4 in. Solar Flare

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Slickwilly

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This one was tough to design because of the clear tube and fin ring. Some one on the forum told me about a company called McMaster-Carr.https://www.mcmaster.comThey carry industrial and medical equipment. They stock a 14 in. Dia. fiber drum that is perfect for the fin ring and clear 4 in. polycarb tubing. I didnt know if you had planned on using clear tubing to keep with the original look. The 2 parts would run about $55. The nose cone is not quite with the original because it is not parabolic, but you could order a custom balsa one from BMS. Would be quite expensive.
You may have a company in the UK that stocks the same parts.
Enjoy!!

Scratch Solar Flare 4in.jpg

Scratch Solar Flare 4in (2D).jpg

View attachment Scratch Solar Flare 4in.rkt
 
Slikcwilly,

thanks for the rocksim file, we had already made one, but its always good to have someone elses take on this.

the ring fin was going to be a problem. we had looked into making and mandrel and then wrapping thin ply around and then using lots of fibre glass.
we will be looking into the mcmaster carr link.

we initially had thought about not having the payload clear and just using the payload section as a separate ebay/payload section.
with a link to a clear tube we might change our minds.

again a big thanks, i off to post a link to this thread back on the UK website.
cheers

matt gillard
 
just read my last post, when i said we had made a rocksim file, i shoulf have said, other in the group have made one, and not included myself!
 
Have you figured out yet what motor you will have to fly this on? I upscaled the RockSim file and the weight came in around 10 pounds and the ring fin is real draggy.

The problem with the clear payload secion is not finding it in 4 inches, it is the thickness and weight of the clear section. The ID of the tube will not be 3.9 like your airframe and a you will have to craft a special coupler to go from the airframe to the clear payload secion. Additionally, you will need craft a special nose cone shoulder for the same reason.

Do you plan to fly this as a two-stage or single?
 
We have not made out minds up about the clear payload section. At the first (last) meeting on Sunday we were going with a standard, none clear payload section because of some of the problems listed in the previous post.

we were thinking of flying the rocket as a single stage at first and then going for the two stage rocket, flown on a single motor, and then finally a two stage rocket flown on two staged motors.

This is going to be a learning curve for the group, but we were all agreed that as a group project that we did not want to do a simple upscale of a 3fnc/4fnc rocket.

slickwilly, it's a shame your not in the UK, you're nearly a member of our group!
 
Four inch clear tube is available from Petro Packaging. It is almost a perfect match for LOC 4 " tube and will take standard nosecones and couplers. It has a minimum order of four 6 foot long tubes, so the best way to do this is get a group club order and divide up the tubes and shipping costs (worked out to about $35 cost per 6 ft tube). The tube is not overly heavy and is very tough. I build my 6 foot night launch rocket out of it and have have over 15 night launches on it with no damage at all. I might have to build one of these since I already have the tube and I can never have enough night launch rockets!

Part # PPS4B

https://www.petropackaging.com/stocksize.cfm
 
Four inch clear tube is available from Petro Packaging. It is almost a perfect match for LOC 4 " tube and will take standard nosecones and couplers. It has a minimum order of four 6 foot long tubes, so the best way to do this is get a group club order and divide up the tubes and shipping costs (worked out to about $35 cost per 6 ft tube). The tube is not overly heavy and is very tough. I build my 6 foot night launch rocket out of it and have have over 15 night launches on it with no damage at all. I might have to build one of these since I already have the tube and I can never have enough night launch rockets!

Part # PPS4B

https://www.petropackaging.com/stocksize.cfm

Thanks for the link, probably outside our price bracket, as I dread to think what the shipping is to the UK. One of the group members has found a 100mm diameter tube with 3mm thick walls which is quite close to the 4 inch blue tube we plan to use. we will probably get a section and see how that works and move on from there.
Our biggest problem is that the UK is metric for none rocketry stuff, where rocketry tube is imperial, so its hard to get a match unless we order from the USA.
 
Group has got a 4 inch clear tube now,
the ring fin was more of an issue, found a firm in the UK that could supply us with a 14 inch fibre tube, they made it for us, and then the shipping firm said that they could not send it.
in the end i purchased a solid 14 inch cylinder that i'm going to use to wrap fibreglass around and make my own ring.
 

I requested sampes of PPS4A, B, and C. PPS4A was too big for a LOC 3.9" coupler and the PPS4B was too small for the same coupler. Both were about 14" long. I did not even try PPS4C because B did not fit.

I am going to custom cut couplers to be the correct diameter for the PPS4B tube and strengthen them with a nother coupler inside. It will have to be different diameters to fit both LOC airframe and the PPS4B, a little tricky, but doable. I likely will not use it for a Solar Flare upscale.

Constructing payloads correctly, this clear tube can be put to good use as a night launch payload with 100 super bright LEDs, or avionics payload where the electronics can bee seen, or even a camera payload.
 
Has anyone built this upscale yet? If so how did it fly? I have the fiber barrel on its way and will start building soon. I am planning for it to be mainly a night flyer (ironic for a model named "Solar Flare"). Its draggy design is a plus for me since it keeps the flight down to a manageable altitude on a J sparky engine. It will be a single stage design for this initial build. I will have enough ring material to do a two stage second version later. The shipping cost more than the barrel.
 
Last edited:
Well I finally built mine (did not realize how much time had gone by since I first contemplated building it).

pre-launch.jpg

I launched it this last weekend on an Aerotech K456DM reload.

https://youtu.be/4iBjCGsGyoA

Now I will start to add more lighting to get it ready for night launches.
 
Curious why you didn't use a 14" concrete form tube. They can be had locally and made of cardboard. Once cut and peeled you soak with CA glue or thin epoxy and it is a stout material.
 

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