Dragonship 7 Upscale RC Rocket Glider

Sometimes my mind is just in overdrive, I think that's what's been happening the last few weeks. After the Klingon battlecruiser flew so well I really was going to take a break, but I kept going back to something I'd been thinking about adapting to rocket gliders, the Dragonship 7 from Estes.

I based it on the BT-80 tubing and pnc-80BB nose cone, and styled some wings in the right shape and re-worked length/fins for stability. Only took me a few hours of time to sketch out, do some weight sims, and put it together for some indoor glide tests. Was right on first try. Uses depron for the cockpit and vertical stabs and MPF for the wing with a single 1/8" carbon spar. TE elevons.

I made a simple box out of depron, then wrapped sandpaper around the body tube to sand the cockpit to fit, then cut the forward vertical stab to fit the height of the cockpit.

More construction photos....
The vertical stab has a slot for the motor tube, the motor tube has two centering tabs to hold it straight laterally. The vertical fin passes through the wing in partial slot. Fairly straight forward and simple.

Finishing...I contacted Stickershock about upsizing the markings, but Mark's cutter had lost a power supply, not ever wanting to wait for anything, I started drawing some markings I could hand cut from the red and black vinyl I had on hand. I really came out with the look I wanted, I like steampunk things, but not enough to do them myself, this sort of crosses over into 1950's sci fi, steampunkish a bit.....

It's basically hand cut black or red vinyl with accent vinyl strips.

Rivets! I made a rivet template using a 12" long strip of plastic milk jug that I used a leather hole punch to make 3/32" holes every 1/4"
I still have to do the other half of the wing and vertical stab, but it should be about 11 oz rtf, almost 280 sq inches of wing area, 34" long, and 23.5" wingspan.

Now that one is the bee's knees.


Richard

Those rivets look great! A very Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon steampunk look.

Thanks! I wonder what it would look like in copper color? Would be interesting to see what at dedicated steampunker could do without making it terribly draggy/heavy... I left it white since it's lighter, I think it looks good in white, the markings seem to pop a bit better than when over silver, maybe a steampunk version would not have the markings like this.....

Here it is, finished up the rivets and final balance, right at 11 oz, hopefully weather is supposed to be good tomorrow for a flight/video....

Very cool, as always.

Here is the maiden flight today in about 5mph winds, it literally flew perfectly off the board, no change to cg, boost or glide trim

[video=youtube;CSJeBAiRoZI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSJeBAiRoZI&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Nice flight.
Are you using plugged engines?

These are aerotech E-6RC motors which use a plugged solid case and don't come with any delay element, specifically for RC gliders, they are a perfect longburn mild motor.

BABAR said:

Nice flight.
Are you using plugged engines?

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I've uploaded the plans for this on my website, go to the plans pulldown and you will see a link to the build photos and the pdf download.

Got the dragon logos from stickershock and they really set it off nicely.

You ever catch a stray thermal with some of your projects? Kurt

A few times, best I've gotten was a 4 minute 10 second glide from a 500+ foot boost which is not bad from a flat plate wing in an 11.5 oz model,
gotten a few 2.5 minute flights.

ksaves2 said:

You ever catch a stray thermal with some of your projects? Kurt

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