Upscale: Estes Scorpius

[mrwalsh85]

Finally made some progress. I decided to go the route of adding spars, while utilizing a phenolic 54mm tube for the MMT. I'll add some fiberglass reinforcement, "tip to tip" style, but I don't think it's needed.

Spars have been cut, and I need to get the two halves of the airframe mocked up again since I basically demolished the airframe for the lower section. Once I know the engagement of the fin cages for the forward and aft nacelles, I can figure out where the spars need to be, and start mixing epoxy.



Looking forward to getting this bird skyward bound again.

In related news, I received an original Estes Scorpius last night as well as a Super Scorpius made by MoreRockets.com. While they're neat, I don't know if I can bring myself to break open the bags... But would be very cool to have a lineup. Will have to look at doing a 2.6" version eventually

 

[GlenP]

A Scorpius clone?

Harvey approves!

 

[BABAR]

It’s a cool design! I do wonder how well it survives landing shock.

would be hard to make it rear eject.

 

[mrwalsh85]

As indicated in this post, https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/upscale-estes-scorpius.56999/post-2201503 , the airframe did not handle the second landing well. I am beefing up the body tube innards to improve durability, or at least, that's the idea.

I brought everything into the basement shop and did some measurements. I think I have a game plan now. The spars I made are too wide, so I'll have to monkey around cutting them down on the table saw a little bit. No big deal. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow after I take the little one to school, before work. I'm going back to first shift next week after a few weeks of providing engineering support on second shift, so trying to get myself set up to be able to sling epoxy in the evenings without being away from the family too long.

I'm not sure if I'm headed to NSL... but if I am, I'd like to have this one done for it. I already have decals on hand, and exactly 2 months to get this done. Will it happen? Dunno, but at least I have a dream of a timeline.

Will be sure to get photos once things actually start happening.

 

[BABAR]

As indicated in this post, https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/upscale-estes-scorpius.56999/post-2201503 , the airframe did not handle the second landing well. I am beefing up the body tube innards to improve durability, or at least, that's the idea.

seems to me there was a recovery scheme for the model rocket SR-71, I think @kuririn used it, where for flight the shock cord had an external harness arrangement (I think it was removable for display) that allowed the rocket to descend horizontal and flat (and the extra drag on descent wouldn’t hurt either.)

Then again, enemy of good is better…

 

[GlenP]

seems to me there was a recovery scheme for the model rocket SR-71...

 

[BABAR]

View attachment 603477

Yeah, that was the picture I was thinking of, except I think I three way harness with two rear attachment points to keep the rocket "horizontally level" might be better.

 

[GlenP]

Yeah, that was the picture I was thinking of, except I think I three way harness with two rear attachment points to keep the rocket "horizontally level" might be better.

longitudinally and laterally, speaking of course!

(zero pitch and zero roll)

for a classic 3-point landing!