DynaSoar

I have some photos of a project I've been working on in my Kodak Gallery which is a 1:59 scale DynaSoar to fit on a Titan I booster being built by my teammates for SF/F Scale this weekend.

We'll have the first mating of the two parts later tonight and pictures later on this weekend.

The body is all balsa wrapped around 1/32 ply formers.

This is an earlier design of the DynaSoar than what is presented in the Spaceship Handbook, but I used the drawings of the glider there for most of the construction, supplemented by the great DS book, Dyna-Soar : Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System: Apogee Books Space Series 35 (Apogee Books Space Series).

kj

Looks good. I assume I'll be able to eyeball it this weekend?

kevin: great job! will it glide back to earth?

That's the plan, TD. Of course it has to fit the booster and be stable on the way up first.

kj

VERY nice job, please post more as you can.

kevin: did you pretreat the balsa wood skin in any way prior to use? how thick is it?

Is it just me, or does this dynasoar shape bear some resemblence to the ss1? as far as the tail is concerned?

maybe what what be nice is a RC EFGH glider ......

The skin is 1/32 balas, and the only pre-treating I did was to wet the very tip of the nose piece to make it get around the tight radius.

Here's what it looks like with all the parts together..

Another angle- Josh and Jess my teammates built the lower half. The fins are built up plywood, and the transition from the top of the Titan to the DS is really something.

Josh also made a little cradle from balsa for the rocket to rest on.

Jess Josh and I with the Titan/DS before the 1st flight.

Here we have the rocket on the pad. Looks really small with just the blue sky behind it, eh? That's a 1/4" rod.

Here is liftoff on the 1st launch. Boost on a D12-3 had a slight roll (by design- the fins were canted 1.5 degrees) and the glider seperated cleanly from the booser. The glide trim was not perfect, and it had a steep spiral flight path. No damage to the booster or the glider! Woo woo!

I was a little further back for this photo. We made some changes to the glide trim, but it dint' help all that much. Even though hand tosses induced a mushy kinda stall, the model displayed the steep spiral. I think I need a little more noseweight and some more deflection. That or just need to build another one in a larger scale!

From someone who was there, a great flight by a great model!

Awesome job Kevin, the model really looked nice. Wish I had seen her fly!

Thanks! I think Josh and Jess did a better job on their part, but this model was a true team effort- and it amazed me that things fit so well seeing as they live down near Richmond and we did most of the communicating about the model through email. And we took 1st in SF/F scale for teams at ECRM.

kj

hey, very nice! I have a new appreciation for the Titan I.

my Dynasoar with BT60 Titan II went unstable with 2xB6-4s. did you add any balance weight to the rocket? (obviously not to the Dynasoar.)

Yes we did. The transition section to the DS has a bt-20 that extends upwards into the glider body. This has an expended engine casing glued in it, and that is filled with weight. There is some nosewight in the DynaSoar itself, but not enough to make the rocket as a whole stable.


Here is the photo that was the main inspiration for the model. i'll dig out my book later on and post a color version.

https://www.astronautix.com/graphics/x/x20t1pnt.jpg

Just for fun.

Flew great 3 times!

4th flight...not so pretty.

excellent kevin! great news and pics..keep up the good work..

Your pictures turned out very well, Kevin. I'm anxious to see Jess's video of the second flight later tonight (minus the spiral glide).

For others... Kevin's Dyna Soar glider was quite surprisingly ULTRA-lightweight. I had expected something much heavier considering the paint and sealer.

I was pleased with the way the weekend turned out. Especially the glider fit on the booster.

Josh

Well, congratulations to Josh, Jess and Kevin and welcome to TRF. May we see many posts with lots of pictures in "our" future.

Job well done...