Saturn V Airstart Two-Stage Rocket Ideas?

I was toying with the idea of making a "sort of scale" Saturn V build- maybe 6 feet tall & powered by a single 54mm J motor. I want to make it an airstart two stage rocket, so I wouldn't want to purchase and retrofit an existing kit rocket, as the upper stage exhaust would probably fry the detailed molded parts below.

I've built two successful airstart HPR's, but I'm more looking for ideas as to maybe using clear fins on the upper stage (and probably the first stage also), thoughts as to where to break the rocket into two stages, how to build the body tube transitions or if molded transitions exist from a vendor, etc.

I most likely would hope for a "more or less" detailed look only through the paint scheme and decals- a level of detail that would look acceptable from the distance of the high level pad. Blue Tube would be my choice for the body tubes, even if the scale might be a bit off. I use RockSim, so if someone has already tackled this concept, feel free to send me the file.

Here are links to a couple of my airstart onboard videos- "AIRSTART 2" AND "AIRSTART1"

[video=youtube;NuKGgre7GMo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuKGgre7GMo[/video]

[video=youtube;PLS8sFNJOz4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLS8sFNJOz4[/video]

Mike Momenee
TRA Level 3

5.5" blue tube for the bottom and the 75mm (3.124") for the top gets you pretty close to .013 scale. The whole thing would be around 57" tall at that scale.
6" for the bottom and 98mm (4.024") for the top is around a .015 scale. That makes a model around 66" tall.
7" for the bottom doesn't give you a really close choice for the top. 98mm is too small by almost an inch and 5.5 is too big by the same. You'd really want something around 4.75". At that size the model would be almost 83" tall (.019 scale factor).

For 2 stages why not separate at or near the real 1st/2nd stage point? If you want to do solid clear fins, that keeps them sort of to the rear (no further forward than all the HPR AAMRAAMs or Sparrow missles that have been flown). If you want to do flip out fins, you'd have plenty of room for them and still have a chute for the 1st stage.

kj

On bh lol pov

Thanks for the input!

There was an article I remember reading about someone who made a Saturn V (Estes?) into a multi-stage rocket, creating self deploying fins for the upper stage(s?). Perhaps someone has a better memory of what was done, and where to find it.

It had spring-loaded fins that were concealed inside the lower stages to keep the shape accurate while the rocket wasn't in use, or on the pad.