Estes Jetliner #3230

Bluegrass Rocket said:

The body tube is BT-60.

Here's the finished Jetliner. I think it turned out nice. It is a cool little rocket.

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Awesome! Wonder if the UK distributor for Estes has this in stock yet...

Anyone fly this yet?

Are you gonna do that upscale in Braniff livery?

dave

Cosmotiger said:

It would be cool to see some aftermarket decals in real airline livery. Pan Am anyone?

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Great now you got me thinking.....

stickershock23 said:

Great now you got me thinking.....

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Done yet?

chadrog said:

Done yet?

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I'm old it still takes a while...

Pan Am
Southwest
JANET
American Airlines
Huges Airwest "The only way to fly"
Jet blue
Continental
Hawiian air (Why i thought of this? SUrfs up right now!!!)
British Airways

the list goes on and on....

stickershock23 said:

I'm old it still takes a while...

Pan Am
Southwest
JANET
American Airlines
Huges Airwest "The only way to fly"
Jet blue
Continental
Hawiian air (Why i thought of this? SUrfs up right now!!!)
British Airways

the list goes on and on....

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WHAT, no SWA in Orca livery!

Thats what I might try.

I may have to design and build a version of that with my BT80 tubes.. Make it longer to look more like a DC-10 ...... Hmmmm I bet Stickershock could hook me up with the graphics ??

Glasspack

Hmm...."Braniff,,,Believe it"....how where is that c grain balsa and BT-60 i had lying around?

Mark,
You can have the decals from my jetliner...I'm going a different direction with my kit.
Pm me with an address and ill get them on the way.

stickershock23 said:

As son as I can get a kit to "borrow" the decals set from..... LOL

Somehow I see it as a remote control glider recovery..

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Cool looking rocket

I may have to get one of those.

Cool looking rocket! I would like to see one painted and decorated as a "Southwest Airlines" aircraft... Would need to add some small wing tips at the end of the wings... some work but I am sure the end results would be awesome... I agree with a previous post that this is a good candidate for rear ejection...

rosko_racer said:

Cool looking rocket! I would like to see one painted and decorated as a "Southwest Airlines" aircraft... Would need to add some small wing tips at the end of the wings... some work but I am sure the end results would be awesome... I agree with a previous post that this is a good candidate for rear ejection...

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Well rosko_racer, you hit the nail on the head. When I saw this kit, I thought to myself, I really want to make it look like an Alaska Airlines 737.
I finally found the decals on www.drawdecal.com and ordered a few different sets of decals. Turns out 1:200 scale is just perfect for the Estes Jetliner. My model is in paint right now, but should have the decals on in a few days.

I didn't see a set of decals for SouthWest airlines, but there is plenty to choose from though.

What about Branniff? I loved their Flying Colors when I was a kid. You could have a whole fleet!!

Well, I finished the Alaska Airlines Jetliner. I upsized the motor mount to use 18mm, and added a little nosecone weight. Turned out it was too much nose cone weight and the model crashed before the parachute could open. I removed some nose cone weight and repaired the broken fin. I was so excited to launch that I neglected pre-launch photos. The attached photos are taken after the crash.

Nice work and sorry about the crash. Go goonies!!!

This is a great kit. Here are two that I have built and are ready for their final paint. Both have had the body tube extended and the engine nacelles made from cut body tubes. The Jetliner reminds me of a 737. The one with the engine pods in back is more like a Gulfstream. I intend to make others that will resemble the new Honda jet and the Falcon 50. You could even push it and make a 707. With working at an airport all my life this kits has no limits. Even thought about an upscale to a BT-80.

lewsaturn said:

This is a great kit. Here are two that I have built and are ready for their final paint. Both have had the body tube extended and the engine nacelles made from cut body tubes. The Jetliner reminds me of a 737. The one with the engine pods in back is more like a Gulfstream. I intend to make others that will resemble the new Honda jet and the Falcon 50. You could even push it and make a 707. With working at an airport all my life this kits has no limits. Even thought about an upscale to a BT-80. View attachment 290934View attachment 290935View attachment 290936

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OK... I was wondering why someone would revive this thread. Now I see why...

VERY Cool!

Got my boys each building one, a really great kit. Sadly, one of the nose cones is squashed. Got it from AC Supply, so starting with them; if they don't respond quickly, I'll just go to Estes.

For those who have built one of these and installed an 18mm Motor Mount, do you find that the space inside is too small to accommodate a parachute and wadding? How burned has the parachute come out after a flight? I was thinking of cutting some of the NC off to have at least 2" of space inside. Also, how much weight did you add to the NC after installing the new MM? I have two extra squares of the clay and was thinking of adding both to the NC.

- R_R

rosko_racer said:

For those who have built one of these and installed an 18mm Motor Mount, do you find that the space inside is too small to accommodate a parachute and wadding? How burned has the parachute come out after a flight? I was thinking of cutting some of the NC off to have at least 2" of space inside. Also, how much weight did you add to the NC after installing the new MM? I have two extra squares of the clay and was thinking of adding both to the NC.

- R_R

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I used about half the included square of clay when I first built it (stock). When I tore out the engine mount and installed an 18mm mount in its place, I found I had to add the rest of the clay. I've had one flight on a B engine and it went well. So I would say one, single, Estes-square ration of clay, total, in the nose cone is about right. I didn't do anything extra and my parachute didn't melt. Of course, it didn't open either, but it was 20°F out

Got my son one for Christmas, we had fun building it as well. went with silver paint, hope to get a second coat and decals on soon,.

fantastic work lewsaturn!

Still have to add some rubber band retainers and motion stops for the elevators, but I have most of this kit bash done. I made an 18 mm rear eject engine mount with nose weight at the front end of the through tube, like the Astron Skydart II. The base of the nose cone was removed and the cone will be glued to the body tube. Should be able to get a decent glide with the larger wing and fins, but will have to make some test glides and adjust the elevator trim stops.

I'll be anxiously awaiting your test glide results.

rosko_racer said:

For those who have built one of these and installed an 18mm Motor Mount, do you find that the space inside is too small to accommodate a parachute and wadding? How burned has the parachute come out after a flight? I was thinking of cutting some of the NC off to have at least 2" of space inside. Also, how much weight did you add to the NC after installing the new MM? I have two extra squares of the clay and was thinking of adding both to the NC.

- R_R

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I added a .30 caliber lead ball with epoxy to the nose of my Jetliner. And you are right, there isn't much room for a parachute. I ended up cutting the nose cone out and anchoring the shock cord to the inside of the nose cone. This creates a lot more room for a parachute. Be sure to attach the chute in such a way that it comes out of the nose cones. Those landings are hard when the cute doesn't come out!

Those little rubber bands from the popular Rainbow Loom kits work great. The combined balsa stop and rubber band holder is very similar to the Apogee Darkbird SR-72 and the Texas Twister method of deploying a control surface. Short test glide across the room into a bed of pillows looks promising. When it stops raining and the yard drys out, I could probably throw this half-way across the yard. Hopefully won't need any nose clay for the glider, but I will wait to glue the nose cone on and seal the seam until after I get the glide balance and trim set up right.





one last little addition, a cone for the inlet fan spinner:

GlenP said:

Those little rubber bands from the popular Rainbow Loom kits work great.

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Yeah, those are great, I find them in Walmart at the craft section.
Lot cheaper than 6 for $1.31 (plus shipping) from Apogee



https://www.apogeerockets.com/Build...Bands?cpath=&zenid=n6pnlrn4anrqf3f8mf5dbjbsr2

Loved the DarkBird kit from apogee, though.
https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocke...d?cPath=1_92&zenid=n6pnlrn4anrqf3f8mf5dbjbsr2

Looking forward to glide and flight reports on your bird.

I'm interested in how it boosts, with the larger wing and engine rings you've increased the drag on the lower half of the model, hopefully it will still boost straight enough.

Frank

burkefj said:

I'm interested in how it boosts, with the larger wing and engine rings you've increased the drag on the lower half of the model, hopefully it will still boost straight enough. Frank

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That is a good point, it will probably nose over a little during boost, not sure how much. I was thinking about adding some kind of T-tail to the top of the rudder to offset this, but it would not add that much drag unless it was also set at an angle, and I don't think it would look good with two horizontal tails.

The Zooch Shuttle kit is fairly biased off the thrust axis centerline from a weight and drag standpoint, well the nose weight in the ET balsa nose cone is actually off-center to help balance the Shuttle weight, but it makes for a nice big arc during boost.

I was considering adjusting the centering rings of the rear-eject engine mount, but was not confident in how much to adjust the thrust axis offset, or possibly the angle. (then they would be off-centering rings, ) I could try to make a set of rear-eject engine pods with different thrust axis offsets to flight test them, I have a big stack of cardstock handy.

Easier than that, however, I have a little trim control of the boost flight path in that I can sand down the bottom edges of the elevator retainers on the engine mount, to allow a slight amount of up-elevator during the boost, if needed, to get it to boost straighter.

I did a few hand toss glides in the backyard, and was able to throw it about 10 yards. From roughly 6 feet high, that makes for a glide ratio of about 30:6 or 5:1, about the same as the Space Shuttle Orbiter (gives me an idea for another kit bash...) and half of a Cessna. I don't think I will need to add any nose clay to the glider, and the small amount of elevator deflection might be just right. Afraid if I try to add more up elevator to nose it up, it will just stall and fall like a rock. Right now it falls with style.

I will have to do some test glides with my SR-72 Darkbird and Astron Skydart II for comparison, I have those built and painted, but not yet trimmed for glide.