Neil_W's half-baked design thread

I got to clean up my pictures,,,,, it took over an hour to post that.....

JJSR said:

The last two pics are from the next Neil W design I'm starting. Can you guess what one its from?

Click to expand...

Well *I* know which... keep us posted (pun partially intended)!

JJSR said:

I got to clean up my pictures,,,,, it took over an hour to post that.....

Click to expand...

Ha... *no* posting is worth an hour. But thanks anyway.

Sorry I haven't been able to get up to Godlewsky Farms much lately. I hope to do better next year. Got new stuff to fly.

So many pictures on my phone, an the out dated program I use in desktop keeps half a** duplicating files for some reason.
Anyway, its always good to you and dad hope guys do come more.
We had a fantastic club10th anniversary picnic and launch. wish ya came we had so much food left over. Even after feeding all the Godlewskys and workers.

I still say "Holey Cow" needs to be scaled up so a 1010 fits through the center....

Another thread reminded me of the rocket that *really* got me psyched about 2 wings + 3 fins: John Brohm's Space Transporter America: https://www.forums.rocketshoppe.com/showthread.php?t=17445

That is one helluva build right there. The kit itself, which I was completely unaware of before, has a myriad of interesting little details on top of the beautiful decal design. Most impressive.

Update with a partial decal set. Also scaled up a bit to BT60/70, adjusted dimensions to better match photographs of the real thing, changed the rear fin can to 4 fins (again, to match the real thing), and did other tweaks. This is still a fantasy model, but it's a little closer to the real thing. I should probably change the name, but haven't decided on a good alternative. Launcher Two? Launcher Zero?

This is turning out to be a pretty nice looking rocket.

Launcher X

Although imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I must say I like the 3 fin version better

Reminds me of Pegasus XL

Nytrunner said:

Launcher X

Although imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I must say I like the 3 fin version better

Reminds me of Pegasus XL

Click to expand...

I have a tab open with the Pegasus right now.

I was having a hard time deciding between "model after the real thing" and "do what looks cool". In this round, the real thing won out and it enabled me to also keep the paint scheme closer to real. But it would look good with 3 fins too, no doubt; fairly reminiscent of the Space Transporter America.

A good challenge is to make a wings + fin can design feel unique. All the ones I've seen so far have a pretty strong family resemblance.

I vote 3-fin tail. If I had the money, I'd give launcher X a go. Super neat design there Neil.

Edit: Just had an idea for the name. How about NCC-001-A?

Three finned LauncherX:


600+ ft on a D12, 1300+ on an E15. ~24" long, 5oz without motor. Looks pretty nice with 3 or 4 fins as far as I'm concerned. Who wants to build it?

neil_w said:

Three finned LauncherX:
View attachment 369450

600+ ft on a D12, 1300+ on an E15. ~24" long, 5oz without motor. Looks pretty nice with 3 or 4 fins as far as I'm concerned. Who wants to build it?

Click to expand...

I built this one. Sport scale (made the fins bigger). Runs on regular 18mm engines. Haven't flown it yet!

neil_w said:

Three finned LauncherX:
View attachment 369450

600+ ft on a D12, 1300+ on an E15. ~24" long, 5oz without motor. Looks pretty nice with 3 or 4 fins as far as I'm concerned. Who wants to build it?

Click to expand...

I do!

rscaletta said:

I built this one. Sport scale (made the fins bigger). Runs on regular 18mm engines. Haven't flown it yet!

View attachment 369454

Click to expand...

Man, that was fast.......

A very nice creation Neil. I really like the transitions, fore and aft, plus and the 4-fin configuration is purdy.

rscaletta said:

I built this one. Sport scale (made the fins bigger). Runs on regular 18mm engines. Haven't flown it yet!

View attachment 369454

Click to expand...

Nice! Can you show a closer-up picture of the underside?

@ neil-w..no more designs until you finish the Alcubierre...the power of builders demands it. :0)

Rockyt said:

@ neil-w..no more designs until you finish the Alcubierre...the power of builders demands it. :0)

Click to expand...

Can't finish it without good painting weather! This was an extremely uncooperative fall.

neil_w said:

Nice! Can you show a closer-up picture of the underside?

Click to expand...

I’ll take one when I get home. It’s just some balsa strips that approximate the tunnels or whatever they are. Exaggerated in size, not really to scale

Neil, any chance you have an .ork file for Launcher X?

Tobor said:

Neil, any chance you have an .ork file for Launcher X?

Click to expand...

You're joking, right?

Here's the 3 fin version which I believe you favor. The interior structure is not fleshed out. The body tube decals are printer-ready; the transition and nose cone decals are not. Let me know if you need any help with any of it.

neil_w said:

You're joking, right?

Here's the 3 fin version which I believe you favor. The interior structure is not fleshed out. The body tube decals are printer-ready; the transition and nose cone decals are not. Let me know if you need any help with any of it.

Click to expand...

Sweeeeet! Many thanks!

I love this (other than the Lunar Lander, which is kind of boring).


Original is here.

Especially love the Mars Liner, which I could think of a reasonable way to fabricate a body like that (where reasonable != composites or 3D printing).

neil_w said:

Especially love the Mars Liner, which I could think of a reasonable way to fabricate a body like that (where reasonable != composites or 3D printing).

Click to expand...

Tail is a 4in 3:1 NC w/ the shoulder and tip trimmed off and a 3in MMT glued in w/ instrakes. Now your 3in 5:1 NC goes right inside that stuffer, stubby 2G motor and presto.

Adjust to fit your preferred flight regime / local field.

I hope you have plans to order ~40 balsa turnings to make all those

dhbarr said:

Tail is a 4in 3:1 NC w/ the shoulder and tip trimmed off and a 3in MMT glued in w/ instrakes. Now your 3in 5:1 NC goes right inside that stuffer, stubby 2G motor and presto.

Adjust to fit your preferred flight regime / local field.

Click to expand...

Kinda sorta like this?


Edit: Still needs more nose weight.

Did you use any particular commercially available nose cones for that?

neil_w said:

Did you use any particular commercially available nose cones for that?

Click to expand...

For the tail cone/airframe I had to fudge things, but it is based on the Madcow FWNC40-VK-NAT-MT (5.5:1 Von Karman Filament Wound Fiberglass w/Metal Tip)

Nosecone is the Madcow FWNC30TW-VK-BLA-MT (3" Filament Wound Fiberglass - Von Karman - Thin-Wall - Metal Tip)

Pricey.

I'm looking at the plastic cones that Apogee sells in the BT70, BT70, and 3" varieties. Might be possible to put together a ~20", 24mm-powered version.

neil_w said:

Pricey.

I'm looking at the plastic cones that Apogee sells in the BT70, BT70, and 3" varieties. Might be possible to put together a ~20", 24mm-powered version.

Click to expand...

Yeppers, pricey for sure. It might be cheaper to 3D print a suitable core for laying up a fiberglass tail cone by hand. Just a thought...

Here it is with commercially available BT70 and BT80 cones:




Should fly nicely on D12s once stability issues are sorted out.

neil_w said:

Here it is with commercially available BT70 and BT80 cones:
Should fly nicely on D12s once stability issues are sorted out.

Click to expand...

Be aware that this rocket has the same design flaw that Pemberton was having with his Starship Achilles. It was the reason he had me redesign it for him. It's all about that "intake" that looks cool but hinders stability a lot.