Nike Apache

Having just blew my budget on a Performance Rocketry 1/4 scale Apache...

Can anybody tell me the paint scheme for scale? I can't afford a copy of ROW.



Al

For the NASA 14.04 version:

NC is STA 0
bottom of rocket is STA 327

cone is silver-grey
immediately below the nose is an aluminum band (width not shown)
silver grey down to to STA 65.75
an aluminum band STA 65.75 to 66.75
another to STA 70.25
and another to 71.75
body to STA 153.25 is silver-grey
black band just above the fins STA 153.25 to 154.75
fin can area silver-grey with aluminum leading edge on the fins
transition and lower body white
4 red fins

UNITED STATES marked on lower body
Thiokol marked on the upper body

Hope you can follow this and that someone provides a link. If I had a flatbed scanner I'd get ya a copy

Al,

Email me at:
r_silverleaf AT yahoo.com

and I'll send you a zipped archive with the necessary data.

Sorry to not make my email clickable, but I'm trying to cut back on spam. lol

Cheers,

Well, being from Michigan THIS is something I know about!

The Nike Apache is a cool rocket and will be the subject of a future scratch build for me...someday.

I have collected some info but this is the best site. (Note the Michigan reference above)

BTW the Keweenaw (pronounce Kee' /wah/ naw) Penninula is way up in northern Michigan and juts out into Lake Superior.

Note all the different payload configurations.

https://www.gt.org/keweenaw-rocket-base/

One picture is worth a thousand words

Sorry Al! that's not the right pic..Drat... try this one, with Dick discription you should be all set

Originally posted by Micromeister
One picture is worth a thousand words

Click to expand...

I bet that thing's entire flight profile fits inside the 4" Apache

Nope nope nope!!! that little devil gets over 100feet Sorry that really wasn't the pic I thouht it was

I'm not to clear on this kit--I checked out the Performance Rocketry site, and the only Nike Apache I found was the PML version.

THe problem is that not all Nike-Apaches looked the same. The nike first stage usually had colors something like this:

First stage tube and interstage adapter were white. Three first stage fins were red (fluorescent?) and one was (fluorescent?)yellow. Black stencil UNITED STATES lettering on either side (180 degrees apart), oriented so that it would be read normally if the rocket were set on its side with the yellow fin on the rocket's top left

THe upper stage motor would be dull diver (aluminum paint, I think) and the upper stage fins and fin can would be bare metal (machined aluminum alloy, I think).

Then it gets variable. There may have beem a script "Thiokol" decal on the upper stage motor, with the T toward the fronm of the rocket, around the middle of the motor.

What is especilaly variable are the payloads. Not only were their colors different depending on the flight, so were their shapes and sizes. For instance, at least one of the Keweenaw payloads bulged out to 9" with a 3:1 ogive nose and was painted mostly black. Another well-known payload14.04, had a 5:1 or so conical nose and was different shades of silver. Estes kitted a round with a white ogive nosecone, as I recall. Other payloads might include white, red, gold anodized, or other colored sections. It varied from flight to flight.

If you have the PML kit, I recall that it has the Keweenaw decals, but the geometry is either for 14.04, which flew from Wallops, or even a generic Nike-Apache that might not represent any specific flight.

Peter Alway

Peter,

My view on the colors used on most of the Keweenaw rounds after looking at their "building" shed.

Whatever colors or paint they could get to stick while painting in sub-zero Northern Michigan winters.

Man, I get cold just looking at those pictures!

Originally posted by sandman
sub-zero Northern Michigan winters.:

Click to expand...

Its not really all that cold up there.
I spent several winters in Houghton, a mere 60 miles from the tip.
It was rarely sub-zero. Mostly around the 10-20 F range.
Probably moderated by the lakes on both sides.
It did snow almost everyday though.
Again, probably due to the lake-effect.
I rather have it mildly cold with the drier snow being packed down than the wet & slushy or icy conditions the LP has constantly.
Just don't drink the water!!!

Originally posted by Peter Alway
I'm not to clear on this kit--I checked out the Performance Rocketry site, and the only Nike Apache I found was the PML version.

Peter Alway

Click to expand...

Peter

This is a picture of the model unpainted. I believe it is the NASA/Wallops variant


Picture shamelessly lifted from the Performance Rocetry Web site.

Al,
I have just received my Performance Rocketry Carbon Nike Apache and been considering on how I could make this a 2 stage rocket.

I will use the 54 motor mount for the booster.
There is not much room in the booster for a Altimeter, so I will probably use motor ejection,
The sustainer will have an Altimeter for recovery.
Hopefully here you can give me some pointers!
What did you use for lighting the second stage and where did you place such device?
Also I was going to use a 29mm for the sustainer.
I am really curious where you place the motor mount for the sustainer
since the transition piece fits some 2 3/8 inches into the sustainer ?
How to keep the transition from being burnt or damaged from the motor exhaust. ?

Ron

Ryan

I flew mine for L2 on a J350 and there is an "easy" way to use an altmeter for dual deploy. I's been a long haul but I'll post the pictures in the next day or so as to how I did it. As for 2 stage, there is another guy on this thread who is doing that. I just have the biggest weirdest NC.

I think Fred Azinger (dba FREDA) bult one for two stage.

Al

This pic looks close.
The nose cone looks rounded instead of conical though.

I have the Performance Rocketry 1/4 scale Nike Apache that I've bashed and almost completed to be a two-stage.

I put a 75mm MMT in the booster and the sustainer is 38mm min diameter.

I used the transition to mount the booster's altimeter - using a G-Wiz LC deluxe - not my favorite unit, but I got a good deal on it.

Then I machined an aluminum interstage coupler (a tube) that slides over the forward fiberglass section of the sustainer and caps that. It extends further about 4 inches and has slots to receive the sustainer's fins.

I'm a big fan of delayed airstarts / staging so it was important that the sustainer be able to drag separate and coast for a while before self-ignition....for maximum altitude.

I'm using a Defy Gravity Control for sustainer electronics.
The DG will light the sustainer motor using head-end-ignition (EX Motors) and also handle dual-deploy recovery. I'll prgram the DG to watch velocity and light the sustainer when it's velocity falls below a programmed value of about 300ft/sec.

At some point (can you tell I'm behind in rocket building this season), I plan to add a MAD to inhibit sustainer ignition if the flight is non-vertical....it will then just fly as a pure un-powered dart.

I stretched the sustainer body about 8 inches and added a EBay for the DG.

I never spent much time figuring out how to use the transition as iit comes from Curtis. So I not sure I can help you much there. I THINK the idea is that you hollow out the foward end of the transition to the point where the aft end of the sustainer's 29mm motor slides inside.

I wish I could say mine was ready to fly....I got hung up waiting for the 38mm coupler from Curtis. The booster is finished and I've been tempted to fly it by itself to make sure its stable and recovers fine on its own, but haven't had the chance.

When it's done, I plan to fly it on a 3-grain 75mm L-1500 boost (which is all I can squeeze in) and an 8-grain J-400 in the sustainer - rocsim says it will hit about 25k!.

Hope this helps.
Best of luck with your build.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Originally posted by CTimm
This pic looks close.
The nose cone looks rounded instead of conical though.

Click to expand...

That is a very early (late 50's) color scheme with the one checkered fin. Typical of a Nike-Asp more than a Nike-Apache.

I thought they quit using that color scheme by the time they started flying Apaches. I assume that there is a caption with the photo that identifies it as an Apache. Is there a date on the photo?

As promised here are some of my build details:

L2 Story

Originally posted by Peter Alway
I assume that there is a caption with the photo that identifies it as an Apache. Is there a date on the photo?

Click to expand...

Flight 14.30 CA.

The photo is in the "files" section of the scaleroc group.
Perhaps whomever uploaded it could provide more info.

1962 Aug 23 - 17:10 GMT
Launch Site: Wallops Island
Launch Vehicle: Nike Apache
LV Configuration: Nike Apache NASA 14.30CA.
Aeronomy mission
Nation: USA
Agency: NASA
Apogee: 129 km.

References: (# 1592) - WDC Rocket File (electronic version, supplied 2001) (via Jonathon McDowell).

Copied from Encylclopedia Astronautica

I went through some of this not all but there doesn't seem to be much color info.

But it's fun to look at anyway!

https://www.gt.org/keweenaw-rocket-base/

Heres a color pic of a Nike-Apache.
Still has an ogival nose.

Heres a B&W pic of a Nike-Cajun, which looks almost identical to an Apache.
The roll-patterns are distinctively different.
Still has an ogival nose.