Stung again... Estes Yellow Jacket #2008 (29mm powered PSII 2" upscale)

Yellow and black is a great color combination. Estes has capitalized on this for some time now. One of those classic designs from the 90's was the Yellow Jacket #2008.



This was the rocket that I tried my first and only underwater launch (at this time). I learned that 1) The Rogue River in Northern Jefferson State (Yes, there is a state named Jefferson, even if it is only in the hearts and minds of the people from Southern Oregon and Northern California) is too shallow to attempt such a thing. 2) Rockets don't "fly" so good underwater.

Still, I was able to dry it out, and successfully launch it (in the air).

I've cloned it full scale once, once as a 24mm powered BT-60 Based rocket (Semroc provided the nosecone). And thanks to a SNAFU with UPS munching a box, I ended up with 3 Argent rockets. Hmmm... What to do with them? Say, that nosecone looks kinda like the PNC-50Y (2 piece injection molded nosecone). Hmmm....



Since I've got the parts (mostly), and I'll have some time to build (following turning in the last two parts of my homework this term), as well as not being stuck building 6 stretched Leviathans for my commercial build, I think that another Yellow Jacket is in order.

The Original Yellow Jacket used a PNC-50Y 2 piece, injection molded nosecone and a 12.7" body tube.

The upscale will use the Argent's nosecone, which will make it a tad too long, but I'm ok with that. The body tube will be composed of one 13.5" long section, and the other is 12.5" long. I know that I'm about .25" short on the body tube, but with the nosecone, I think it'll be fine.

View attachment Estes Yellow Jacket #2008.ork

View attachment Estes Yellow Jacket #2008 PSII 2 inch upscale.ork

you may have noticed, Estes fin designs for lpr birds tend to be a trifle large, when scaled up they quickly get enormous. have you given any thought to scaling the fins back down a bit, by say 10%?
Rex

Rex R said:

you may have noticed, Estes fin designs for lpr birds tend to be a trifle large, when scaled up they quickly get enormous. have you given any thought to scaling the fins back down a bit, by say 10%?
Rex

Click to expand...

I noticed that with the Cougar upscale I did. However, this one looks OK to me as is.

I like it!!!

Rex R said:

you may have noticed, Estes fin designs for lpr birds tend to be a trifle large, when scaled up they quickly get enormous. have you given any thought to scaling the fins back down a bit, by say 10%?
Rex

Click to expand...

I made a 3" upscale of the YJ and did scale down my fins a bit (~75%). I flies great!





View attachment YellowJacket_3_75Fin.rkt

When Estes has a sale on the Pro Series kits they make for a great kit-bash. My brother and I are both doing an upscale build of the Estes Aerospace Club Viper from Partizon's recently purchased on sale.

I had pretty much forgotten about the Estes Yellow Jacket. Nice looking upscale!

Well, the term is over... I managed to cut the fins from leftovers from my Cherokee D upscale.

BTW: Rex, I cut them at 200% of the originals, rather than the 205% that is the "true" upscale.

Had a D'oh! moment when I glued one of the fins in place w/o papering it....

I've since managed to paper it, and the remaining fins, as well as seal them. I've found that when it comes to my squeegee method of sealing papered fins has some problems when your fin has an angle change such as the back end of the YJ.

Printed the fin guide from Payloadbay. Fins are now in place and awaiting internal and external fillets.

Photos later.

rocketguy101 said:

I made a 3" upscale of the YJ and did scale down my fins a bit (~75%). I flies great!

Click to expand...

Sweet job on your YJ.

I'm finding it kinda fun when I put my 3" Cherokee D, my 2" Yellow Jacket, and their originals up against each other. They are pretty close to twice as big as their originals.