shockwaveriderz
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I consider myself a model rocketry historian(amateur), and over the past 3 years I have slowly but surely been collecting all the old American Modeler articles by GHS and others from 1957-1969. There is a wealth of information in these old articles...
Sometimes reading these old articles, and then looking at later model rocketry history and even today, it appears sometimes to me that we are basically re-inventing the wheel. Sorta like, what goea round comes back around....
For example, in the 1966 AM Annual published in Dec 65-Jan 66, there is an article about NARAM-7 held in Aug 1965.
See if the following rings a bell for you:
"Capt. Bill Baritz, USAF aeromodeler turned rocketeer, and Chairman of the NAR Contest Board, managed to stuff a 3-ft. polyethelene parasheet into a 1-in. diameter bird. H equipped it with a dethermalizer fuse of the type used in free-flight model aircraft and rigged it so that it would release 4 of the 8 parachute shrouds lines after 10 minutes. This turned the parachute into a streamer."
This same PD DT technique has been reinvented and reused several times over the years, culminating in the use by the FAI S3 people with zitnan electro-timers. I also have a 1984 Russian competition model rocket book that has a diagram of this DT fuse technique....
The story of flex wing development between 62 and 71 is a story of several people "re-inventing the wheel in parallel developments".
Capt.Bill Baritz(USAF) demonstrated the first Rogallo parawing
(flexwing) glider at NARAM-5 in August 1963. In a telephone
conversation with Bill in 2005, he noted that he actually designed
this glider in his head while on the road moving to Tuscon AZ in
1962, where he still resides. Bill actually had 2 different flexwing
designs. The first was the "ejectable" Rogallo parawing that you see in the 1965 Handbook of Model Rocketry. The 2nd version was a model rocket carrier vehicle that had clamshell doors that ejected the attached flexwing with the whole assembly coming down in one piece.
An example of the 2nd design can be seen in Gordon K.Mandell's
November 1968 Model Rocketry magazine article titled, "Design Studies in Model Rocket Recovery by Extensible Flexwing", as Model Type C2., which was based on his earlier April 1967 Article in Tech Engineering News. An excellent phot of his extensible flexwing design appears on the cover. Gordon K. Mandell did his research into flex wing gliders from May 1964 to April 1965, which is when a lot of the work done in this study dates from.
This article also shows a photo of a very young Gordon K. Mandell (17 yrs old!) holding a flexie wing design that looks very interesting.
Also in the 1965-1966 time frame, a John W. Ludeman was also doing research into flexwings, as "Parawing Glide Systems", which won him 2nd place in the Estes 1965 Science Fair Contest.
Another 1965-66 time frame flexwing was the BAT, by David Swoboda, which appeared in the Estes MRN in Dec 1966. This was an "Ejectable" flexwing design. It won 1st place in the Estes OddBall design contest of 1965.
also GHS describes in his 1965 edition of his Handbook of Model
Rocketry, the following flexwing design:
"Robert Devoluy, of Darian, CT, has built a modification of the
Rogallo wing BG, in which the flex-wings are attached to the side of a standard body tube and hinged at the base of the nose cone. Balss rudder and stabilizer are mounted to what amounts to a lower-stage assembly, to which hooks are attached to hold the wings in folded position during VTO powered flight. The engine-ejection charge kicks the booster clear of the model, allowing the flex-wings to spread out for glide."
What is interesting about this design, is I had a similar design that I made(on paper) back in the late 70's. It consisted of a 3 fin
bottom booster, that ejected and separated from the upper body tube which enclosed the flexwing wings on boost. In addtion, this model was to have a flex rudder for better roll control. Until I read this in my 1965 edition of the HMR, I thought it was a totally original design: it now appears that I too, was simply re-inventing the wheel.
A variation on this theme was "re-invented(?)" in mid to late 71 by a Stephen Gurley, whose "ejectable" flex-wing model can be seen in the 1-2/1972 issue of Model Rocketry magazine online at Ninfingers website.
Sometime in 1966(?) Bernard (Bernie) Biales started work on his
Rhombus(?) ejectable flex wing. I credit Bernard with what I will
call the first "true" flex wing design. A photo of it appeared in the
August 1971 issue of Model Rocketry magazine. The reason I consider it the first "true" flexwing, in that it actually resembles a rigid wing glider design: it has a wing, stab and rudder; all flexible. This design was much more than the typical delta shaped Rogallo parawings.
In the 1970 issue of Model Rocketry magazine, again available at
Ninfinger's, is an article by a Leigh & Olaf Thorson titled Parawing
Recovery, which show some basic ejectable flexwings.
Finally I have a 1972 Russian Model Rocket book which shows a dual- wing canatd type foldable flexwing design. This design was the forerunner of the late 70's early 80's FAI Bulgarian "Opel" flex wing which appeared in the American Spacemodeling magazine. My 1984 and 1991 Russian books also depicts several variations of this dual-wing canard flexie.
Sometimes reading these old articles, and then looking at later model rocketry history and even today, it appears sometimes to me that we are basically re-inventing the wheel. Sorta like, what goea round comes back around....
For example, in the 1966 AM Annual published in Dec 65-Jan 66, there is an article about NARAM-7 held in Aug 1965.
See if the following rings a bell for you:
"Capt. Bill Baritz, USAF aeromodeler turned rocketeer, and Chairman of the NAR Contest Board, managed to stuff a 3-ft. polyethelene parasheet into a 1-in. diameter bird. H equipped it with a dethermalizer fuse of the type used in free-flight model aircraft and rigged it so that it would release 4 of the 8 parachute shrouds lines after 10 minutes. This turned the parachute into a streamer."
This same PD DT technique has been reinvented and reused several times over the years, culminating in the use by the FAI S3 people with zitnan electro-timers. I also have a 1984 Russian competition model rocket book that has a diagram of this DT fuse technique....
The story of flex wing development between 62 and 71 is a story of several people "re-inventing the wheel in parallel developments".
Capt.Bill Baritz(USAF) demonstrated the first Rogallo parawing
(flexwing) glider at NARAM-5 in August 1963. In a telephone
conversation with Bill in 2005, he noted that he actually designed
this glider in his head while on the road moving to Tuscon AZ in
1962, where he still resides. Bill actually had 2 different flexwing
designs. The first was the "ejectable" Rogallo parawing that you see in the 1965 Handbook of Model Rocketry. The 2nd version was a model rocket carrier vehicle that had clamshell doors that ejected the attached flexwing with the whole assembly coming down in one piece.
An example of the 2nd design can be seen in Gordon K.Mandell's
November 1968 Model Rocketry magazine article titled, "Design Studies in Model Rocket Recovery by Extensible Flexwing", as Model Type C2., which was based on his earlier April 1967 Article in Tech Engineering News. An excellent phot of his extensible flexwing design appears on the cover. Gordon K. Mandell did his research into flex wing gliders from May 1964 to April 1965, which is when a lot of the work done in this study dates from.
This article also shows a photo of a very young Gordon K. Mandell (17 yrs old!) holding a flexie wing design that looks very interesting.
Also in the 1965-1966 time frame, a John W. Ludeman was also doing research into flexwings, as "Parawing Glide Systems", which won him 2nd place in the Estes 1965 Science Fair Contest.
Another 1965-66 time frame flexwing was the BAT, by David Swoboda, which appeared in the Estes MRN in Dec 1966. This was an "Ejectable" flexwing design. It won 1st place in the Estes OddBall design contest of 1965.
also GHS describes in his 1965 edition of his Handbook of Model
Rocketry, the following flexwing design:
"Robert Devoluy, of Darian, CT, has built a modification of the
Rogallo wing BG, in which the flex-wings are attached to the side of a standard body tube and hinged at the base of the nose cone. Balss rudder and stabilizer are mounted to what amounts to a lower-stage assembly, to which hooks are attached to hold the wings in folded position during VTO powered flight. The engine-ejection charge kicks the booster clear of the model, allowing the flex-wings to spread out for glide."
What is interesting about this design, is I had a similar design that I made(on paper) back in the late 70's. It consisted of a 3 fin
bottom booster, that ejected and separated from the upper body tube which enclosed the flexwing wings on boost. In addtion, this model was to have a flex rudder for better roll control. Until I read this in my 1965 edition of the HMR, I thought it was a totally original design: it now appears that I too, was simply re-inventing the wheel.
A variation on this theme was "re-invented(?)" in mid to late 71 by a Stephen Gurley, whose "ejectable" flex-wing model can be seen in the 1-2/1972 issue of Model Rocketry magazine online at Ninfingers website.
Sometime in 1966(?) Bernard (Bernie) Biales started work on his
Rhombus(?) ejectable flex wing. I credit Bernard with what I will
call the first "true" flex wing design. A photo of it appeared in the
August 1971 issue of Model Rocketry magazine. The reason I consider it the first "true" flexwing, in that it actually resembles a rigid wing glider design: it has a wing, stab and rudder; all flexible. This design was much more than the typical delta shaped Rogallo parawings.
In the 1970 issue of Model Rocketry magazine, again available at
Ninfinger's, is an article by a Leigh & Olaf Thorson titled Parawing
Recovery, which show some basic ejectable flexwings.
Finally I have a 1972 Russian Model Rocket book which shows a dual- wing canatd type foldable flexwing design. This design was the forerunner of the late 70's early 80's FAI Bulgarian "Opel" flex wing which appeared in the American Spacemodeling magazine. My 1984 and 1991 Russian books also depicts several variations of this dual-wing canard flexie.
