Beech Staggerwing Rocket

Here is a Beech Staggerwing UC-43 rocket plane using a Flis 3X24mm canted motor mount, BT 70 and big Duces Wild balsa nose cone hacked down the middle and pointed the wrong way. The nose cone is BT 70 with coupler, a TLP 2.6" coupler coated in finishin' epoxy, a chrome acorn nut, 3 washers, bolt, nut and lots of heavy 5 min epoxy glue. The launch lug is one of those high power igniter tubes I was able to dig out of the trash buckets neat the high power pads. Lots of label paper on squishy Hobby Lobby balsa, Yellow Wing P 36 decals from the bin at the LHS, some striping tape and I am ready for more silly airplane flying fun.

Here are some more photos. Included is an even heavier nose cone if I ever am crazy enough to use some honkin' composite F motors.

The real thing:

Very cool!

bradycros said:

Very cool!

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One of my favorite Airplanes ever.. should be INTERESTING. how did you prove stability??

stickershock23 said:

One of my favorite Airplanes ever.. should be INTERESTING. how did you prove stability??

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I use Mindsim and the new release of Hopesim 2.0 Or maybe prayer, clean living, burnt offerings to the pagan rocket gods, and lots of stinkin', performance robbin' nose weight.

Very nice. You do build some cool looking rockets. I will be awaiting your launch reports.

tightwad said:

Very nice. You do build some cool looking rockets. I will be awaiting your launch reports.

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Thanks. Even if all three don't lite at the same time and she crashes, at least I know she will look good doing it. Just about the dern prettiest airplane of all time.

Daddyisabar said:

I use Mindsim and the new release of Hopesim 2.0 Or maybe prayer, clean living, burnt offerings to the pagan rocket gods, and lots of stinkin', performance robbin' nose weight.

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Cool whatever works.. I just figured with those forward wings.. and forward mounts... not an easy task! hope she flies great... now you gotta RC it for the recovery!! LOL

Nice homage to the real thing. I've got to say though, 3 C6 motors don't beat the sound of a 9-cylinder Jacobs radial engine.

stickershock23 said:

Cool whatever works.. I just figured with those forward wings.. and forward mounts... not an easy task! hope she flies great... now you gotta RC it for the recovery!! LOL

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"RC-ing" this back would take smarts, money, and good building and flying skills, all of which I fall a bit short on.

TheAviator said:

Nice homage to the real thing. I've got to say though, 3 C6 motors don't beat the sound of a 9-cylinder Jacobs radial engine.

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Thanks, I had to play around a bit trying to get it to fly on 3 black powder motors. This heavy little monster is going up on a minimum of 3 D12-3's for plenty of whoosh pop action. Maybe 3 E12s and then whatever lights fast in 24mm. The real thing does sound beautiful. On the composite nose cone I skimped and only put 6 cylinders on the hex nut, those rocket folks will never notice.

You already know I'm huge fan of your handiwork- the only phrase that comes to mind is: Ahhh, Magoo! You 've done it again! Fly high and good chutes!

fyrwrxz said:

You already know I'm huge fan of your handiwork- the only phrase that comes to mind is: Ahhh, Magoo! You 've done it again! Fly high and good chutes!

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Thanks. On 3 D12's it shouldn't go too high and I will be satisfied if it just flew like a rocket and recovered with out major damage.

Here are some post flight photos showing the tail burn that was actually a little bit less than mindsim had predicted and more in line to what Hopesim 2.0 was predicting. Ho Hum, just another drag tail on an airplane rocket shaped by fire.



Hopefully later on I will get some good flight video and learn how to post it.

Video:

[video=youtube_share;olHHmXpA4fc]https://youtu.be/olHHmXpA4fc[/video]

Well, all I can say is "you did it again!". What kind of burnt offerings do you use :wink:

TALON said:

Well, all I can say is "you did it again!". What kind of burnt offerings do you use :wink:

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The little bits of burnt balsa from flame shaping big drag tails behind canted motors have powerful magic with the rocket gods. Many potions and elixirs can be made which will set your mind in motion towards figuring out how to make it work on an Albatross DVa.

Daddyisabar said:

Here are some post flight photos showing the tail burn that was actually a little bit less than mindsim had predicted and more in line to what Hopesim 2.0 was predicting. Ho Hum, just another drag tail on an airplane rocket shaped by fire.

View attachment 140944View attachment 140945View attachment 140946View attachment 140947

Hopefully later on I will get some good flight video and learn how to post it.

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Reminds me of the Indiana Jones movie where his dad shoots off the tail of the plane. It still looks cool!

Just a little repair is all that is needed to achieve the perfect shape.

This a cool rocket here. Mad skills too! Looking forward to what may be next.

Target said:

This a cool rocket here. Mad skills too! Looking forward to what may be next.

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Thanks. The build queue is an Albatross DVa (2.6 " tube with 29mm mounts for new Estes F's), Junkers JU 87 (BT 70 with three 24mm) and a B 58 Hustler with five 24mm or four 24mm and one or two 18mm.

More photos of the most recent launch on 3 E9-4s. Likes to power glide a bit on the long burn, low thrust E9-4, but it is stable off the rod on the 3 motor cluster. D12-3s work better with more kick, less glide and slower recovery speed. A lot more soot with the E9s and a tad bit more burn on the tail. Thanks to Dave Hansen for the awesome photos. Thanks to everyone on the fire crew as well. The Park Ranger and the County Sheriff where in the crowd for the launch so the Pad Fuehrers wanted everything ship shape. Praise the Lord they all lit! No fire or carnage and we were ready for the next launch of the SU H 135 rocket. :y:

Daddyisabar said:

The Park Ranger and the County Sheriff where in the crowd for the launch so the Pad Fuehrers wanted everything ship shape.

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Congrats on what looks like a great flight! It is always good to look good, especially with an audience like you had.

Looking forward to what you can do with a B-58 configuration. I played with that way back in the olden days (when I was in high school) but I only used MMTs in the two inbd/fwd nacelles and the pod. My skills at accomplishing simultaneous ignition were lacking. It wasn't pretty. I got about half of one flight. I wish you much better luck.

Flight update: On flight number four I put it on the short 1/4" rod because the long one was not available. Just a tad bit of wind. Should be OK. But only 2 of the E 12-4 motors lit! Oh NO! Everything going wrong. For just a crazy unsimmed design it should just crash into a pile of goo, carnage galore. When only two motors lit on my Tres a long time ago it just arced over and stuck into the ground. But the Staggerwing acted like an airplane for some reason on two motors. It just went up, rolled level and flew like a plane, glided through the delay and ejected the chutes just fine. Nice soft landing, no damage and an unburned motor to boot. Was it luck? Was it that I had pleased the Rocket Gods? Was it just plain good rocket science, design and really good building techniques? More likely number on or two. Still has its kid tested, mother approved status and I can launch it again with out fear on it being placed on the banned list. Danger, Danger, Danger. Glad I wasn't using E9-4s! Thanks to Dave Hanson for the photos.

I missed this thread when it came out! extremely cool! good choice in the plane to Daddy! beautiful job!

NJRick said:

I missed this thread when it came out! extremely cool! good choice in the plane to Daddy! beautiful job!

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Thanks. Lots of Biplane with tri motor rocket power flying to be had. the Albatros DVa is also still sitting in its parts box.

Nice! My guess is that the MMT thrust vector goes through the center of mass, so one engine just makes it fly sorta crabbed rather than in circles.

This one vectors just at or below the CG. Two canted motors gave it just enough power to go up a bit then turn and let the wings ( I mean Fins) take over. It got high enough on the E12's to fly over the parking lot. E9's might have been a lot scarier.

The Beech Staggerwing launched at NARAM.

[video=youtube;-BGJ4FYd_1k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGJ4FYd_1k&feature=youtu.be[/video]

It lost some detail on You tube but both chutes do deploy and it lands with no damage. Thanks to the guy who took this video, I didn't get your name in all the craziness.