Thanks to my lovely family who got me enough foam, and electronics to make another rocket glider. They also gave me a half a day repreive yesterday and today to work on it. I've been wanting to try a spaceship one , but have been worried about CG, twisting and stiffness of the tail booms. It came out ok, I wound up having to put some parallel stiffeners on the bottom of the wing to help prevent twist.

I couldn't find a decent 3-view that I liked or thought was right, so I just did this freehand from a book I have from pictures and relative sizing. I think it captures the look if not perfect scale. The full flying control surface placement was dictated by the fact that I wanted to put the pivot rod accross the fuse and tie it in just in front of the rocket motor mount. This helps reduce the twist of the tail booms and worked well, and actually came close to where they are supposed to be. Since I was doing a cruciform structure, I had to move the wing placement to the middle of the fuse instead of the upper portion, but I don't think it makes that big of a difference in look. I did not add the later stub strake fins in front of the control surfaces yet till I fly it and see how it does without them. Due to the lack of stiffness of the booms, I glued in carbon tubes in each one and laminated a 3mm cover over the tube, that made them very stiff. The wing still had some twist so I used two carbon tube spars as well.

I mounted the servos as far forward as I...Continue Reading

I decided I wanted to try doing one of the proposed Delta wing configurations for the X-15-3 plane, I chose the one normally modeled with the diamond wingtips...I made it simply by taking my X-15 plans, stretching the fuse the scale amount(about 10 inches) and changing the top view to a delta with wingtips. I added some 3mm covers on the sides of the fuse to sort of give it a look like the fairings had. It gives it a bit more body. It's all completed except for painting now, and the fairings added quite a bit of stiffness to the body. It came out at 55.5" long and about 21" wing span which is slightly oversized just for wing loading. Weight is right at 13 oz rtf, but without paint, so assume about an ounce more finished.

It's my first try using the hobby king 5a bec and the orange spektrum compatible rx...so far so good...

Update 12/21/12 Since the world didn't end yet, i had enough time to paint the Delta X-15 and do the markings. Came right out at exactly 14 oz rtf. Pictures show it next to the X-15-2 and also next to my Icarus...

Update 12/27 Good maident this morning. CG and throws were spot on as was glide trim, very nice!
Here is the cg calculator I used:

http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_U...d6=0&sweep6=0&

Flight video near the end of this link:

Spaceship One and X-15-3 Delta Configuration RC Rocket boosted gliders (0 min 0 sec)

Frank

My posted Plans are here:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...5#post11284823

I will eventually re-scan and post others as I have time.

Here is a link to my youtube videos which cover many of my builds:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...Q&feature=plcp

Here are a couple of links to some wing CG calculations for a few of my models as an example:

X-24A lifting body: http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_U...d6=0&sweep6=0&

Jayhawk: http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_U...d6=0&sweep6=0&

X-15 Delta CG: http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_U...d6=0&sweep6=0&

SpaceShipOne CG: http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_U...d6=0&sweep6=0&

X-20 Dyna-Soar: http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_U...d6=0&sweep6=0&

I've updated my Bomarc plans to reflect the A or B model wing/ramjets. I redesigned the ramjets to not have an X form but just double of the side view and it looks like it will work fine and weigh the same. I think it makes a cleaner look. I built this one as an A model with the wing and pods moved back and AUW rtf is 11.3 oz with an E-6RC motor.

Doing the ramjets by doubling them allowed me to round them more and it gives a better shape, I think.

I did the markings on the pieces/painting first before assembly and was very careful with the CA when applying to avoid running the marker lines. I used model master "titanium" for the ramjet rear ends, and some Q-tip shafts for the pitot/counterbalance probe thingys...

I used styrene sheet on each side of the fuse to support the rail buttons as well as give something solid to drill and glue to when attaching the ramjets.

I also added styrene strips to the bottom of the ramjets to help them survive landing rash as well as the underside of the nose, and used contact cement(uhu por) to attach it. I don't indicate that in the plans, if you land on trimmed grass it probably isn't necessary, but I already had the styrene on hand.

I did this one in a slightly different white color scheme I found with a black nose and use sharpie pens to do the panel lines/accents, sig stars and bars and vinyl letters from Office Max.

Build time was approx 8 hours including cutting plans, dry fitting, markings and finishing.

Test flight in 8 mph winds was good, boost was vertical, just a bit of weather cocking at the end of the boost that was easily adjusted back to vertical. Glide setting was fine. This is using the same relative CG position (relative to the wing LE where it hits the top view fuse profile) as the B model. IE mark the wing as shown on the plans for CG, move the wing back to the A model position and the same CG markings will apply.

Plans are updated on the plans page.

Frank

I was on a business trip and was able to stop by the White sands missile range and the alamogordo space museum. I have to say that seeing a bunch of those rockets and missiles I have built models of was really exciting. I was able to actually touch a Pershing and Bomarc Missile The Talos is a huge missile. Hopefully you will enjoy the closeup shots. They had their V-2 refurbished and it is one of the most complete V-2's in existance. They had it made into a cutaway so you can see the internal structure and tanks, etc. They had some of the V-2 skin left over and were selling it mounted on a base, so I bought some real german December of 1944 V-2 skin I'm such a dork. Really, I'd encourage anyone in the area to go to the white sands missile park, it was outstanding.

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I decided to try a 1.5x upscale of my full fuse AGM-86A ALCM, I think by using a KF airfoiled Wing and since the fuse is hollow with formers and skin, the total AUW won't be more than 2.25X the original, which would mean I could potentially fly it on 24mm F-32's or 32mm F-16 or G-12's.

Wings are built with launch rail attached, and full flying stabs are built and laminated.

Update 10/28 Cut out the top and side views and tab and slotted them, installed the motor mount, thrust plate, tail torque rod and vertical reinforced with carbon and laminated with 3mm depron.

Update 10/29 Added the formers and lightening cuts, and cut and fit the top nose plate(not shown). Just need to add strips at the top and sides to attach the sheeting to.

Update 10/30 Added the strips and added the rear sheeting after installing all electronics and the wing. Added in the hatch for the battery and did an initial CG check. AUW is leaning towards 30 oz RTF with a 4.6 ounce F-16 32mm reload. CG looks attainable with only about 2.5 oz nose weight. Just need to add the forward sheeting, sand and apply markings.

Update 10/31 All finished. AUW is 30 oz rtf with an F-16, about a half an ounce less for an F-23 or an F-26FJ.

Update 11/19 Maiden flight was great on F-26FJ, flew two flights, hands off boost, nice glide.

Large ALCM AG-86A Cruise Missile rocket boosted RC glider (1 min 33 sec)

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Below are almost all of the scratch builds I've done. Rocket boosted at the top and pusher parkjets below. If there is something here that you really are interested in, let me know and I'll see if I can get you a pdf of the plans/templates if I made them.

Here are some results of how the models flew, out of 64 built, just a few failures, and a few that had initial flight problems but were solved...If there are no notes, they flew fine off the board.

Avro Arrow
X-15: 5 versions, aileron/tail, taileron only, Full fuse, Delta configuration. 72" 29mm version
Small F-106
F-100
F-101
F-104
F-105
F-107 Ultra Sabre
XF-92 Dart
F-4 Phantom
Bomarc: 4 versions, A model, B model, 29mm 72" B model, 68" A model for G-12's
Bomarc A: with ramjet tractor motors, too heavy for 24mm motor, motor thrust was marginal on tractors, wind blew pad over on last test flight and destroyed model
XF-91 thunderceptor: Used 18mm and 24mm airstart plus pusher, worked great.
Space Shuttle
Buran
Saab Draken: flew great, rolled like a drill, killed when a spektrum lockout occured when pointed straight down...
Interceptor(3 versions, two smaller 24mm and one 72" 32mm version)
Jayhawk(2 versions, 24mm and 72" 29mm version)
Mach 10
Mach 10(upscale): Suffered wing flutter and destruction on test flight
Goblin
Flapjack: Used differential throttle for yaw control, flew great
A-4B(2 versions)
B-58 Hustler
ME-163 Komet: Flew as pusher, tractor and also airstart...Continue Reading

I finally got around to upscaling my Jayhawk target drone 1.5x. 30" wingspan, 71" long. Used laminated 6mm sheets with staggered joints, and hs-65 mg servos with carbon reinforced wire pushrods to get the servo weight forward. I inset the nose weight into the nose section before gluing the pieces together so it is hidden. Just a single carbon tube for the wing spar, and some styrene sheet for reinforcing the bottom where landing scrapes would happen. The wingtips are slotted half way and plug into wing tabs. Turned out nice and stiff and the AUW is right at 35 ounces, same as the X-15 but with more wing area. Since this is an upscale of the original, the wing area is scaled proportionately, which means the wing is larger than scale, this is mainly to get the flight CG ahead of the lateral CG so I don't have lateral stability problems.

I like the C model because it isn't all red which allowed me to leave some of the depron unpainted to save weight, and it looks a bit different than all the others out there. Decals I made due with what I had and took some artistic license and used my sharpie for panel lines.


Right around 1000 sq inches of area.

I've found that the vinyl doesn't want to stick to the testors paint, so I had to use 3m-77 spray on them and then attach them, takes more time and you have to be more careful.

Maiden flight was great, I've settled on the Aerotech 29mm SU F-26FJ, boost isn't terribly high, but it is nice and straight and low stress on the airframe.

Video at:

Large Scratch Built AQM-37C Jayhawk Target Drone Rocket boosted RC Glider (1 min 6 sec)

and another F-26 flight at:

RC Rocket boosted X-15 and Jayhawk Glider flights on F motors (1 min 14 sec)

Some great pictures by Gary Goncher from the Fillible's Folly launch near Amity Oregon this last weekend. Included are my large X-15, bomarc, Interceptor, small V-1 buzzbomb and my level 2 cert flight on a performance rocketry 4" nike smoke and J-350 as well as the first flight of my Pershing 2 on an H-123 with separate nose/body chutes.

Also included are flights of the Nike Smoke on an I285 Redline, and my Pershing 1A on a G-75 metalstorm and Pershing 2 on an H-123 from the Rocketober launch in Brothers, Oregon....Continue Reading

Wanted to post a bit about my rocket powered glider designs and things that I think about when building them.

On the surface, profile depron planes look simple, and a lot of people disparage them because they don't look real(in their eyes....) They are simple conceptually, but that takes some work to make them simple, strong and have good flight performance. In general cruciform designs will give the highest surface area and strongest structure for the weight. They have low frontal area and low drag. By using a cruciform type structure, you can get things to fly with extremely small wing area, but due to fuse lift, have very light loadings, very gentle flight and landing characteristics. I have done several full fuse designs, and they look great, however flight performance and weight is not as good as the profile designs, it all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

I like rockets that look like the original, ie motor in the tail, I'm not a pod and boom person, although that is the easiest way to combat CG shifts and get good flight performance.

I like to keep things simple, which means not having to move balast, centerline thrust, and minimal control surfaces. I normally run flat plate wings. The advantage of this is that you can boost perfectly straight up and not have any pitching moments, all you do is keep it straight if it strays due to wind, and then pitch over into glide. You don't need a special launch pad.

I like full flying tail designs. By...Continue Reading

Started this this morning, an upscale of my bomarc pusher or rocket boosted glider, this will be for 29mm rocket motors.

The nose looks a bit short since the top view is not on the centerline of the fuse, due to the high mounted wing, the side view nose will be another foot longer. Length will be about 80 inches, and wingspan 30"

Update 1/08/2012 Finished the ramjet pods, with carbon rods installed to go through the fuse and styrene skid reinforcement. I wanted to keep the air flow through the ramjet pods to reduce drag, so I left the front tapered portion profile and did an xform support for a thin bt101 tube for the rear portion, and wrapped them with chrome monokote. I think it will give the right look but still be fairly light. The body tubes added almost 4 ounces of weight.

I made a 12" spruce bar to mount the rail buttons on and installed them into the fuse with carbon rods to glue into the fuse for support. I then laminated styrene sheet on both sides to support it and to act as support for the ramjet mounting rods to go through. It seems pretty stiff. Ready now to slice the top fuse and slot and tab it and attach to the top view.

Update 1/09/2012, finished it except for the tan nose. Total weight with balast and motor rtf is 39 ounces. Looks like it will be a candidate for G-33's.

Update 1/11/2012 Test flight success! G-40 was a bit hard, the G-33 was a better boost, glide was pretty good, it was windy and the model wanted to bind on the...Continue Reading

I still wanted to see if I could build a tail boosted glider that could work without balast shifting and use the G-12 32mm motor. I decided the best platform an upscale of the Estes Interceptor. The original RC/RG I built was 42" long and used an E-6 and weighed 9 oz rtf. I decided to just go with a single ply top view, except doubling it at the rear for the motor mount, and adding a kline-fogelman(KF) step on the wing bottom to help stiffen it, hide the spar, and generate a bit more lift. I used double ply 6mm for the fuse, however it is only 4" accross so about half of the x-15.

WS is 34" and length is around 75"

Here is how it looks so far.

Update 12/28 Completed the build, with all electronics and a bit of ballast installed it is at 17 oz. Battery will be 1.5 ounces and motor 4.4

Update 12/29, finished the markings and CG. AUW is 23 ounces with motor and battery. Did most of the markings with sharpie for panel lines, stars and bars from sig, vinyl letters from coverite, and the rest is trim monokote cut to fit. I decided to put some fake gear doors and flaps etc and some gun ports. I had some random military plane placards from an old trim sheet I had, so I used those.

Update 1/07/2012 Got in a perfect test flight on a G-12, really docile on boost and trivial to land, just a little wing wobble when too slow, but no stall.

Launch video at:

Scratch built six foot tall Interceptor Rocket boosted RC glider (1 min 32

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I decided to do an upscale of my X-15. I've laminated a carbon rod spar into the fuse splices in 6mm, with 3mm top and bottom over the spar and rear pivot rod. The tail pieces are also laminated 6mm with 3mm over the torque tube. Fuse is two pieces of 6mm spliced and laminated. Took 3.5 sheets of 6mm and 3 sheets of 3mm. Total airframe weight is 18.5 ounces.

Update 12/21 Slotted and tabbed the fuse/wing, mounted the rail buttons on a spruce slat inlayed into the side, laminated some styrene on the nose and tail for landing skids, mounted a 29mm mount and got the bottom glued in place.

Just need to round the edges of the wing and top fuse, glue on the top fuse and install the electronics.

Update 12/26, finished the model and electronics install:

Got in two flights today. First flight on a G-25 was majestic, it chuffed a couple of times like they tend to do, and then a nice graceful boost to around 600 feet, pitched over and hit the glide trim, and it was perfect, nice and slow and plenty of authority to flare for a tail first touchdown.

The second flight I liked a bit better on a G33, much more growl and faster boost, again arrow straight, pitch over and nice glide. The 6' rail worked perfectly.

All in all, I'm very happy and will now do the painting and panel lines. Thanks to John for digging the motors out of the archives/vault. Only got one cell phone picture that is blurry on the G-25. I think the perfect motor will be a G-40.


Update 12/29/2011 Finished...Continue Reading

For an article I'm writing, i re-drew my x-15 plans to have a slightly larger scale, but still fit on one sheet of depron, made the wing and fuse outlines more scale, along with the tail surfaces. I chose a flight profile where they didn't have the rear end box, and did not fly with the ventral in place. I also added a step by step instruction sheet in the plans as well as doing some build photos. It also has a parts list and flight notes/control throws.

I've flown this on E-6 rc reloads, E-9 and D-12 estes motors where I removed the ejection plug and charge, and re-plugged the ends with epoxy and they all flew it well. The D-12 wasn't super high, the E9 has a pretty quick boost, but doesn't go as high as the full 40ns E-6 motor. All the boosts were very straight, with just minor pitch adjustment as it got affected by wind on the way up.

It is a bit heavy for a quest D-5, and did not want to clear the rod, so I don't recommend that motor. Aerotech E-15's single use motors may be a little hard accellerating for the full flying tail, so you'll want to have a heads up if you fly it the first time on this motor to be sure you won't get any flutter.

The D-9 was the heaviest motor, and I had the battery fully forward for that flight, and have a long strip of velcro so I can move the battery back an inch to an inch and a half for the lighter setups, the glide profile was good, about 10 degrees down with post boost trim, and maintained good flare till right before...Continue Reading

I'm re-working my profile X-20 rocket glider to have a simple fuse shape to give it a bit more scale shape. I'll post photos as I go along and eventually update the plans. I adjusted the fuse profile a bit, you could build it as pure profile or add the side/top pieces.

I did wind up adding two carbon strips to the wing sides to help with flex on landing if you come in tail first, I felt there was a bit too much and it might crack on a hard pitch up tail first landing. It is now pretty stiff. The fuse pieces fit pretty well as cut, just minor trimming for each side as needed.

I finished the frame up and rough sanding, and did a gob of inside the house test glides to get the CG range, and double checked with my cg calculator and a couple of older threads on deltas, in addition to my profile version. I found with the full fuse that the CG was about 1/4" rear of the simple profile version. It was a bit more back than I had calculated but my test glides with a 20 degree nose up mush push glide produced the desired pitch over at the rearward CG.

I did two test flights this morning, using 3/4" up trim for post boost glide to compensate for the nose heavy condition. This was my first time launching by myself so I had to hold the battery and ignition wires in my left hand, cradle the radio and get on the sticks quickly I learned an important lesson doing this, on a cold day, do not stand directly behind the model, as it pitched forward and stayed in the exhaust...Continue Reading

I've done a build thread with photos for the Estes Interceptor profile upscale rocket glider.

AUW is 9 oz rtf with E-6 reload, I think this bird is light enough a quest 20mm D-5-P would work as would a D-12 or E-9 BP motor.

One sheet of depron will work, however you will need to splice the fuse near the back half as the length is 42" or so. You can splice wherever you wish, I did it near the rear as it is most supported by the wing/top plan.

Just one small 1/8" carbon rod for a pivot and two small 1/8" id aluminum torque tubes, two dubro servo horns for the torque tubes, a 24mm motor mount, and about 18" of 1/8" by .034 carbon strip for the wing spar. A bit of dubro hinge tape for reinforcing the spar and torque rod, two 5" .34 pushrods.

You'll need two hs-55 servos or similar, an rx, bec and 1.5oz 2s battery or similar. For pusher, you want to keep the tail light, a 1-1.5oz motor should be ok, just install an inset motor mount and mount the motor.

I built this one from printing out my own plans without margin or scaling and taping together. When cutting the tabs make sure to use your slits in the top view as your guide instead of blindly using the template to make sure they line up perfectly. The ventral and dorsal fins don't have to be at a certain angle, as long as they are more vertical than horizontal they should be fine, and should be matching.

Total build time for me was 10 hours including cutting the paper...Continue Reading

I'm starting to re-work my original ALCM into an A model complete with side covers and a more 3-d fuse/nose. I'll need to upscale the wings and move them a bit for CG but so far it looks like the shape won't be too complicated to approximate and still be simple construction.

Stay Tuned.

Attaching a photo of the shape of the A model, difficult to find a 3-view, so this will be mostly photo based.)

Lots of progress today, was able to cut out and slot, and test fit, install the full flying tail and rocket mount, fit and cut the side covers, glue the main frame and front pieces together and do some in house test glides for CG range.

I think once I have the side pieces in place and sanded the edges round, it will look pretty good.

Update Friday:

Got the sides and rear cover installed, sanded, and spent about 2 hours with some vinyl letters and cutting trim monokote, I'm out of a few letters but it is looking pretty good so far.

Update Saturday 10/29/11

Test flights were very good, for the first time I got something too nose heavy and wound up removing some nose weight and moving the battery back 3 inches. Still very conservative and docile boost. No roll trim needed, and post-boost trim easily set on the gear switch.

Markings were cut from red, black, and white monokote trim, and you will need 1/2" and 1" great planes vinyl letters, and two 3" stars and bars from sig.

Video at:

Scratch built AGM-86A ALCM RC rocket boosted

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My attempt here is to do a step by step photo instruction set for the winged V-2 and X-15 for people that haven't done this type of construction before so that they can see it put together sort of how a kit would do it. Hopefully that will show how easy it is and encourage others to try it. This thread would also apply to the Bomarc, and Interceptor with slight changes in the foam details, and to the Jayhawk except that it uses elevons instead of a full flying tail.





**NOTE**
For those of you viewing this from the main blog page:
Click on the "Comments" link to see the rest of the build instructions/step by step and expand the thread.

Frank

My V-2 that I built 17 years ago is now home again. My friend I traded it to asked if I wanted it back, and I said yes. Had to cut the body tube in half to get it back in a roll bag on the plane, and took two trips but got it back. Sat in the closet for a year, till my buddy reminded me about the local launch. Normally I miss that launch due to being in Reno for the air races, but this year it was a week after. So, installed a coupler, reinforced the joint, added rail buttons, and re-painted the camo to repair the damage 17 years will cause.

It's ready to go with my mountainside 2.6" version and my helmet. This rocket made the cover of HPR at one time.


Here is a link to the second flight liftoff photos.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=134


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Here are some photos of my rocket projects......Continue Reading