Multiple choice: What is your opinion on this Tapeworm Model Rocket?

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Multiple choice: What is your opinion on this Tapeworm Model Rocket?

  • Fun parasitic worm flying for the entire family, I like it!

  • No fins on the bottom, motors in the wrong place, CG-CP relationship will never last

  • This Taenia Solium rocket is so cute it just suckers me in, it just might work.

  • This rocket brings back too many memories of High School Zoology class.

  • WARNING: Only use this rocket for education on promoting a Kosher life style.

  • Hauling a big streamer behind a top canted, unfinned rocket is Bass Ackwards and a bit too dodgy

  • Just Daddy and his tapeworm rocket, wait until it gets its hooks into him, then it will really suck.

  • So much for silly airplane rockets, Daddy finally moves up to sickening Monster rockets.

  • The Crazy Train - North Pole Express has left the station and Daddy is the conductor.


Results are only viewable after voting.
It loved those long burn E9's. Straight up nice and slow, arched over and pop, pop, pop, and then down just slow enough to avoid any major damage. Cracked loose two hook fins is all, get out the CA. Maybe for the next flight I will attach some red streamers above the motors and see if that will slow it down or level it out a bit on decent. An ejection charge is a terrible thing to waste.
 
Pad Fuhrer immediately inspects adequacy of recovery at landing site, making sure no repairs are made on the way back to bolster the claimed performance of such made before the launch.

rocketflood2013 032 (2).jpg

Good kids study hard to become engineers, others grow up to be Liberal Arts majors in something like History. Here a good kid patiently listens to the old History major explain what he thinks is the rocket science behind this silly model rocket that has just flown.

rocketflood2013 034.jpg
 
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I was there for that launch...

Here are two good pictures of the launch... the first is immediately after ignition, the second shows what the rocket (can you even call it a rocket?) looked like going up, with some separation between exhaust streams.

If the rocket's name hasn't been set in stone yet, can the rocket be nicknamed the 'Sky Skolex?' Tapeworm-1.jpgTapeworm-2.jpg
 
Sky Scolex - I like it! This one has flown at Chili Blaster and again at NCR North with a longer tail, another 6 feet or so of white duct tape. It would recover a bit better if the motors would rear eject, reducing the weight up front and maybe making it more inclined to go horizontal on the way down.
 
I was there for that launch...

Here are two good pictures of the launch... the first is immediately after ignition, the second shows what the rocket (can you even call it a rocket?) looked like going up, with some separation between exhaust streams.

If the rocket's name hasn't been set in stone yet, can the rocket be nicknamed the 'Sky Skolex?' View attachment 143135View attachment 143136

Super nice photos! Thanks for posting!
 
I like it, it looks creepy and creative.

My only beef with it is that its a cluster rocket, and I have never had much luck with them all igniting at the same time or at all. If one of the motors has any trouble the results might be catastrophic
 
I like it, it looks creepy and creative.

My only beef with it is that its a cluster rocket, and I have never had much luck with them all igniting at the same time or at all. If one of the motors has any trouble the results might be catastrophic

With careful igniter installation, a good clip whip and a 12 V system 3 motors are easy to light. But there is the fear factor if one does not. But HEY, parasitic tapeworm flying is meant to bring out the scare! No beef can be had with this rocket, for it is pure PORK!
 
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Update: On its fifth flight last launch I flew it in a bit too much wind but it was OK. Straight off the rod but when the power curve lessened it went into the wind and spun a bit. Used E9 6 because that was all the Hobby Lobby had, so everyone got a real good view of naked ejection charges going off as it had arced over, Typical bounce landing close to the range. Reglued the two hook fins and it looks even nastier as the repeated and unbridled ejection charges are burning up the tops of the motor mounts, Maybe some dark red bloody paint on the hooks and suckers with green-yellow puss on the scolex and body tube for Halloween. Although that might be rejected for excessive gore in model rocketry and I will get sent to the back of the line.
 
Is this a design you researched extensively, or just something you pulled out of your a$$?
 
Is this a design you researched extensively, or just something you pulled out of your a$$?

i-see-what-you-did-there.jpg
 
Is this a design you researched extensively, or just something you pulled out of your a$$?

I only build the NASA way. Competitive RFPs, multiple computer simulations, peer engineering study groups, CAD drawings, Quality Assurance processes, review by Level 3 certified fliers with years of Academy training and extensive book learnin’. Then I mosey on up to the RSO and say “Lookey here, if all deese har tractor motors light up at da same time it is gonna fly real straight and purdy like.” Don’t be a fret tin’s dat it has no fins, no recovery system, no launch lug and dose ejection charges ‘er just a blowin’ out the top!”

Absolutely no flying by the seat of your pants is allowed. At COSROCs the trailer had not arrived so I launched the tape worm with Jeff’s launch controller he built as a seven year old back in the early seventies. Only a few feet away from three mighty E9-4s clip whipped up for simultaneous ignition and off she went. Jeff said the photo would be abhorred by Care Bears. The photo is undoubtedly direct proof of my unsound techniques and design in action.
 
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I only build the NASA way. Competitive RFPs, multiple computer simulations, peer engineering study groups, CAD drawings, Quality Assurance processes, review by Level 3 certified fliers with years of Academy training and extensive book learnin’. Then I mosey on up to the RSO and say “Lookey here, if all deese har tractor motors light up at da same time it is gonna fly real straight and purdy like.” Don’t be a fret tin’s dat it has no fins, no recovery system, no launch lug and dose ejection charges ‘er just a blowin’ out the top!”

Absolutely no flying by the seat of your pants is allowed. At COSROCs the trailer had not arrived so I launched the tape worm with Jeff’s launch controller he built as a seven year old back in the early seventies. Only a few feet away from three mighty E9-4s clip whipped up for simultaneous ignition and off she went. Jeff said the photo would be abhorred by Care Bears. The photo is undoubtedly direct proof of my unsound techniques and design in action.

Well, just remember, "Safety never takes a holiday." Although, sometimes it steps out for a smoke...

Awesome rocket! If were are ever attacked by aliens, we may need something like this. Intimidate them into thinking we have uglier life forms than they do, and ours can fly.
 
Well, just remember, "Safety never takes a holiday." Although, sometimes it steps out for a smoke...

Awesome rocket! If were are ever attacked by aliens, we may need something like this. Intimidate them into thinking we have uglier life forms than they do, and ours can fly.

Jeff had a telephoto lens. I was the only one near it. I had faith, the rest were probably frightened beyond the means of rational thought. I could not lay prone because of the cactus and the old knees were still too stiff to bend. So I went in like the Russians did during the Winter War, standing up. Luckily there were no Finns to shoot me down. At least the ugly abomination is now kid tested, mother approved.
 
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Is this a design you researched extensively, or just something you pulled out of your a$$?

Launch update. On the last launch one the the motors did fail to ignite. I guess it just sat twisting a bit in the wind too long, If you had been 50 yards or so away with you back turned to the pad just right and bent over picking up a rocket then...

A broken fin and a bit of charring was the extent of the damage. A dab of super glue and more quick coats, emptying out the old white spray cans and it is as good as new.
 
After some trepidation the tapeworm flew at NARAM. Thanks to Scott Pennington for the video. Advanced Dead Cat Bounce Streamer Recovery can be clearly seen. A cracked fin and a few flakes of paint fell off.

[video=youtube;rpXsBXy5bV0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpXsBXy5bV0[/video]
 
The skeptical looks and comments you get at the range are so much fun.
 
The skeptical looks and comments you get at the range are so much fun.

Just some good ole boys, never meanin' no harm. . . makin' their way, the only way they how, that's just a little bit more than the law will allow. . .

Three tractor motors, no dedicated recovery system, no fins and what fins there are seem to be stuck up front, no real motor retention, launch lug, and a big old tail blowin' in the breeze.
 
Oh sure! First it's a tapeworm....... In no time at all it will be a rocket full of bodycrab landers. Or a rocket powered tick!
"On pad three, using reloadable type O negative propulsion, is The Leech".........

I think I'm gonna be sick

Very cool idea.
Notice how the new guy heads straight for the grossest thread. If it doesn't work you can always turn it into a parasite glider.
 
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