Anybody Know What These Are?

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Me thinks Mibo Jets them for the A-10 model that they sell. If I remember they were about a foot long. Did not have pop out fins though. They were just for looks. But could give someone some nice detail to shoot for.
 
The old Estes Skywinder deployed rear fins to helicopter down. Its been OOP for a long time, but I have one and I know a guy that says he had over 2 dozen at one time. He scavenges the corpses to keep a few flying.
 
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Also known as retarded bombs.
Opposite of smart bombs.
Nyuk nyuk. 😁

I am so waiting for the political correctness police to come out of the woodwork over the term "retarded". :) Hey, I still use it myself. :)
 
I am so waiting for the political correctness police to come out of the woodwork over the term "retarded". :) Hey, I still use it myself. :)

It's historically correct. No worries, right?

Sticks and Stones,
Broken Bones,
But Words..
Never Hurt Me.
 
I am so waiting for the political correctness police to come out of the woodwork over the term "retarded". :) Hey, I still use it myself. :)
Retard....to slow down. As in an additave to paint to slow down cure time. They are in fact bombs with built-in retarders. Hence the can be called retarded bombs.
 
Retard....to slow down. As in an additave to paint to slow down cure time. They are in fact bombs with built-in retarders. Hence the can be called retarded bombs.

I gotcha. :) I already knew that, but was pointing it out in jest.
 
That F111 Is from Lakenheath RAFB. We were there with them. My wife was target intelligence. Except for the F117 the F111's dropped the majority of guided bombs in the first Gulf War. I've got a real cool VHS tape of a lot of the drops. It looks like it is over Sailor Creek Range in Idaho. We were at Mtn. Home AFB with the F111's before we went to England. I'll have to dig out my pictures.
 
The difficulty in this design is two fold. 1) They need to be robust enough to handle the deployment of the petals, so ideally that needs to happen as close to apogee as possible and 2) They need to be light.

The military version didn't have to fall slow, it just needed to fall slower than the standard version of the bomb. They were used in low level bombing in Vietnam where accuracy wasn't as important. The standard bombs blew up too close to the jet dropping them causing potential loss of flight control. By retarding the bombs with these petals the bombs hit the ground far enough behind the jet dropping them to mitigate them. Note, these petals make the bombs LESS accurate, but they were typically used in carpet bombing runs so a loss of accuracy was ok. When you see hollywood do this in movies, like Preditor Vs Alien: Requiem, it's typically done wrong and just because it looks cool.

It does, btw, look cool.

I solved the weight problem by making them with a rear electable motor pod that comes down via streamer. The rocket is then light enough that the resistance of the petals can slow it significantly. My 24mm version darn near floats down.

Like you, I came across this bomb design and thought "That's kewl! I should make that!" Then I searched the internet to see if someone HAD done it and found the old thread linked above. I don't possess the wood cutting ability the OP had in that thread, but I do own 3D printers, so I started experimenting using parts I designed and printed. I got the 18mm version working on my third prototype. Then I designed a 24mm version using mostly printed parts and submitted it to Apogee rockets hoping to make it a design of the month. They made it a feature article instead. Currently I am working on another 24mm version using Pringles cans as the main body tube, just because I like making Pringles versions of things.

18mm version on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4847720
24mm version in issue 551 of Apogee's "Peak of Flight" newsletter: https://www.apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/Newsletter551.pdf

24mm version in flight:
24mm version on board video:
18mm version in flight:
24mm Pringles Prototype:

The pringle's version is too short and too heavy. It worked, but it fell faster than I'd like, so I'm going back (a little) to the drawing board on that one.

If anyone builds one whether my design or their own, be sure to post videos. This is an interesting design concept and challenge and they are some of the most interesting rockets to see in flight.
 
The difficulty in this design is two fold. 1) They need to be robust enough to handle the deployment of the petals, so ideally that needs to happen as close to apogee as possible and 2) They need to be light.

The military version didn't have to fall slow, it just needed to fall slower than the standard version of the bomb. They were used in low level bombing in Vietnam where accuracy wasn't as important. The standard bombs blew up too close to the jet dropping them causing potential loss of flight control. By retarding the bombs with these petals the bombs hit the ground far enough behind the jet dropping them to mitigate them. Note, these petals make the bombs LESS accurate, but they were typically used in carpet bombing runs so a loss of accuracy was ok. When you see hollywood do this in movies, like Preditor Vs Alien: Requiem, it's typically done wrong and just because it looks cool.

It does, btw, look cool.

I solved the weight problem by making them with a rear electable motor pod that comes down via streamer. The rocket is then light enough that the resistance of the petals can slow it significantly. My 24mm version darn near floats down.

Like you, I came across this bomb design and thought "That's kewl! I should make that!" Then I searched the internet to see if someone HAD done it and found the old thread linked above. I don't possess the wood cutting ability the OP had in that thread, but I do own 3D printers, so I started experimenting using parts I designed and printed. I got the 18mm version working on my third prototype. Then I designed a 24mm version using mostly printed parts and submitted it to Apogee rockets hoping to make it a design of the month. They made it a feature article instead. Currently I am working on another 24mm version using Pringles cans as the main body tube, just because I like making Pringles versions of things.

18mm version on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4847720
24mm version in issue 551 of Apogee's "Peak of Flight" newsletter: https://www.apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/Newsletter551.pdf

24mm version in flight:
24mm version on board video:
18mm version in flight:
24mm Pringles Prototype:

The pringle's version is too short and too heavy. It worked, but it fell faster than I'd like, so I'm going back (a little) to the drawing board on that one.

If anyone builds one whether my design or their own, be sure to post videos. This is an interesting design concept and challenge and they are some of the most interesting rockets to see in flight.


All I can say is wow... Shock and Awe...

I know scale is important... but why not attach parachute material between the blades? This would stow away for flight, but at deployment would basically act as an umbrella chute?
 
I saw this photo today and wondered what bombs these are? Looked like a neat scale model rocket design.

View attachment 475167
What good timing for you! My brother Perry (alslansmonkey in the forum) already designed a rocket for this that was featured in Apogee Rockets' Peak of Flight Newsletter.
the link is : apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/newsletter551.pdf
There ARE some printed plastic parts for this but this is the complete build for this bomb/rocket.
 
One of my prototypes had clear plastic between the petals. Yeah, it can be stowed inside, but ultimately it proved unnecessary. The 18mm version falls only slightly faster than it would with a chute. The 24mm version minimizes the plastic printed parts and uses more lightweight materials and squishy foam nosecone and probably falls slower than a similarly sized chuted rocket would fall.
 
The difficulty in this design is two fold. 1) They need to be robust enough to handle the deployment of the petals, so ideally that needs to happen as close to apogee as possible and 2) They need to be light.

The military version didn't have to fall slow, it just needed to fall slower than the standard version of the bomb. They were used in low level bombing in Vietnam where accuracy wasn't as important. The standard bombs blew up too close to the jet dropping them causing potential loss of flight control. By retarding the bombs with these petals the bombs hit the ground far enough behind the jet dropping them to mitigate them. Note, these petals make the bombs LESS accurate, but they were typically used in carpet bombing runs so a loss of accuracy was ok. When you see hollywood do this in movies, like Preditor Vs Alien: Requiem, it's typically done wrong and just because it looks cool.

It does, btw, look cool.

I solved the weight problem by making them with a rear electable motor pod that comes down via streamer. The rocket is then light enough that the resistance of the petals can slow it significantly. My 24mm version darn near floats down.

Like you, I came across this bomb design and thought "That's kewl! I should make that!" Then I searched the internet to see if someone HAD done it and found the old thread linked above. I don't possess the wood cutting ability the OP had in that thread, but I do own 3D printers, so I started experimenting using parts I designed and printed. I got the 18mm version working on my third prototype. Then I designed a 24mm version using mostly printed parts and submitted it to Apogee rockets hoping to make it a design of the month. They made it a feature article instead. Currently I am working on another 24mm version using Pringles cans as the main body tube, just because I like making Pringles versions of things.

18mm version on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4847720
24mm version in issue 551 of Apogee's "Peak of Flight" newsletter: https://www.apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/Newsletter551.pdf

24mm version in flight:
24mm version on board video:
18mm version in flight:
24mm Pringles Prototype:

The pringle's version is too short and too heavy. It worked, but it fell faster than I'd like, so I'm going back (a little) to the drawing board on that one.

If anyone builds one whether my design or their own, be sure to post videos. This is an interesting design concept and challenge and they are some of the most interesting rockets to see in flight.

I read your article, it was great. I'm glad you chined in here because I was racking my brain trying to remember where I had read that article lol. When I was reading it, I had an idea that I've since partially forgotten, but it somehow involved grid fins and probably involved me trying to approximate the effect etc. Anyway, don't mind my mental ramblings.

I just wanted to say that it was awesome. Oh and did you try one of those extra long Pringles cans? I have a few sitting around for exactly the purpose of somehow turning them into a rocket.

Also, I realize it has other names, but I submit that this concept be known as a "hard parachute" ;)
 
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