Fiberglassing

[Gregor]

When moving from mid to high power rockets, at what point is glassing needed? With kits from Loc or Public missiles, are they good to go stock or do they need reinforcement? In particular, say the Loc IV or the PM 4" Patriot.

 

[cjl]

They're good to go for a lot of motors, and you really won't need glass on either of those unless you push them pretty hard - to at least 550-600mph. For more normal flights, no glassing is needed.

 

[Chicagonative17]

Too further enhance what cjl had said, you only need composites when going transonic and up. But I still make it a habbit to mix 406 colloidal sylica and fiberglass shards into all my internal fillets. Its cheap and easy strength when needed.

Although, I would also do it on rockets with large fins, just to protect from an awkward landing.

 

[madmax]

Apparently you have been on TRF too long! One symptom of which is the thought to fiberglass everything in sight! Those two kits will be fine on whatever motor will fit. They are both 38mm so the biggest motor would be a 38/1080 (J570W, J825R, J575FJ). The PML Quantum Tube may not survive the J570 flight but then again if you are asking about fiberglassing you would not be ordering the Quantum tube version. I have mostly cardboard and plywood rockets in my fleet and they are fine up through supersonic speeds (according to sims, I only have barometric alts). My Binder Stealth has 15 flights on it including the J570 and J800. Both extremely fun flights. I did attach the fins with good fillets with milled fiberglass mixed in.

Hope this helps!

 

[SpartaChris]

To glass or not to glass is often a question we ask ourselves. I suppose one really needs to ask what exactly are they trying to get out of the rocket?

Let me start by saying that most rockets simply do not need glass. Folks do it because they think they have to when in reality, they do not.

That being said, the answer really depends on what you, the builder, want out of your bird. If you want something a little stronger that can survive a rougher deployment and a rougher landing so you can hopefully keep it for years and years, but are willing to sacrifice a bit of performance, then glassing is a good idea.

However, if you want the lightest possible highest performance bird and are willing to take your chances on deployments and laudings, then you likely won't need glass. On the flipside, if it is some mega high performance vehicle you are building, then glass will likely be one of the multiple composites you use to build the rocket.

So, it mostly depends on what you want out of your bird.