Tube Fin Design

[gpoehlein]

While driving home from work this evening, I came up with and interesting rocket design - I don't know if anyone has tried a tube fin rocket like this before, and was wondering how stable the thing would be. I wouldn't even begin to know how to work it up in Rocsim. Whatta you guys think?

Greg

 

[jflis]

Cool looking rocket there

Suggestion. With the tubes attached side to side as they are, there will tend to be a lot of flex. If your CG is high enough, you can correct for this by gluing a stage coupler in the center of each tube (or at least the two tubes closes to the main body). That would stiffen them up nicely, not add too much weight and be barely noticable...

Keep us posted!

jim

 

[bigone5500]

the pic doesn't come up for me...

 

[rocketguy101]

Originally posted by bigone5500
the pic doesn't come up for me...

me neither, I get a red "X"

 

[rokitflite]

No picture for me either... I guess Jim is special

 

[teflonrocketry1]

I can't seem to view the file either, red X's in my eyes.

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055

 

[10fttall]

I tried to view the picture both before and after Jim posted...I agree he must be special.

 

[terryg]

Odd, it can be saved to your local drive and then opened manually.
Getting it all aligned and properly stengthened will be a challenge.
It will be more stable in one axis then the other as it is drawn.

 

[jflis]

well of COURSE i'm special

Heck, I had no probelm seeing it...

Here, I've converted it to a GIF and reposted.

jim

 

[gpoehlein]

Sorry guys - I just assumed that jpg format would work here - obviously a lot of phot viewers are having trouble with the image (I created it from illustrator and cleaned it up in photoshop - you'd think it would be compatible, wouldn't you? )

Thanks for posting the picture in gif format Jim - if I'd been back sooner and realized the problem, I'd have done the same.

Greg

 

[Rocketlady]

I had a hard time seeing the photo as well until I did a "save as..."

This looks similar to the Starlight Sabre and another design featured in the Jan/Feb 2004 Sport Rocketry called "Katysha Slim".

Good luck with your build.

 

[teflonrocketry1]

I did a couple of simulations for this design, I attached the most straight forward simulation to this post. The design should be stable with an Estes C6-3 motor installed. I get a stability margin between 1.15 and 1.49 calibers with a C6-3 motor installed depending on how I simulate the design.

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055