to indicate constant velocity.
90** The cover of the 1954 Creator/PocketBooks version has a couple of light grey spaceships that look like darts flying above a [[DomedHometown city of domed habitats]].
91* In the Creator/MichaelChabon semi-autobiographical novel "Moonglow", Chabon's maternal grandfather designs rockets based on the V-2 (see Real Life, below) specifically fitting this description, including reusable toy versions with parachutes.
92* The ''Literature/GiantsSeries'' by Creator/JamesPHogan uses this type of design for the Ganymean starship ''Shapieron'' and the Earth-built craft called "Vegas", all of which are designed to fly in a planet's atmosphere and therefore have huge sweeping wings along with the tail fins. Purely deep-space craft that never enter atmosphere have different designs.
93[[/folder]]
94
95[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
96* This shows up in ''Series/DoctorWho'' more than once.
97** Any human rocketship from the First and Second Doctor eras, in the '60s.
98** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit "The Satan Pit"]]: Sanctuary Base 6's escape rocket was deliberately modelled on the Moon rocket from ''Tintin''.
99** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]]: Donna's reaction when she sees a rocket ship fly overhead is to call it a "proper rocket".
100--->"You've got a box, he's got a Ferrari!"
101* The Rocinante in ''Series/TheExpanse'' is shown in season 5 to be able to take off and land like a classic tailsitter.
102* Any spaceship in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' was either this or a FlyingSaucer.
103[[/folder]]
104
105[[folder:Magazines]]
106* ''Magazine/{{Analog}}'':
107** The cover of the [[Recap/Analog1940 May 1940]] issue has a dull chrome rocket taking off at night. In addition to the four small fins near the base where the main rocket fires, there's also two thin wings closer to the nose of the rocket.
108** The [[Recap/Analog1941 March 1941 cover]] has two silver spaceships on the cover, both are cigar-shaped with four fins on the "rear" end.
109** In [[Recap/Analog1942 May 1942]]'s issue, on page 80 for "Literature/BeyondThisHorizon", a rocket with a narrower nose than rear sits upon its lower fins. The people in the scene are tiny compared to it.
110** The cover of the [[Recap/Analog1942 October 1942]] issue shows a dull red rocket sitting upright on the moon's surface, using its fins for landing gear.
111[[/folder]]
112
113[[folder:Pinballs]]
114* Captain B. Zarr's "Rock-It" in ''Pinball/ThePartyZone,'' complete with bulbous nose up front and engine fins in the rear.
115* ''Pinball/FlashGordon'' features two war rockets with swept wings and ovoid bodies flying into battle.
116[[/folder]]
117
118[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
119* The ancient (and now almost forgotten) UsefulNotes/{{Supermarionation}} sci-fi series ''Series/{{Space Patrol|UK}}'' both averted this trope and played it straight, as the spaceship used in that series (called the ''Galisphere'' or ''Galasphere'') looked like the stereotypical space-station, with a central cylinder connected by cylindrical "spokes" to a toroidial ring.
120* ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'':
121** The craft Thunderbirds 1 and 3. One is a hypersonic plane based on 50s-60s high-tech fighters and X-planes (English Electric ''Lightning'', X-5, X-15) and mid-50s VTOL designs like the XFV and XFY. The other is a rocket ship with a tripod of engines. Both essentially have the same overall shape and impact leading to many seven-year-olds' arguments about which one was better. Both fit very well into the trope, aside from TB 1's VTOL abilities in horizontal position.
122** The rocket ships in "Sun Probe" and "Day of Disaster" were each examples of this trope. The [[https://thunderbirds.fandom.com/wiki/Sun_Probe_(spaceship) Sun Probe]] was a Vostok-style engine cluster with loads of extra fins and a full-on Retro Rocket stuck on the nose. The Martian Space Probe in "Day of Disaster"... [[https://thunderbirds.fandom.com/wiki/Martian_Space_Probe Well, see for yourself.]]
123** ''Zero X'', the spacecraft featured in the movie ''Film/ThunderbirdsAreGo'', was at least a partial aversion of this trope. The main body is box-like rather than cylindrical, though it mounts rocket engines at the back, and the lifting bodies -- wings which helps it take off and land horizontally like an aircraft -- separate from it when it reaches the upper atmosphere on take-off and returns to the ship's base, ready to rejoin it when it came back to Earth. [[spoiler:That was the idea, at least; they aren't very reliable, hence the plot of the movie!]]
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Radio]]
127* Played with in ''Radio/{{Nebulous}}''. Nebulous instructs Paula to 'fire retro-rockets', resulting in a fun whooshy noise. Then he asks her to 'fire those more modern-looking ones', resulting in an action-movie-ish BangBangBang.
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
131* ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' loves its traditional gleaming rocket ships and plays them to the hilt. They land on their fins, they burn radium for fuel and pack Ray cannons, most even have self destruct buttons. These rocket ships have it all, and to top it off, the inventors were Goddard, Einstein and ''Tesla''.
132* These are used for most factions in ''TabletopGame/WarRocket'', complete with {{Flying Saucer}}s for aliens, though they still have a fore-and-aft design that ensures that they work like the rockets anyway.
133* Many vessels are designed as retro rockets in ''TabletopGame/{{Slipstream}}''.
134* Most adaptations of ''Flash Gordon'' would obviously have these, including the new ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'' - based RPG.
135* TSR Hobbies' old ''TabletopGame/BuckRogersInThe25thCentury'' setting, along with its computer adaptation, had ships with more advanced systems in them, guided weapons, less obsolete-looking computers, holographic displays etc, but were most often still shaped like a stereotypical atomic rocketship.
136[[/folder]]
137
138[[folder:Theme Parks]]
139* Ride/DisneyThemeParks has the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Moonliner Moonliner]] rocket, originally designed back in the 50's as a vision of future Trans World Airlines (TWA) travel. It was later sponsored by Douglas before being removed for renovations in 1967, but there are three smaller scale models of it extant today-one at the national airline history museum, one on the old TWA building, and one near where the original rocket stood in Disneyland's Tomorrowland now helping promote Coca-Cola.
140[[/folder]]
141
142[[folder:Toys]]
143* There are two ''Toys/SuperThings'' based on the classic “cartoon rocket” design- the heroic Rocketzing from Series 5, and the villainous Star Bandit from Mutant Battles.
144* ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'': Omega Supreme's base mode includes a rocket ship with this general shape, although it's not particularly smooth-skinned.
145[[/folder]]
146
147[[folder:Video Games]]
148* ''VideoGame/StarControl'': [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Syreen]] ship, [[http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Penetrator Penetrator]] "is shaped after the V-2 rocket, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and a dildo]]."
149* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'': There's one of these. It doesn't actually take you anywhere, but just holds the link to the Selenitic Age. (You link into an identical spaceship, a remnant of the fact that at one point in the game's development you were supposed to fly in the spaceship.)
150* ''VideoGame/{{Eastward}}'': Isabel's rocket made by Alva. Though she uses it for exploration rather than space travel.
151* ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity'': Many of the ships, from the humble scout ship in the original to the... rather engorged Igazra from ''Override''.
152* In ''VideoGame/GeneWars'' the main design of humanoid spaceships is a classic futuristic rocket, seen between levels, when you start a level, and when you grab more or different specialists.
153* Captain Blasto, from ''VideoGame/{{Blasto}}'', uses a retro rocket as his main source of transportation.
154* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''
155** Rockets in the ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' series all take the retro-design, including mini-vehicles depending on the board.
156** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'': Among the debris in the Space Junk Galaxy is an abandoned rocketship in this style. Mario cannot get inside of it and it has its own gravitational field (except for its fins), so gameplay-wise, it's simply an oddly-shaped planetoid.
157** In ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', rocketships take you to the post-game bonus worlds.
158** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', some levels have a small rocketship that Mario can capture with Cappy, leading to a sub-level.
159* ''VideoGame/NetZone'': The ''Vulcan'' is a {{Cyberspace}} variant, a virtual vehicle that takes the player to Cycorp's [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Elimination Facility]]. Docking clamps hold the ''Vulcan'' in place when it lands.
160* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': The S.S. Dolphin and Hocotate Ship are stout, cigar-shaped rockets with pointed ends, a row of circular windows down their sides, and a trio of fins around their exhaust vents whose tips they stand on when at rest.
161* Nearly all rockets in the ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series. Within the games' alternate history it appears that early rockets of the 1950s and '60s were like the real world's: [[https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/a/a7/Fo3MZ_Space_Shuttle.png/revision/latest?cb=20110403004252 the Clarabella 7]] seen aboard Motherboard Zeta along with other abductees vehicles is near-identical to the single-man Mercury capsules used for the USA's first manned launches (all Mercury capsules even included 7 in their name). As time progressed into the late '60s, things begin to diverge: the [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/e/ea/Virgo_Lunar_Lander.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120725003904 Valiant 11 lunar lander]] in the Capital Wasteland's Museum of Technology, resembles the planned soviet counterpart 'LK Objekt' rather than the real-world NASA Lunar Module (though unlike LK Object and like the real lander, it seats two rather than only one). Like all of ''Fallout'''s technology, into the 21st century things more and more resembled what concept artists and science fiction magazines of the 1950s expected: the U.S.'s final manned rocket, the circa-2020 [[https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/1/19/Fo3_Delta_XI_Rocket.png/revision/latest?cb=20110403002956 Delta IX]] seen crashed in the Capital Wasteland in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and the front courtyard of the REPCONN Factory in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' was a nuclear powered rocket used for lunar excursions that resembles the classic Retro Rocket, though with wings in addition to fins, implying it could have been intended to take off or land like an airplane. Interestingly, the ''Fallout 3'' version features a black-and-yellow color scheme very similar to the real-world [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15 North American X-15 rocketplane's.]] In addition to this, the REPCONN Factory in ''Fallout: New Vegas'' and the neighboring town of Novac's gas station feature more classic, unwinged retro rockets.
162* The Blasterpals have a purple one in ''VideoGame/MathBlasterInSearchOfSpot''. It gets shot down in ''VideoGame/MathBlasterSecretOfTheLostCity''.
163* In ''VideoGame/RoloToTheRescue'', Rolo takes a brief excursion to the moon on a ''wooden'' rocket.
164* ''VideoGame/{{RymdResa}}'' has one of these among the eight ships available for you to pilot, along with a FlyingSaucer, to boot.
165* It is perfectly possible to build a ship like this in ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' and send it to orbit, thanks to the significantly smaller Δv-budget required to reach Kerbin orbit, compared to Earth. Not particularly efficient, but possible.
166* In ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and subsequent games where it's present, the Orange [[StarfishAlien Wisp]], which grants Sonic the power of the Orange Rocket (allowing for very tall, very fast vertical leaps), is based on this kind of spaceship. It also has two vertically arranged eyes resembling the windows on such a vehicle. Sonic, once granted the power, takes on a similar shape too, with his spikes radiating from the bottom like rocketship fins.
167[[/folder]]
168
169[[folder:Webcomics]]
170* One ''Website/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' strip shows that the Green Gorillas have [[https://thecrewofthecoppercoloredcupids.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/cupid-comic-21-gorillas-in-space/ a green rocketship]] with red fins.
171* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', the Spacemonauts travel to the Moon in one of these.
172* The dragons' [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/382 prison transport]] ship in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' has this shape, although it's also stated to have a retractable ramscoop for interstellar flight.
173* The spaceship in [[http://xkcd.com/265/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip looks like a potato with fins.
174* ''Webcomic/FoundationThePsychohistorians'': The spaceships used by the galactic citizens are [[StandardHumanSpaceship grey and blocky]], but when it comes to insignia signifying spaceships, the sleek rocketship is a favourite. The [[GalacticSuperpower Galactic Empire]] uses one such rocketship flying across a stylized sun as their emblem.
175[[/folder]]
176
177[[folder:Western Animation]]
178* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Most of the rockets Jimmy builds are of this type, with an open cockpit on the side because [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace who cares about vacuum]]. In [[WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius the movie]] his first rocket appeared to be cobbled together from trash cans but his second rocket was built from a coin-operated ride modeled after a 50s sci-fi rocket so justified.
179* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'': The Aqua Teens uses one of these rockets to travel to a large Banana Planet. With it made of rusty metal and its controls of woods, [[ArtisticLicensePhysics it managed to stay without breaking apart]].
180* ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny'' shorts:
181** ''Mad as a Mars Hare'', where Bugs takes a trip to Mars in one of these ships. Watch him land [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoHUGHb97MA starting at 1:50.]]
182** ''WesternAnimation/HaredevilHare''. Bugs [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-3rzM8a0f0 is sent to the Moon]] in what he calls a "flying cigar."
183* The Planet Express Ship from ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'', though it's horizontally oriented with extendible landing gear. Note the various late Fifties-ish elements in the show: In a show named after a 1939 & 1964 World Fair exhibit, a man who dresses like James Dean is impressed by a Retro Rocket.
184* ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'': Both Dodgers' and Marvin's ships. Likewise, Dodgers' ship in the 2003 ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' TV series.
185* In ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut'', the duo build an orange rocket of this design. Some later episodes feature smaller versions of this rocket as decorations in their house.
186* The [[SpacePolice Space Ranger]] ships in ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand''.
187* The spaceships being built by the Middleton Space Center, and occasionally used by the heroes in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''.
188* The homemade space cruiser in ''WesternAnimation/WinstonSteinburgerAndSirDudleyDingDong''.
189* ''Space Angel'' was one of the earliest SF cartoons made for TV. The hero ship, the ''Starduster'' was a classic example of this trope, being a long cylinder with a tapered nose and three large wings/fins. It landed and took off from a planetary surface in a vertical attitude, but moved through space and docked at its base, the space station ''Evening Star'', "horizontally", which required the crew seats and control panels to rotate from one position to the other. Since the series was made in 1962-4, this may have been a forerunner of ''Thunderbird 1'''s similar ability.
190[[/folder]]
191
192[[folder:Real Life]]
193* The [[http://nextbigfuture.com/2007/07/gaseous-core-nuclear-design-liberty.html Liberty Ship]] is a proposal for a nuclear-powered surface-to-orbit heavy cargo booster. It would have enough delta-V to not only be single stage to orbit but would use its engines to deorbit and land instead of using aerobraking
194* The [[http://www.cthisspace.com/ftl/features/spacehotel.html Kankoh-maru]] is a Japanese proposal for a chemical-powered reusable single-stage manned orbital launch vehicle which can carry 50 paying tourists into low Earth orbit (mass production and very high flight rates would mean that the cost of a ticket would only be $20,000, compared to an orbital trip today costing 1000 times as much). It does not exactly look like the Retro Rocket, but the operating principle is quite similar: it is a tailsitter that would take off and land vertically.
195* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X Delta Clipper]] was an attempt to make a reusable rocket SSTO. A prototype was built, but the program was cancelled before any actual single-stage-to-orbit vehicles were produced.
196* Although the whole rocket doesn't go to space, the spacecraft/rocket company [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX SpaceX]] operates a reusable version of their Falcon 9 launch vehicle, with its first stage returning to and landing back at the launch site on its tail, with rocket propulsion and landing gear.
197** However, [=SpaceX=]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA Interplanetary Transport System]], later renamed the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 "BFR"]] and then again the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship SpaceX Starship]] is basically the closest thing to a modernized version of the Retro Rocket. Both the first stage and the interplanetary spacecraft on top are designed to land in a tailsitting configuration. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wrk5u8FgbM redesign]] unveiled in September 2018 even [[TruthinTelevision sits on its fins]] (although not any more as of 2021)! The proposed design even has a stainless steel hull, giving it the classic [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Starship_Mk1.jpg chromed-out look]].
198* The obscure (at the time) Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky developed a design back in ''1903'', involving the teardrop-hull shape but without fins.
199* The use of this design for sci-fi spacecraft in the post-1945 period would have been heavily influenced by what was known about German V-weapons: until the late 1950's, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2 V-2's]] were the only man-made rockets that had ever been outside the boundaries of Earth's atmosphere, albeit only to gain enough height on the way up to describe a parabola with sufficient momentum to bring them down over London. The drawing-board designs for even larger rockets capable of hitting New York or Moscow were also public-domain knowledge. The V-2 was in every visible respect a retro-rocket of tail sitter configuration ... except it wasn't meant to land. At least [[DeathFromAbove not safely.]]
200* The UsefulNotes/HugoAward [[http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-trophies/2009-hugo-award-trophy trophy]] is in this shape.
201* The logo for the British comics and sci-fi collectibles shop [[http://forbiddenplanet.com/ Forbidden Planet.]]
202* The German Chaos Computer Club has [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/dajmonpills/6599936811/ this]] [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtop-hh/8320513137/ thing.]]
203* The focus of Website/AtomicRockets.
204[[/folder]]

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