Okay, so it didn't REALLY take seventeen years to build this one...
It was designed and built back in 1999-2000 and was supposed to look like a late '50s early '60s style suborbital hypersonic test/spy vehicle (X-15 or X-20 follow-on, maybe). The glider was inspired by the Flight Dynamics Lab FDL-5 shape, but designed to work as subsonic balsa as opposed to hypersonic Inconel.
Here's a pic of the FDL-5 mockup:
It was flown many times in bare cardboard/balsa and flew quite well on a C6-3. The SRBs have 13 mm mounts, but I have yet to fly with booster motors. The glider was a bit tricky to trim, but flew great once dialed in. I later painted the glider black and used some SR-71 decals to doll it up a bit, but the booster remained nekkid. It's last flight was in 2001 and it sat on the shelf in the shop until a couple of weeks ago when I decided to get a proper paint job on the booster, clean up the (slightly flight-battered) glider and get it back in the air.
I just finished the booster's paint yesterday and this is the result. It came out okay, but would have been MUCH easier if I'd painted it before it was all assembled! The paint patterns are based on the X-15A2 auxiliary fuel tanks, Navaho missile and other examples from that era. May bit a bit too "busy" looking, but I like the overall impression it gives.
When it was built it was more or less a boilerplate just to see if it would fly well so I didn't worry about spirals or sealing the wood grain. Now that it is back within my (narrow) field of vision, I'm going to build another one with a bit more care.
Until then it'll be fun to have this one back in the air, and I'm looking forward to finally trying it with a couple of A10-0s in the SRBs!
Here are some pics:
Thanks for looking!
Mike
It was designed and built back in 1999-2000 and was supposed to look like a late '50s early '60s style suborbital hypersonic test/spy vehicle (X-15 or X-20 follow-on, maybe). The glider was inspired by the Flight Dynamics Lab FDL-5 shape, but designed to work as subsonic balsa as opposed to hypersonic Inconel.
Here's a pic of the FDL-5 mockup:
It was flown many times in bare cardboard/balsa and flew quite well on a C6-3. The SRBs have 13 mm mounts, but I have yet to fly with booster motors. The glider was a bit tricky to trim, but flew great once dialed in. I later painted the glider black and used some SR-71 decals to doll it up a bit, but the booster remained nekkid. It's last flight was in 2001 and it sat on the shelf in the shop until a couple of weeks ago when I decided to get a proper paint job on the booster, clean up the (slightly flight-battered) glider and get it back in the air.
I just finished the booster's paint yesterday and this is the result. It came out okay, but would have been MUCH easier if I'd painted it before it was all assembled! The paint patterns are based on the X-15A2 auxiliary fuel tanks, Navaho missile and other examples from that era. May bit a bit too "busy" looking, but I like the overall impression it gives.
When it was built it was more or less a boilerplate just to see if it would fly well so I didn't worry about spirals or sealing the wood grain. Now that it is back within my (narrow) field of vision, I'm going to build another one with a bit more care.
Until then it'll be fun to have this one back in the air, and I'm looking forward to finally trying it with a couple of A10-0s in the SRBs!
Here are some pics:
Thanks for looking!
Mike