burkefj's blog View Details
Archive for September, 2019
Posted by burkefj | Sep 25, 2019 @ 11:18 AM | 8,029 Views
I have built this that I drew up many years ago in several versions, 6mm depron single ply with rocket in the rear, with tractor motor up front and air start rocket in the rear, in a doubled KF airfoil as both tail electric pusher and rocket glider(to stiffen the wings), I decided to build another one purely for rocket glider using some 9mm depron I have, allowing me to keep to single ply. I did a pseudo winter camo black/white eastern front scheme for fun. The problem with tail mounted motors in ME-163's are the moment arm of the tail to the CG is longer than to the nose so getting balance is a challenge. It came out a bit heavier than I wanted but still flies nice and is very docile on boost. As with any wing with CG shift as the motor burns out, the elevons don't have a lot of leverage in nose heavy condition and they can run out of flare on landing, but this one is pretty well balanced, not twitchy on boost and still nice to land.

25" long, 37" wingspan, 15.5 oz ready to fly using a 24mm longburn E-6 motor. I flew on E-12 motors but the boost is just faster but doesn't go quite as high.

Glide isn't terribly long, but this one was just for fun and looks good.

RC ME-163 Komet Rocket glider flying on 24mm E-6 rocket motors (2 min 2 sec)