Can you identify this mystery rocket? What do you know about it?

I was poking around the web looking for something that's not 3FNC or otherwise conventional, and I found this in a folder labeled "Southern Thunder 2008":



Caption information says "Scott Taylors XST upon ignition of skidmark motor"

VERY cool! Anyone know anything about it? I'd love to build something like this, but haven't been able to find any better photos or particulars.

You could always just design one in a simulator like OR and learn everything you want to know about it.
The picture is as close to a perfect profile as you could ask for.

:roll::roll:
That's all that is
THREE FINS AND a NOSE CONE :roll::roll:

TopRamen said:

You could always just design one in a simulator like OR and learn everything you want to know about it.
The picture is as close to a perfect profile as you could ask for.

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I got pretty good skilz with OR, but flat side tubes ain't one of 'em.

JJSR said:

:roll::roll:
That's all that is
THREE FINS AND a NOSE CONE :roll::roll:

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NOOOooooooooooooooooo!

Banzai88 said:

I got pretty good skilz with OR, but flat side tubes ain't one of 'em.



NOOOooooooooooooooooo!

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I'm not sure how to do it myself, but I'll bet K'Tesh knows.

I would think it is best made by 1 Conical Nose Cone and 1 Transition.
You have to imagine what's going on inside for the recovery equipment/avionics or whatever, but that's the only thing you have to figure out on your own. Obviously there is a core tube that holds at least the recovery gear. An altimeter would be mounted somewhere between the wall of the inner tube, and the fuselage wall. Likely about three fifths of the way from the tip of the nose, to account for a stable pressure envelope.
For low and mid-power scaling downs/proof of concept versions, the fact that it would essentially have a "Stuffer Tube" would yield sufficient deployment charges from both SU and R motors with deployment charges.

I like the looks of it, and I too will build one of those someday.

TopRamen said:

I'm not sure how to do it myself, but I'll bet K'Tesh knows.

I would think it is best made by 1 Conical Nose Cone and 1 Transition.
You have to imagine what's going on inside for the recovery equipment/avionics or whatever, but that's the only thing you have to figure out on your own. Obviously there is a core tube that holds at least the recovery gear. An altimeter would be mounted somewhere between the wall of the inner tube, and the fuselage wall. Likely about three fifths of the way from the tip of the nose, to account for a stable pressure envelope.
For low and mid-power scaling downs/proof of concept versions, the fact that it would essentially have a "Stuffer Tube" would yield sufficient deployment charges from both SU and R motors with deployment charges.

I like the looks of it, and I too will build one of those someday.

Click to expand...

Good call on K'Tesh, I've posted a thread asking how to: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...our-skillz-on-this-one!&p=1548008#post1548008

it is a cool looking rocket ! I think this is also a picture of it. though I can't say what she's made of,, aluminum?

That looks like it could be it. Where did you find that picture? More likely light ply to stay club legal.

Look here: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?77808-ducted-cone-rocket-kit-anyone-interested

I googled southern thunder images clicked on the pic you post it took me to this picsa account https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/E_h5j9QPp3nZuga5Q3vaWA
also found this shot of it


I wonder what its made of it doesn't look like plywood

oh wow that looks like my truck in the background! LOL

JJSR said:

I googled southern thunder images clicked on the pic you post it took me to this picsa account https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/E_h5j9QPp3nZuga5Q3vaWA
also found this shot of it
View attachment 281717

I wonder what its made of it doesn't look like plywood

oh wow that looks like my truck in the background! LOL

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It could easily be baltic birch plywood or even lite ply with a layer of fiberglass. Judging by the picture in post #7 it looks like ply's are visible inside the hole above the screw. The builder did a great job of finishing the rocket.

rharshberger said:

It could easily be baltic birch plywood or even lite ply with a layer of fiberglass. Judging by the picture in post #7 it looks like ply's are visible inside the hole above the screw. The builder did a great job of finishing the rocket.

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Oh, yeah, he did!!
Banzia88 I take back what I said in post #3.
it IS more then 3FNC

I'm not sure if that is a down scaled clone of the original, but I remember one similar....

I had to watch the video...darn

The original designers name was Scott Taylor, a yacht builder from Louisiana, and it competed in the Odd Roc competition at LDRS 30.

TopRamen said:

I'm not sure how to do it myself, but I'll bet K'Tesh knows..

Click to expand...

Banzai88 said:

Good call on K'Tesh, I've posted a thread asking how to: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...our-skillz-on-this-one!&p=1548008#post1548008

Click to expand...

At this time, I can think of no way to sim this in OR. Flat sides can be done as fins, but they'll end up being rectangular, and not triangular. Closest I can think of is to do it as a series of transitions and fins mounted to phantom body tubes. Problem is, this will result in round sides, not flat sides.

I am FAR from the OR ninja K'Tesh is, but I'd sim it with a geo-similarity approach:

* Draw up the triangular area at the knuckle and the aft end
* Calculate diameters for circles of equivalent area
* Add in a conical nose cone and boat tail transition (may need a teeny section of body tube between)
* Set fins actual size on the modeled diameter, not the actual distance off rocket centerline (although could maybe model the latter as free-form fins)
* Obviously, add in a motor mount and real weights

That should be pretty conservative on stability and not too far off on drag for checking delays. The first couple flights probably don't want to be super high power or in much wind until you figure out how much it weathercocks.

That is a super-cool rocket. I'll have to add it to my "build this someday after building all the other rockets I'll build someday" list.

Scott Taylor has 2 of those rockets. A large one and a smaller one, I saw the small one but didn't see it fly.. All of his rockets that I have seen are works of art. Simply beautiful birds. He certainly takes pride in building his rockets.

Scott Taylor's BIG one is featured on the cover of this month's Sport Rocketry, no?

JJSR said:

it is a cool looking rocket ! I think this is also a picture of it. though I can't say what she's made of,, aluminum?

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One of my most favorite witnessed launches was 10 years ago, a fellow tried to launch a triangular USPS shipping tube/box up on a K. Had 13 flights on it and this was the first K motor. Had a triangular nosecone and three fins at the apices of the
triangle. Motor tube up the middle with triangular bulkheads. LSO pushed the button and the rocket disappeared in a cloud of confetti several hundred feet up. Quite literally the shredded cardboard was fluttering down. The flier was mourning the loss of
the hardware. About a minute or so later, here comes this motor tube with a few triangular bulkheads intact coming in under a perfectly normal parachute deployment.

When rocket turned into shredded paper, it simply continued up straight but we couldn't see it through the cloud of shredded cardboard! Retrospectively, the exposed bulkheads plus the high speed probably added to the stability as did the fact that the
motor thrust was probably near the end of the burn. Rocket kept flying straight to our later amazement with the recovery. After this flight, I started seeing oddroc spools coming out from the kit makers hence the insight that the exposed bulkheads might have kept things going straight.

The owner was very happy to get his flying hardware returned as the investment in the building supplies was nil! Kurt

Bat-mite said:

Scott Taylor's BIG one is featured on the cover of this month's Sport Rocketry, no?

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That was mentioned in another thread, but I haven't seen the picture or cover in question nor have I seen his big rocket itself.

The big one is on the March/April 2016 cover of NAR Magazine (pictures from 2015 Southern Thunder). Both of them flew at NSL 2016 and I understand that Scott Taylor is planning to attend ST2017. Here's the link to the FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/700490513488124/