Space 1999 Eagle PMC

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Daddyisabar

Oddroc scum. Mindsimmer.
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The reissue MPC Eagle kit was on the Hobby Lobby shelf and who can resist with the 40% coupon on the fancy phone. It must take off horizontally like the real ones on the show and it also must look marvelous. Not enough cash to buy the $250+ Centuri vertical launch ones that come up on Ebay once in a blue moon. $16 is more like it! Nice short motors in the cargo pod with rear eject! It can be done! Four tiny A's in a cluster? Maybe, but then the little red odd roc devil popped up on my shoulder and whispered in my ear there is another way, another 24mm motor will fit! So with a little modification, hacking and slashing, I built her up. Just a tad of BP on top of the chopped C11-0 for ejection and she is done! A nice long 1/4 inch rod, a bit of luck and who knows. Probably my worst idea since the flying Easter Egg. The local launches are all canceled due to fire bans, so I took it to the club lunch to see what everyone thought of this little abomination, just twelve inches of terror! How many grievous violations can you count?

Hey guys, look at this, ain't she cute? There are guys who can fly bricks and soccer fields, so why not this??? My overtures were brutally rejected. In the right conditions it will be lucky to fly not on the level one, or level two high power pads, but all the way out to level 3, with the big boys on research day. Hey guys, whatcha flying? A quick burn O research motor for your home built ABM system! Great! I'm a flying a chopped Estes C11-0 in a PMC!

I was thinking of hanging some streamers off the cockpit up front and motors in back. More drag to more equal out and difference between front and rear. But that would not look as good and I am curious to see how it flies with out silly streamers. If it spins then great - they did that a lot on the original show. If it goes end over end then :( . . . Not Mindsim, not even Hopesim, I am reduced to blowing on each end to determine drag. . . Blowsim! Or just get in the back of the truck, tie on a string and yell out "were a gonna need at least a 100 miles per hour!" Do not listen to that little red devil popping up on your shoulder. Time for the little 4FNC angel to pop up on the other shoulder and talk some sense!

1999 1.jpg1999 2.jpg1999 3.jpg

Here it is pictured with a real kit from a trusted producer. An old favorite flown many times. The Pad Fuhrer likes that one!

1999 4.jpg1999 5.jpg1999 6.jpg1999 7.jpg
 
Good Luck, Daddy. I've been out there before on the far-away-pads for small motors. I'm not sure about that Space 1999 model, but it looks good. The other model looks gorgeous and at $16 it is a very encouraging price.
 
Ok Daddy, insane or insanely great ? :) Please, please, please arrange for multiple video angles when you light the candle on this one. And as much as I dislike agreeing with someone called "The Pad Furher" the SS Cestris is sweet. Sirius love ! :tongue:
 
Good Luck, Daddy. I've been out there before on the far-away-pads for small motors. I'm not sure about that Space 1999 model, but it looks good. The other model looks gorgeous and at $16 it is a very encouraging price.

Looking good is essential. Just like Barbra Bain and Martin Landau in the series. Is it a mission impossible, launching way out on the dark side of the moon? Can Dr. Victor Borgman find a way to save us, or will he mysteriously disappear in a years time.

Yeah, at $16 it is affordable to make one into a nose cone and fly it like the old Centuri model.
 
Ok Daddy, insane or insanely great ? :) Please, please, please arrange for multiple video angles when you light the candle on this one. And as much as I dislike agreeing with someone called "The Pad Furher" the SS Cestris is sweet. Sirius love ! :tongue:

Hopefully I can recruit some brave TRA members willing to stand up and video rather than taking shelter in the bunker. The difference between insane and insanely great will be the fine line between the difference in drag from the front command pod to those motors in back. Will it be enough to flip it? Must it have perfect drag symmetry to work? The monolith will fly in 2001, until then we will have to party like it is 1999.
 
Hopefully I can recruit some brave TRA members willing to stand up and video rather than taking shelter in the bunker. The difference between insane and insanely great will be the fine line between the difference in drag from the front command pod to those motors in back. Will it be enough to flip it? Must it have perfect drag symmetry to work? The monolith will fly in 2001, until then we will have to party like it is 1999.

Yep, much easier to balance the mass than balance the drag. Mindsim churnin' when I should be workin' ! Thanks Daddy.
 
Yep, much easier to balance the mass than balance the drag. Mindsim churnin' when I should be workin' ! Thanks Daddy.

The boss can't tell if you are mindsiming or thinking hard about your work, no computer screen showing predicted flight paths or fancy data output! The consensus at the lunch was the drag differential would be too great and this one doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hades, that it will end up crashing like countless eagles did on the real show.:(
 
Wow!!! This is going to be epic! I had the old Centuri Eagle but never got the chance to fly it. This one is SO much better!!!

Mindsimming is giving me some challenges:
  • balancing front pod & rear engine drag
  • balancing front/rear mass
  • balancing the mass & drag moment arms
  • enough restoring force on the side pods?
  • less effective base drag due to chamfered edges?
It seems that mass balancing might be more important?
Any reinforcements of the overhead struts? It might be a potential structural failure point considering the load they're bearing.

This is SO cool!!!
 
Wow!!! This is going to be epic! I had the old Centuri Eagle but never got the chance to fly it. This one is SO much better!!!

Mindsimming is giving me some challenges:
  • balancing front pod & rear engine drag
  • balancing front/rear mass
  • balancing the mass & drag moment arms
  • enough restoring force on the side pods?
  • less effective base drag due to chamfered edges?
It seems that mass balancing might be more important?
Any reinforcements of the overhead struts? It might be a potential structural failure point considering the load they're bearing

This is SO cool!!!

It balances out at the motor. The CG is right at the center of the motor. Just a plastic model kit but very light and well balanced mass wise. Everything will revolve around that central motor and mount.

The overhead struts are strong on this model so they should hold up. I securely glued them on. The shock cord is as long as possible with elastic - you can't see it in the photos. I did reinforce the model's mounts for the rear motors and the landing strut legs.

Help me base drag! Your my only hope! Restoring force on the side pods? SCARY. Less effective base drag? SCARIER!

Maybe some more base drag with streamer's? It will have six feet of rod and will it fly with multiple streamers underneath when it leaves the rod? Will it look good? Streamers are for kites. . .right? . . . but I love them with the tape worm and the squid rockets I have flown. Will there be enough stability with the power of the motor and streamers fluttering behind, actually pulling the CP below the ship?

Mindsiming is so hard!
 
Attach a long streamer to each landing gear and lay the streamers on the ground before the launch with each streamer radiating from a corner of the rocket.

There was an article in an issue of Model Rocket News (or some other magazine) describing how someone launched a rocket that looked like a Port-a-Pad launch pad using that technique.

-- Roger
 
Wow, can't believe I haven't read this thread. This looks like fun. My approach would be to put on canted clear fins, one on each end and pointed at 45 degrees in opposite directions, just like a Whirlygig. Lots of spinning terror.
 
Attach a long streamer to each landing gear and lay the streamers on the ground before the launch with each streamer radiating from a corner of the rocket.

There was an article in an issue of Model Rocket News (or some other magazine) describing how someone launched a rocket that looked like a Port-a-Pad launch pad using that technique.

-- Roger

I was thinking of doing that with four shorter streamers. If it survives it will be fun to experiment with.
 
Wow, can't believe I haven't read this thread. This looks like fun. My approach would be to put on canted clear fins, one on each end and pointed at 45 degrees in opposite directions, just like a Whirlygig. Lots of spinning terror.

Good advice from the man with the EKRANOPLAN! The Eagles were prone to flat spins on the show.

[video=youtube;uLAsBzOOhLQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLAsBzOOhLQ[/video]
 
It flew at Hartsel on Sunday. The chute did not deploy but the up part was fine. Minor damage on landing just with streamers. Have a video and will post as soon as possible - having computer troubles.

Eagle Landed.jpg

Eagle on hood.jpg
 
Video

[video]https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=2CD1omIzb5s[/video]

Link needs to be different - without the edit in it.
with the edit word in it it will take someone who has YT to their own video edit page.

speaking of edit - Edit: we were posting at same time :D
 
I can see the lower video in post #23. Congratulations, Daddy! I was amazed how well it flew. What size motor did you use. I would not have believed that it could fly, unless I saw it. I think that you can make anything fly. Did the streamers come out on ejection? How did you make this thing stable?
 
I can see the lower video in post #23. Congratulations, Daddy! I was amazed how well it flew. What size motor did you use. I would not have believed that it could fly, unless I saw it. I think that you can make anything fly. Did the streamers come out on ejection? How did you make this thing stable?

Thanks! It was on a chopped C11-0 with a touch of powder for ejection, only at Tripoli research day could it fly. The streamers were on all the way up and down. They made it stable like a kite. They equaled out the asymmetric drag so it would not pitch over. Except for the chute getting stuck it all went according to the mindsim output screen.

I was just in the Hobby Shop and saw the big 40th Anniversary version of the Eagle.
 
Kite rockets work well when your mindsim computes the proper amount of tail.
 
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