Estes Shuttle

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BenAlbers

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Hi,

I am building the new Estes Shuttle, see my build blog on the DRRA.nl site:


https://drra.nl/forum/showarticle.php?art_id=2527&rubriek=JouwBouwBlog

I changed it a little bit: in the two side boosters I made 18mm motor mounts so the rocket will fly on 1 x D12-3 in the center and 2xC6-P in the boosters (and if successful a next launch with 2 x D9-P).
I will add approx. 50 grams weight in the nose cone for compensation of the extra tail weight.


Did any of you do this modification ? And have a successful flight? I hope to fly this one in spring and of course I hope to fly this baby more than once...
 
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I'm a little worried about the asymmetrical thrust. That central motor should be right in line with the CG, but I'm not sure that the offset motors will shift the CG to the new axis of thrust. Plus, the new CG will be out of line with the CP which may result in nosing over.

I checked out your blog. My Dutch is nonexistent, but the pictures are great.
Excellent work on the construction of the shuttle and boosters!
 
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I'm a little worried about the asymmetrical thrust. That central motor should be right in line with the CG, but I'm not sure that the offset motors will shift the CG to the new axis of thrust. Plus, the new CG will be out of line with the CP which may result in nosing over.

Agreed. I can see the offset of the axis to be corrected perhaps by the asymmetrical distribution of the nose weight to one side, assuming you have the volume capacity to hold such weight needed.
Its an admirable pursuit and rewarding idea. If you don't do it my calculation, and do trial and error, you might need several builds and crashes before getting it right, if at all.
 
Thanks for your advises, and your compliment about the construction work. Initially I was a bit worried about this kit seeing the enormous amount of parts and its complexity compared to a 'normal' rocket kit , but it appeared to be a really nice thing to build.

I will give it a try. The two boosters are placed slightly off center towards the shuttle. But as the speed will be higher than launching on a single motor the drag on the shuttle will be higher and maybe the asymmetrical drag on the model is compensated. I definitely put in extra nose weight to get a stable flight. Probably the model will tend to flip over forward or backward but at the same time due to small differences in assembly the model will spin so I expect the flight to be a bit cork 'screwish' ;-) . And if I am not that lucky its 1st flight will be its last.

I still need to trim the shuttle and paint he entire model. Right now it is too cold here to do the finishing but I will finalize before our first launch event in april.
 
Hi,

I also asked Estes for some advise. The designer of the model thinks that adding 20-28 grams of nose weight should be enough to make it work. But of course no guarantees and caution at launch. I will report the result of its maiden flight....
 
Wow, that looks great! The paint masking must have been quite a bit of work, did you paint the booster pods before assembling them to the main airframe?
 
Thanks dpower, that was quite a job indeed. Before any painting i glued the pods to the main tube without assembling the 6 boosters. The 6 boosters were coated seperately and the main tube was sprayed with the bronze finish. Then it was quite easy to mask the pods to paint them with a small brush in black. Finally the pods were carefully grinded inside (remove spray paint) to fit the 6 boosters in place. The boosters were put in place and glued with a thin CA-glue, which is applied around the pods. Capillary effect did the job to get the glue between pods/tube, so it is important to use a thin glue and have a precise fit of booster in pod.
 
The final touch on this project was the balancing of the Shuttle Glider. According to the Estes instructions the centre of gravity must be located 108 mm from the rear end of the glider. I made a marking on the bottom of the glider and balanced the glider on a thin ruler. CG appeared to be located a few mm behind the desired point. I simply made a piece of wood which is inserted through the nozzle in the body tube of the glider. The right dimension was found after a few trials: 1,5 gram in the nose. The piece of wood is then glued in place. Ready for launch!
 
Finally our first Dutch DRRA launch event took place on saturday 29th april. I launched my Estes Shuttle on a D12-3 AND 2x Klima C6-P. It flew remarkably wonderful: straight up to approx. 150m, the booster and glider separated and the glider made a wonderful straight glide of 40 seconds. Landing of booster and glider smooth and no damage at all, not even a scratch....

On this vid, the start.... https://youtu.be/XoPXCD-YNUM
 
One question: the descent of the glider was indeed a straight line, it landed far away. It is suggested to put some weight on one of the wingtips to make te glider fly in circles to prevent drifting away too far. Is this the right way or is it better to do a small aerodynamic change for this purpose? And if yes, what to change?

Just before start:

IMG_5852 (2).JPG
 
One question: the descent of the glider was indeed a straight line, it landed far away. It is suggested to put some weight on one of the wingtips to make te glider fly in circles to prevent drifting away too far. Is this the right way or is it better to do a small aerodynamic change for this purpose? And if yes, what to change?

Just before start:

View attachment 319002

I prefer using clay for glider adjustments. That way I can adjust the amount and placement as conditions change from one launch day to the next. Nice to get your updates from across the pond.
 
I had the same issue with my Dr. Zooch Space Shuttle and used clay on the wing tip thinking that wing would be pulled down and the orbiter would circle instead of flying straight. It had the opposite effect for some reason and that wing was the high side and it circled in the opposite direction. Whatever works, at least it didn't fly straight anymore.

Here's a video I made when testing the clay and figuring out how much I'd need.


[YOUTUBE]h_F1Jft7PmM[/YOUTUBE]
 
Finally our first Dutch DRRA launch event took place on saturday 29th april. I launched my Estes Shuttle on a D12-3 AND 2x Klima C6-P. It flew remarkably wonderful: straight up to approx. 150m, the booster and glider separated and the glider made a wonderful straight glide of 40 seconds. Landing of booster and glider smooth and no damage at all, not even a scratch....

On this vid, the start.... https://youtu.be/XoPXCD-YNUM

Very cool. More motors, more nose weight, no problem. Fun to do the same thing with an old SR 71 kit. Trust in thrust!
 
On the Dr Zooch space shuttle I would move the clay from the leading edge to the actual wing tip. I would also use about 1/6 the mount of clay shown. I piece the size of a pea should be all that is needed and it won't effect the balance point of the shuttle as much.


John Boren
 
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