Rocket Boost Bell X-1?

Over the years I have built from scratch many a Bell X-1. The plane tends to haunt me and I love it. I even bumped into Chuck Yeager in a parking lot in the 90's by chance. He was so nice and we leaned against his car and talked like a couple of wings nuts for a long time. I just got lucky.

First one was a 60 span plane with a K&B 61 I flew. I did others. All wood construction. They all flew well. Last one I did was back in 2002. It was a kit I sold for awhile and it had about a 40 inch span and flew well on a sp 400 can motor and 7 cells. It was CNC wire cut, covered with Silkspan and water based polyurethane floor sealer.

I still have one and it has been sitting for years. I was looking it over today. Cleaned off the years of dust and grime and then it hit me. Couldn't I stick and rocket motor in the back and launch it? Fly it back down under RC and land on retracts or it's belly.

I have so many planes, rockets and jets I'm building but I don't think it would take long to put some servos in this and some kind of engine mount in the back that won't melt the foam. I would love to hear your opinions on this.

It this works I'd do more. X-15, X-1a and other X planes and Luft 46 stuff. Looking at what you guys have been doing all these years I have been gone from rockets has inspired me.

Very cool! Are you familiar with this DVD?

https://spacemonkeymodels.com/pages/aviation-history-dvds-from-rocket-aero

James

I built two R/C X-1's, one in 1984 and one in 1997. The 1997 model was bigger (1/10) and better. Flew mostly on G12 (8 second burn) reloads. Tricky thing was the mass of the propellant in the tail causing a major CG shift from boost to glide. But I planned for that as I built it, adding a water tank in the nose. It was set up to be filled with water on the pad, unplug at liftoff, and leak the water during the boost so say 2-3 seconds after burnout the water was gone and it had the correct glide CG. I learned of that trick with a rocket boosted ME-163 in R/C Modeler magazine long long ago, it had a balloon in the nose pumped with water, and unplugged to let the water flow when it started moving. I liked the fixed tank and gravity feed better than the forced pressure balloon that could burst (and could leave excess water inside after losing pressure)


Some more info on my website:
https://georgesrockets.com/GRP/Scale/X1.htm

Wow very cool. thanks. Was that a kit I somehow missed or did you scratch build it? Yes I wondered about that as I placed a 29 mm reloader Aerotec and checked the CG. I'll check your website out I bet it tells me more. Thanks for the tips.

James I did know about the DVD. Thanks for helping with that.

I measured this plane and it has a 34 inch span. It's very light being all foam I bet the mtor is over kill it might fly on a D?

What Yoda is to the Star Wars community, George is to rocket gliders.

That's good to know. I'll try not to bug him too much. I plan to scratch up a few rocket boosted gliders. That way I can lose the water ballast.

I’m also a big fan of the X-1. I remember seeing it hanging in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum when I was 12 yrs old in 1977.

My build pile consists of both rockets and stick and tissue free flight planes. This has been on a shelf for years. The little rapier motors combined my love for rockets and planes. They’re not available anymore. I’ve got on full box of ten and a few more left. Been ‘saving’ them....not sure for what, but they’ll definitely go in this little X-1 when I get up the gumption to build it.

Thank you for your post. I know all about that little bird. It didn't fly that well under rocket power and I just didn't want it to be damaged it makes such a fine model. I have lots of Bell X-1 models in all sizes but I truly love this one. It's being converted into pusher free flight where it will live many more years this way. Build it. It even hand launches and glides well.

What is your dry weight now? Youll have to figure what thrust you need to launch, then given the weight of the motor required, youll need to balast for that and then see what your burnout cg is and whether you can trim that out for glide or whether you need to get fancy with ejecting pod or dumping/shifting balast. Ive done a profile foamie in that size that used just trim for glide but it used a 53 gram motor and was 12oz rtf with motor installed. If your design was intended to use the electric motor up front then once you put the motor in the tail you're going to need quite a bit of ballast in the nose you didn't have before.

Here is an X-1E version but you get the idea

Missed some how. I'll check the pane on the scale. This plane was flown by a speed 400 and seven nimhs in the front back in the day.

Frank. Empty she's 7.5 oz. No gear. Two servos will operate ailerons and elev. I'm thinking one of you motors ought to do the trick at that weight.

If you can keep the weight under 14 oz rtf it will boost fine vertically, if a little heavier you can use an angled launch and then zoom once it gets some airspeed. The motors loaded weigh 53 grams so you can plan your nose weight accordingly.

That's for a reload, if you use a single use they are 44 grams, so a bit lighter.

Typically motor, small battery, servos and some wiring will be about 3.5 ounces, so if you need 1-2 oz nose weight worst case, you should be fine.