History Main / RetroRocket

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'': 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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': Nearly all rockets in the 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 Fallout 3 and the front courtyard of the REPCONN Factory in Fallout New Vegas 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.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** Well you can see [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/images/basicdesign/galileo2.jpg from the cover of the book]] how the ''Literature/RocketShipGalileo'' fits in.
** The cover for ''Literature/SpaceCadetHeinlein'', seen [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Robert_Heinlein_-_Space_Cadet.jpg here.]]
** The cover for ''Literature/TheRollingStones1952'', seen [[http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6236/6266508562_f38a4737b8.jpg here.]]
** Jerry Pournelle once quipped[[note]]at the 1993 Worldcon[[/note]] that such rockets landed "just as God and Robert Heinlein intended."

* Pops 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.

** The cover for ''Literature/SpaceCadet'', seen [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Robert_Heinlein_-_Space_Cadet.jpg here.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* One ''Webcomic/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' strip showed that the Green Gorillas have [[https://thecrewofthecoppercoloredcupids.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/cupid-comic-21-gorillas-in-space/ a green rocketship]] with red fins.

* Creator/JunjiIto's ''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.

* Syndrome's rocket in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' 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.

* The [[http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-trophies/2009-hugo-award-trophy Hugo Award trophy]] is in this shape.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', some levels have a small rocketship that you can capture with your hat, leading to a sub-level.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey '', some levels have a small rocketship that you can capture with your hat, leading to a sub-level.

** In ‘’VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld’’, rocketships take you to the post-game bonus worlds.
** In ‘’VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey’’, some levels have a small rocketship that you can capture with your hat, leading to a sub-level.

* The titular tramp freighter in John Robert Maddox's ''Space Angel'' is a classic tail sitter.

** In a [[DorkAge Glorith-timeline comic]], the rocket was a kid...

** 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 or rocteing around in the atmosphere.

* 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 RetroRocket.

** 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 RetroRocket stuck on the nose. The Martian Space Probe in "Day of Disaster"... [[https://thunderbirds.fandom.com/wiki/Martian_Space_Probe Well, see for yourself.]]

* 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 RetroRocket.

* ''VideoGame/StarControl'': [[BlueSkinnedSpaceBabe Syreen]] ship, [[http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Penetrator Penetrator]] "is shaped after the V-2 rocket, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and a dildo]]."

** The cover for ''Literature/TheRollingStones'', seen [[http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6236/6266508562_f38a4737b8.jpg here.]]

* The focus of [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/index.php Atomic Rockets]].

* In the Creator/MichaelChabon semi-autobiographical novel "Moonglow", Chabon's maternal grandfather designs rockets specifically fitting this description, including reusable toy versions with parachutes.

* 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.]]

* ''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.

[[folder:Films - Animation]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

[[folder:Magazine]]

* ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' and its 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.
** 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 RetroRocket stuck on the nose. The Martian Space Probe in ''Day of Disaster''...[[https://thunderbirds.fandom.com/wiki/Martian_Space_Probe Well, see for yourself.]]
** ''Zero X'', the spacecraft featured in the movie ''ThunderbirdsAreGo'', was at least a partial aversion of this trope. The main body was box-like rather than cylindrical, though it mounted rocket engines at the back, and the lifting bodies -- wings which helped it take off and land horizontally like an aircraft -- separated from it when it reached the upper atmosphere on take-off and returned to the ship's base, ready to rejoin it when it came back to Earth. [[spoiler: That was the idea, at least; they weren't very reliable, hence the plot of the movie!]]

** One quote often used to describe such rockets, usually attributed to Jerry Pournelle, is "just as God and Robert Heinlein intended."