1/37 scale Buran Orbiter R/C rocket glider

[burkefj]

I had some spare BT-101 left over from my upscale R/C interceptor so I decided to scale up my Buran shuttle I used to do as a kit from 2.6" to 4" tubing, and use 9mm depron for the surfaces...

This is a simple design, not meant to be really scale, but scale-ish and really just an upscale of the kit more than anything else.

So far specs, 38"! length, 26.5" wingspan, 17-18 oz rtf depending on motors, 24mm F-24, or 29mm F-20 with 1/4 ounce of removable nose weight for the lighter motor.

I like the Buran, it's a bit different, and does not have the oms pods which saves a little tail weight and allows me to put the rail buttons offset about 45 degrees from the tail which makes mounting easy and they don't catch on the grass when landing.

I'll post some pictures later tonight.

 

[burkefj]

Here is the wing and assorted parts, the nose will be 12 pieces of 9mm foam laminated and shaped, just like my smaller one.

 

[burkefj]

Got the nose sections stacked, I cut out the inner four plates to allow the nose weight to inset further and allow the battery to mount forward as well, Nose weighs 1.5 oz with coupler section attached, so far so good. I'll finish fitting/sanding once the wing is finshed and mounted and the side plates are glued on so I can blend everything, then I'll cover the nose in trim vinyl to toughen it up a bit.

 

[cerving]

Nice design! Is it going to "glide"? (I know, more like a controlled drop...)

 

[burkefj]

Nice design! Is it going to "glide"? (I know, more like a controlled drop...)

It will be an R/C rocket glider, yes it will glide quite well actually, it's a 50% scale up of my kit which flies great, so I get 2.25x wing area for only about 2x weight....so slightly lighter wing loading.

 

[burkefj]

Airframe done 10 oz as shown.

 

[burkefj]

Watching starliner attempt to dock with the space station and getting a little of the detail work done.

 

[burkefj]

Got the decals done except for the Buran and CCCP text, and took a photo of it almost finished, servos are now installed.

 

[burkefj]

Maiden of my scratch built Soviet Buran orbiter went great on rocket power, just under 17 ounces ready to fly on an F-24.

 

[David Schwantz]

For Sale??

 

[burkefj]

For Sale??

This one is too big to cut up and box and bt-101 is cost prohibitive to source to be economical.

 

[burkefj]

Did a second shakedown flight this afternoon on an F-24 after some minor adjustments to the pushrods..

 

[burkefj]

I was able to get some F-20W and F-23FJ 29mm single use motors and flew them today. I removed the 24mm adapter and added .25 ounces of weight velcrod into the battery bay in the nose and that was it for perfect balance. Boost was nice and straight, hands off really, lovely glide, I really like this model. Based on sims, the F-23 should have gone higher than the F-20 but it was clearly the opposite and the white flame looked really good. The F-23 is a bit sputtery and had a tiny bit of foam singing, so I don't think I'll use those again.

 

[burkefj]

Some awesome shots from Jim Wilkerson at missile madness 2022 flying on an F-20

 

[Julianconde]

I want one please lol

 

[aerostadt]

You have gotten good at shaping nose structures. Is the nose pieces of foam glued together? Are you sanding or using a knife or both to shape the nose?

 

[burkefj]

You have gotten good at shaping nose structures. Is the nose pieces of foam glued together? Are you sanding or using a knife or both to shape the nose?

Both, I start with laminated pieces the approximate profile, then use a razor saw to do the top view, then knife to start to round, then belt sander to CAREFULLY work the shape, then hand sanding, then covered by many pieces of trim vinyl heated and trimmed to conform.

 

[Rktman]

Any control adjustments from (what looks like) an off-centered thrust line during launch?

 

[burkefj]

Any control adjustments from (what looks like) an off-centered thrust line during launch?

Not really, the drag of the tail which is pretty high offsets the low mounted Wing more or less, there might be a few clicks of trim adjustment but nothing that would require moving the motor higher or lower to offset by design.

 

[TheAviator]

Pretty model, Frank! My brother and I are building a Buran, could you grab a quick CG measurement for me?

 

[burkefj]

Pretty model, Frank! My brother and I are building a Buran, could you grab a quick CG measurenn

A cg number won't really do you any good since I didn't use a scale outline, my wing is slightly oversized and not the exact shape, usually on shuttles the CG is right around where the wing breaks outward if you look at the lift off shot and zoom in you can see where my CG markings are in this case for my wing it's slightly behind that the best thing is to make a scale boiler plate and do some glide tests to determine what's going to be right for you.

 

[burkefj]

Pretty model, Frank! My brother and I are building a Buran, could you grab a quick CG measurement for me?

What scale are you doing? Doing just the orbiter or a full stack?

 

[TheAviator]

What scale are you doing? Doing just the orbiter or a full stack?

Full stack, 1/60th scale. This is a mock-up/boilerplate; the core will get a foamboard skin and the Buran will be foam as well. The 3D-printed orbiter will be turned into a fiberglass mold positive. Please excuse my absolute mess of a workshop and my goober of a brother.

 

[burkefj]

Full stack, 1/60th scale. This is a mock-up/boilerplate; the core will get a foamboard skin and the Buran will be foam as well. The 3D-printed orbiter will be turned into a fiberglass mold positive. Please excuse my absolute mess of a workshop and my goober of a brother.

Nice it's about time somebody did a decent full stack model!

 

[burkefj]

Since I recently redid my 1/72 ish kit to make it lighter I also did a Buran decorated version to go with my Moonraker and US shuttle versions.7.5 oz, 23" long, 18" wingspan.

 

[burkefj]

 

[burkefj]

More Shuttle nonsense today, George Rachor had his ARC team out so I took the chance to find where the cloud deck started(oopsy) to get in some more flights in dead calm...

 

[John Kemker]

Need an Energiya to boost it with. [grin]

 

[cwbullet]

Nice glide.

 

[burkefj]

I've been flying my Buran and moonraker 1:37 models on F-24 motors with reduced nose weight and they fly fine but are a little heavy for E-6's.

Next up in the " nobody cares but me" saga I put together another 1/37 Buran but with a builtup fuse like my 1/26 version. Idea was to cut the weight enough to fly on E-6 motors. The 1:37 model is effectively a 1.5x of my kit version. Rolled 3mm skin, formers of 9mm with a single longeron and strips at the bottom to give some surface for the skin to glue to. I made a pocket for the fin so I could install it after skinning and give something for the skin to glue to so it wont pucker when the slot was re cut. Nose permanently mounted with a bottom hatch. Rail buttons in the wing near the fuse with reinforced styrene pieces which was the strongest location in the foam, this meant mounting the servos outboard to clear the rail.

Just needs finishing, 10.75 oz rtf, not bad for a 26" span 34" long model compared to 16 oz for the BT-101 based version.

Should boost nice at this weight.