A blast from the past.
Clearing out a box of non-rocketry stuff I came across this: My take on the Manned Orbital Laboratory, carbon dated to 2009 approx.
Note the following...
1. Early penchant for stubby rockets
2. Butt ugly
3. Complete and utter disregard for CG/CP relationship
4. Semroc Mercury Capsule (#KM-2) as I didn’t have a Gemini one
5. Full length BT-20 stuffer tube
6. Not so high quality inkjet body wrap on BT-60 main tube
7. Funky fins pretending to be solar panels
8. Dr Zooch MK II inspired engine bell
9. High cost corrugations for ‘I’m a scale model’ effect
10. Reverse transition around the engine bell to expose more of its shape
It had one, and only one, outing that could laughingly be called a ‘flight’. It left the rod and cart wheeled in the air for a short while (1/1,000,000th of a second) before plummeting to the ground under thrust for a high G landing.
Gave it a bit of a clean and re-glue in places. Some interesting ideas in it, but it’s back into storage you go. No really practical way to get nose weight in there without cutting the NC transition.
Back to real work now.