Aerobee Hi kit bash

[bjphoenix]

I'm excited about this one so I had to post a photo as soon as I had it somewhat together.
I've always liked the styling of this sounding rocket, and a very long time ago I had one of the Estes rubber nose cones that would work for this design. I was building an Estes ESAM and earlier I had built a Hi Flier XL when I noticed that their nose cones were very long. So I bought another HiFlier XL with the intention of kit bashing it into an Aerobee Hi. I used the measurements in Peter Alway's book and scaled them down to BT-60 size. I managed to cut the fins out of the XL fins and cut strips from the scrap to form the conduits. Once I get the fin fillets done it will be ready for paint. I have black, white and silver, I'll have to buy some orange. The HiFlier XL has a 24mm motor mount so that's what this one has. I know from experience that a HiFlier XL will go pretty high on a D12. I'll probably launch this one more with C11 than D12, or I'll get an adapter and use C6.

 

[Bruiser]

nice!

-Bob

 

[bjphoenix]

I was excited to finally finish fooling with the balsa and sanding and wanted to get a coat of primer on it while we had one day of warm weather left. Then today I realized that I forgot to put on the launch lugs! Better to remember it now than find out when I'm headed out to the launch pad.

 

[Bruiser]

You're in the club now! Not that I've ever done that a time or two, ha-ha

-Bob

 

[bjphoenix]

I got in my painting this week. Here is the finished product, as finished as I'm going to likely get with it for now. It is ready to launch if I had anything other than D12-3. I need to build myself an 18mm adapter so I could launch it on C6-5.

 

[user 35280]

Is the BT-60 18” long?

 

[bjphoenix]

Is the BT-60 18” long?

The HiFlier kit comes with 2 pieces of tube and a coupler. I used the dimensions in Peter Always book and scaled them down to BT-60 diameter. This required shortening the total tube length by about 1.5" to 21" tube length. IIRC the original tubes were 11.25" each.
After I had it all planned I discovered further in the book that some Aerobee-Hi launches had a cylindrical payload section mounted between the main airframe and the nsoe cone. I could have used the total tube length without shortening it.

 

[bad_idea]

After I had it all planned I discovered further in the book that some Aerobee-Hi launches had a cylindrical payload section mounted between the main airframe and the nsoe cone. I could have used the total tube length without shortening it.

It's cooler that you kitbashed the tubes as well as the fins and conduits though. Makes it even more unique.

 

[bjphoenix]

It's cooler that you kitbashed the tubes as well as the fins and conduits though. Makes it even more unique.

What I find interesting is that the orange body is the iconic color for the Aerobee Hi but if I search the internet for images I've yet to find a photo of the real rocket that has an orange body. Most of the photos I found show white bodies. There are a couple at the museum in New Mexico that are a dark color sort of a real dark copper or bronze color.

 

[user 35280]

That picture reminded me of this kit,
http://cosmodromerocketry.com/AerobeeHi.html