Upscale Orbital Transport Glider

[burkefj]

I built this as a standalone R/C glider to be lightweight to fly on G 12 and the new 29mm single use H13 longburn motors. I used bt-101 tubing, 9mm depron with some 3mm carbon reinforcement for the surfaces and a 2 3/8 ounce 3d printed cone from Scott Binder. Rtf with G12 it is 27.25 oz, by velcro-ing 1 oz weight in the nose and adding an adapter to the rear it will be 31.8 oz rtf withthe H13. it'll fly plenty high on both those motors so no plans to make a large booster at this time. Decals from sticker shock plus hand cut vinyl I did myself. 50" long, 30" wingspan.

 

[Aeronerd]

That is really impressive!

 

[aerostadt]

This is a good looking model with a nice option to fly either G12 or H13 motors. I am thinking that putting the wings underneath the body tube is easier to construct, rather than slotting the body tube. On the other hand you need some kind of special attachment to the body tube with some wing dihedral angle.

If you make the Orbital Transport booster, it is going to be very big, about 8 feet long.

 

[burkefj]

I'm not doing any special attachment for the wings it's just like the smaller kit they just butt glue to the tube and then I have those foam reinforcing strips on either side that give extra glue area seems to work just fine even on the bigger ones.

 

[BABAR]

Frank, what’s your recommended source/site for depron?

I’m looking to make a five foot individual flat blade rotor for a helicopter (ultimately an unfolding one with each blade a combined 5.5 foot blade and a 5.0 foot blade, total individual blade length 10.5 feet minus geometric loss from dihedral. Will definitely need reinforcement, thinking dowels or Caron arrow shafts. Would I be better off with thin depron just as a cover sheet, or thick depron to pick up some loading?

Thanks

Tom

 

[burkefj]

Rcdepron.com is the only importer and source in the US

for something like this you're going to have to do a built-up structure with some sort of airfoil ribs, skin and some sort of stiffening like carbon fiber or some sort of wrap around the outside surface for that long a span I would think. I don't know what your load is that this is trying to support but that long a span without any kind of reinforcement internally or externally would be tough plus you have the hinge mechanism that you need to worry about that has to attach to this foam structure as well.

I've never built any large helicopter blade type structure so I can't really comment more.

Frank, what’s your recommended source/site for depron?

I’m looking to make a five foot individual flat blade rotor for a helicopter (ultimately an unfolding one with each blade a combined 5.5 foot blade and a 5.0 foot blade, total individual blade length 10.5 feet minus geometric loss from dihedral. Will definitely need reinforcement, thinking dowels or Caron arrow shafts. Would I be better off with thin depron just as a cover sheet, or thick depron to pick up some loading?

Thanks

Tom

 

[burkefj]

Here are the first three flights from today on G-12's, unfortunately flight number 4 ended in destruction when the 32mm case blew open like a bananna peel, this is the third time I've seen this happen. The controls remained intact and the shrapnel of the casing stayed in the rear end so other than the vertical stab and rear closure missing my CG stayed fairly ok and, due to my excellent piloting skills, I was able to regain control of the model and have a graceful light touchdown even lacking the backend and ANY vertical stabilizer at all...unfortunately my son missed that on video because he was running for his life thinking he had to dodge shrapnel.....I, as the captain, decided to stay put and go down with my ship.

 

[aerostadt]

Wind speed looks like it was low on the 3 good flights. How big would you estimate the circles are that you are turning? That does not sound good on the G12 case destruction and you say you have see 3 of these. I have only flown the G12 twice and both were good flights. I have bought another case.

 

[burkefj]

Turning causes drag and you lose altitude, so I was making roughly 500' circles approx to stay within the runway. Wind was maybe 2-4 mph, not an issue. This was a case with maybe 12 reloads on it.

Wind speed looks like it was low on the 3 good flights. How big would you estimate the circles are that you are turning? That does not sound good on the G12 case destruction and you say you have see 3 of these. I have only flown the G12 twice and both were good flights. I have bought another case.

 

[aerostadt]

So, you think that approaching 12 launches on a case, a user should be wary? Damage looks kinda bad to me. At worst it is inconvenient.

 

[burkefj]

No, there was no wear on the case, this was a pure high pressure event, the igniter is not the issue either, as it is end burning, the motor burned for a second or so, there is no core or slot for the igniter to get jambed into....

So, you think that approaching 12 launches on a case, a user should be wary? Damage looks kinda bad to me. At worst it is inconvenient.

 

[TheAviator]

No, there was no wear on the case, this was a pure high pressure event, the igniter is not the issue either, as it is end burning, the motor burned for a second or so, there is no core or slot for the igniter to get jambed into....

Definitely concur, you can see and hear it kick into warp drive before failure. I have some 24mm R/C cases that have a few hundred flights on them.

 

[modeltrains]

Looked good against dark clouds in glide video.

 

[burkefj]

I have about 1500 flights on E-6's and have not experienced anything like these, just one batch that had blackjack propellent instead of blue thunder that burned on the pad with no thrust for 30 seconds.....this is unique to this case/load.

Definitely concur, you can see and hear it kick into warp drive before failure. I have some 24mm R/C cases that have a few hundred flights on them.

 

[burkefj]

I have built a new one using the old cone and hardware. I tested the servos and one of them due to the high speed and flutter of the control surface as the motor exploded had broken a gear tooth, I could feel it by hand, glad I checked, replaced both of the servos just to be sure, Stickershock warranteed my decals at 1/2 prices as per his policy, kudos to Mark. Weight balasted for the H13 is right at 30.6 oz with motor ready to fly.

 

[modeltrains]

Well, this thing does illustrate the truth of what the SpaceX fellow said that I use for my signature line,
“There are a thousand things that can happen when you go light a rocket engine, and only one of them is good.”
— Tom Mueller, SpaceX propulsion chief, Air and Space magazine article, January 2012

 

[aerostadt]

I have about 1500 flights on E-6's and have not experienced anything like these, just one batch that had blackjack propellent instead of blue thunder that burned on the pad with no thrust for 30 seconds.....this is unique to this case/load.

Wow! That is an incredible number of flights. My far limited experience with E6's is good. The H13 is brand new. Maybe issues will develop. I am thinking of going to my G12 inventory to take measurements.

 

[burkefj]

I built a new one, re-using the cone from binder, and with a dedicated 29mm mount and got rid of the adapter from 32mm to 29mm so the overall weight reduced to 31.25 oz rtf with H-13 motor. I also re-did the elevon shape to more closely match the original. I took advantage of stickershock's 50% off warrantee on destroyed rockets offer to get a new set of decals and finished it up. It took about 5 hours from start to finish this time.

 

[burkefj]

 

[burkefj]

Here are two flights from this weekend at the tri cities, washington, 1180 feet altitude, great weather.

 

[aerostadt]

Nice flight and nice model! It looks like the model really gets up there. From the video I am thinking that you had a little bit of time during the burn to level off a bit and maybe cruise around a little bit. Does this model go as high as the large Aurora Clipper?

 

[burkefj]

It burns so long you have time to do whatever you want, it doesn't quite have enough power for pure vertical so I angle it slightly and do kind of a turning climb, that gets it to just under 1200 ft which is pretty small even for that big of glider, it goes higher than the big Aurora clipper because it's lighter by an ounce or an ounce and a half.

Nice flight and nice model! It looks like the model really gets up there. From the video I am thinking that you had a little bit of time during the burn to level off a bit and maybe cruise around a little bit. Does this model go as high as the large Aurora Clipper?

 

[tab28682]

When I work through my current backlog of projects, I will have to do a BT-101 size RG.

What does Binder charge for the 3D printed BT-101 nose cone?

Frank, have you given up on the 32mm case and reloads?

 

[burkefj]

I don't remember what he charged for the nose cone probably around 20 bucks, as for the 32 mm case yes I'm done I've had too many failures and it's just not worth the risk and the h13 is just a way better motor.

When I work through my current backlog of projects, I will have to do a BT-101 size RG.

What does Binder charge for the 3D printed BT-101 nose cone?

Frank, have you given up on the 32mm case and reloads?

 

[tab28682]

I have two 32mm cases and a few loads for them. Might try them in something semi disposable one day.

 

[burkefj]

Another great flight from this afternoon at George Rachors TARC field:

 

[tab28682]

Frank, you sure need to give the glider from the Centauri SST shuttle the same treatment you gave the OT glider. It would be very cool!

 

[burkefj]

I've always liked that design bettter overall, but It's very similar to an X-2 and I've done one of those, plus upscale with thin wings gets a bit dicey using just foam like I like to do.....I'll think about it though.

Frank, you sure need to give the glider from the Centauri SST shuttle the same treatment you gave the OT glider. It would be very cool!

 

[tab28682]

The wing for a 2.6" version is a little large for 6mm Depron. Would likely need extra carbon spars, or a jump to 9mm. I would ignore the horizontal tail and rig it as a flying wing with a little extra stability hanging off the back.

How cool would it be to have a drag race with the two upscaled gliders?

Always wanted to upscale the entire Centuri SST Shuttle model to at least 2.6" diameter (booster)

About the only thing I never liked about the SST Shuttle was the uninspired decals. If I ever get around to a clone or an upscale, I will abandon authenticity for the decals and do something better. (better in this case = something that pleases me)

 

[aerostadt]

Is there any special technique on getting the igniter into the H13 and assuring good ignition for this end-burner with a narrow throat?