Dragonship 7 inspired R/C rocket glider for 18mm motors

[burkefj]

Here is a small 5.12 oz rtf R/C rocket glider based on the Dragonship 7 kit from estes. Wing upscaled of course and decals hand cut from vinyl to mimick the feel of the original and limited to what I can do with my two ham hands. Flight surfaces are 6mm depron sheet, cockpit is 3mm folded and glued. Model is unpainted except for the nose to save weight. Rivets are hand punched using a ruler and fine sharpie 1/4" spacing, rivets only took about 45 minutes to do. 21" long, 14" wingspan, 40mm quest tube/cone designed for 18mm D2.3 motors and elevon control. This is a 61% downscale of a BT-80 model I did long back that I'm still flying, but I really like these small models and the D motors.

 

[Rob Campbell]

Nice! To me, it looks like a mash-up between a Dragonship 7 and an Avro Arrow.

 

[burkefj]

Dragonship 7 mini R/C rocket glider. Styled after the old Estes Dragonship 7 rocket kit, but with upsized wing, 6mm depron, 40mm quest tubing/cone. 21" length, 15" wingspan, 5.12 oz rtf using 18mm Aerotech composite D2.3 rocket motor. Maiden and flights 2 and 3 right at dusk/witching hour, lost sight of it for a short time on flight 2 at apogee, videographer lost it a few times in flight 1 and 2, as the lighting would cause it to disappear in certain orientations.

 

[tab28682]

You are doing some fantastic 18mm motor gliders! Any kits to come from the recent design efforts?

I remember back in 2016 or thereabouts when you were not a huge fan of the D2.3. It appears that it has grown on you….

 

[burkefj]

I did a couple early designs that were ok but I didn't think they had good enough flight performance, but eventually I got it figured out and I'm really liking them a lot. The casing costs a lot less as do the reloads. However I don't think I'm going to do these as kits, I actually pulled some off the website because they just weren't selling and I got kind of bummed continually putting new stuff up there that I only get one or two orders for. It's work to do the photos and instructions and decal designs and kind of sucks some of the joy out of just building something from scratch. I'm trying to reduce the number of cones and tubes that I have to stock as well which makes inventory and stocking easier for me.

It seems people mostly like my Aurora clipper, the x-15, space shuttle, and SR-71/yf12 designs.



QUOTE="tab28682, post: 2226499, member: 17309"]

You are doing some fantastic 18mm motor gliders! Any kits to come from the recent design efforts?I remember back in 2016 or thereabouts when you were not a huge fan of the D2.3. It appears that it has grown on you….
[/QUOTE]