Interceptor E converted to RC in 3 different ways

[burkefj]

I was on the way home yesterday and was thinking about changing my IntR/Ceptor model into an elevon only model, instead of one with full flying tail surfaces. This would require moving the wing back and making it larger. I remembered that the hobby shop had an Interceptor E kit still on the shelf for a long time, and way over priced, I did some quick checking and thought I could do a modification of this to keep the tube and nose cone and see if I could get it to fly ok. I know Estes has the cosmic interceptor on sale for $18 plus $10 shipping so I could get the cone but the tubes I think are shorter on this kit and the slots in the wrong place, and they are a custom size. I talked them down to $32 out the door. I've also ordered two of the close-out Cosmic Interceptor kits for the tubes/cone and will try to do two other variations as well, plus maybe a rocket variation, stay tuned...

I did some quick wing planform checks for the first version and came out with something I think will work.

I dumped the wingtip pods since they are heavy and will re-make those from foam. I enlarged the existing wing/tail slots to fit my depron surfaces and installed the wing. I made the forward tube section removable along with the strakes so that I can access the mid mounted rail button. It turned out for CG I did need to use the plastic tail piece. Here is is framed up but with out the wing tip pods finished. 11.5 ounces ready to fly, no nose weight needed. Wing loading is 7.5 ounces/sq foot, slightly more than my full profile version. The need for the tail piece for CG means the motor is inset about 3/4" so hopefully not in the crushnik range....

We'll see if I got the CG close enough when I can test it out. Here is it with the tip pods just roughed out and not glued on yet. I don't think it's horrible looking, still captures the essence....

 

[EXPjawa]

Cool - watching with interest...

 

[burkefj]

Got out before lunch and had two great flights, boosted really high and nice and straight. First flight was a bit touchy on roll so I toned that down for the second flight. Nearly hands off. Glide was better than I expected but I flared a bit early in the video so it wasn't a greased landing. First flight was a touch nose heavy so I put a little less than 1/4 ounce in the tail for the second flight, and it was pretty nice.

I need to finish the wingtip pods and paint them.

Frank

 

[burkefj]

Great flights again today.

 

[burkefj]

Here she is all painted....

 

[tab28682]

Another excellent project. Congrats!

I have had my eye on a number of non gliding rocket kits that are crying out to be converted to gliders much like this. The Estes Conquest is close to the top of my list.

Have you seen John Pursley's Vindicator E and Ragnoroc Interceptor (conversions for Interceptor E and Cosmic Interceptor kits) over on Ebay? The Ragnaroc is also near the top of my list.

 

[burkefj]

Yes, conquest and snarky themed would look good, I've seen those wraps, they look good, I can't find it but really liked the Luftwaffe version...

Frank

 

[burkefj]

Did some panel lines, accented the nose cone molded lines with a sharpie and added a few more vinyl accents. I removed the 1/4 ounce of lead weight in the rear and replaced it with the vertical stab antennae from the kit which weighed 1/8 ounce each, so I'm back at the nominal CG. CG is right at the wing/strake intersection for boost, glide is about 3/4" ahead of that.



Frank

 

[KenRico]

That is too cool..shared link with Rocket buddies

 

[digitalastro]

Yes, conquest and snarky themed would look good, I've seen those wraps, they look good, I can't find it but really liked the Luftwaffe version...

Frank

Were you thinking of the decal set from sandman?

https://www.sandmandecals.com/product.php?id_product=198

 

[burkefj]

I thought the one I saw had swept wings, maybe I was based on another model with the interceptor nose cone like the vindicator

 

[burkefj]

Here's me in about 1976 doing decals on my original Interceptor...note the sign of the times, fondue pot, yuban coffee mug, t-shirt with Ed Roth vintage Vette design....

 

[burkefj]

I just picked up a couple of the Cosmic Interceptor kits from the estes sale and have plans for a couple of variations using the tube and nose cone....$17 is pretty cheap for that cone and body tubes.....should be fun.

 

[burkefj]

Brought it over to George Rachor's place to fly off his runway..perfect boosts and glides,

 

[burkefj]

I've got my two Cosmic Interceptor kits coming for the tubes/nose cones, I want to do two other Interceptor themed RC BG variations to go along with this version.

First is a high wing cranked delta sort of a cross between an enlarged orbital transport wing with downward pointing wingtips and the Centuri SST-Shuttle-1 T-tail, will still use elevons, the t tail will be small and just for looks.

The second will look like my kit profile Interceptor version but with a body tube with mid mounted wings and tail going through the tube and with full flying Tail surfaces and V tail...I want to see which I like the looks and flying characteristics of better. In any case it's cheap fun.

Here's the cranked delta high wing planform, along with the vertical and t tail, and the wingtip.

The first version I made had a wing loading of around 8.5 oz/sq foot, the cranked delta will be around 6-6.5 and the full tail version will be around 9-9.5.

Frank

 

[burkefj]

Here are the foam wing/surface parts cut out for the two versions and layed out, the ruler is 48" long and 2" wide, so it will approx the body tube/nose cone length and width...

 

[burkefj]

Ok, got the wings/tail surfaces sanded and hinged/flying surfaces installed, just waiting for the tubes/cones to arrive tomorrow.

 

[burkefj]

Parts should be here tomorrow to finish them.

 

[tab28682]

Frank, you are overflowing with creativity these days.....lots of cool ideas!

I an counting the days to retirement in about 5 years so I can have some time to really build.

Seriously considering using one of my Cosmic Interceptor kits to do the RC version of the Ragnarok Interceptor, with some wing and tail tweaks for better aerodynamics.

 

[burkefj]

I think it's a nice way of saying "I'm full of it"...which is too true...
"Frank, you are overflowing with creativity these days"

I think that the ragnarok would be a neat glider....I was considering doing something like an F-104 style with a high T tail and clipped tapered wings, which is sort of like the Ragnarok...but then i got sidetracked with all of these other variations and I like the original styling of the interceptor so much....It seems it is feasable to make a non pod ejecting glider using these tubes and cone in a reasonable size/length to glide quite well.


In fact, since the original ragnarok has almost a stub t tail, you could probably get away with just moving the wing back slightly and upsizing and just doing elevons and leave the stubby t tail for show...sort of like I'm doing on my Mach 2.

Frank

Frank, you are overflowing with creativity these days.....lots of cool ideas!

I an counting the days to retirement in about 5 years so I can have some time to really build.

Seriously considering using one of my Cosmic Interceptor kits to do the RC version of the Ragnarok Interceptor, with some wing and tail tweaks for better aerodynamics.

 

[burkefj]

My Estes order arrived today and I was able to put the airframes together. Just need to wait for a few electronics to finish them. I did a quick CG check, the cranked delta version will have to have the servos pretty far back on the wing to help avoid needing any tail weight, but looks like I can get it balanced at about 12.5 ounces rtf with E-6, the same as my first version. The third version with the full tail is 11.5 ounces rtf but looks like it will need an ounce or so to balance since the wing is further forward. So they'll all be about the same weight. Here's some family photos.

Interestingly the tube that is used for the intake scoop on the cosmic interceptor is not the same 2" tube as the rest of the model unfortunately so I couldn't use that to lengthen the body to help with cg, so in order to make the body tube assembly slightly longer I glued one of the couplers into the rear of the two assembled tubes only 1.5" and then put the small 1" long tube section at the end of that coupler, so it gave me another 4" of length...The little step at the end isn't really noticable

I would have gotten further but in order to get free shipping I bought one of the Apache co-ax helis estes had for $15 and was playing with that, it's IR controlled and is actually pretty stable but I needed to train my thumbs because there is no roll control, just pitch and yaw and elevation, so you can't bank away from an object, you have to turn and the pitch forward...A lot of fun for $15....the detail on the heli is pretty good, I felt like a kid on christmas....with it flying around making cat attack runs with the little lights on it....weeee...

Frank

 

[burkefj]

Got in a maiden flight on each of the new glider versions, other than just a touch of boost/glide trim adjustment from my initial setting, they both flew really well and glides were very good and a nice flare at the end..really happy with all three of these. Just waiting for my stickershock markings to finish them off and add some panel lines.

Frank

 

[burkefj]

Got home from George's and the vinyl from Mark at Stickershock was here, got them all finished up, I'm pretty stoked, I think they all look pretty good.

Frank

 

[TheTellurian]

Those are some great liking rockets, don't blame you for being stoked. Well done.


Richard

 

[tab28682]

Frank has inspired me yet again. I have been wanting to do a R/C RG of the classic Hawk/Monogram Beta-1 XAB-1 fantasy nuclear powered bomber. I bet more than one of us built this plastic kit back in the 1960s.

Thinking about blending the design of the XAB-1 with the Interceptor parts, with wings and tails and canards from scratch. The outboard nuclear engines will be a little exposed to damage, but still doable, I think.

An Interceptor nose might look better than the stock nose.

Will like do a flat foam version to start, to work out the best CG, wing and tail areas and control surface sizes. The vertical tail will need to be larger and might need to add a ventral. Increase the wing area a bit and scale down the canard a touch.

Will have to add the parasite fighters just for the cool factor. Might be fun to release them as well.

I like the ability to trim pitch using the canard on my XB-70 model, so controls will elevons, plus a canard flap/pitch trimmer. Only adds 5 grams plus a pushrod and horn.

I think it will be a great looking R/C RG, either profile or full bodied.

 

[burkefj]

Well That's neat, you keep coming up with some models I've never seen, I'm just a bit younger and maybe missed a few of these...As long as you flare on landing I think the wing tips may be ok, on my profile B-58 hustler the engines stick forward pretty far but haven't been an issue. I think you'll need to watch lateral stability with the long nose and extra side profile motors sticking forward off the wing, may need to upsize the tail depending on where your CG winds up. I think pretty much anything looks better with an Interceptor nose cone

Frank

 

[tab28682]

I don't see any major issues that cannot be tweaked like I described. With the forward CG of this canard configuration, I think the wing mounted engines and pylons will actually help some by increasing lateral area aft and thus stability.

Will likely add some carbon to the long narrow fuse for the profile version. Or might just go to the Interceptor nose cone and tube airframe version right away.

The vertical tail from the original design is really far too small and I will tweak that for sure. A non-"scale" ventral fin might help prevent having to make it too huge.

I might have to move this up in my build queue...

 

[hornet driver]

This may be of interest. Interceptor E converted to RBG--no radio. It's several years old now and semi retired( just waiting for a good reason to pull her back out). She's heavy and glides like a brick, but glides ! These days I could probably shave the weight in half---need to think about that :wink: The canard flips up with pod ejection--took a little tuning to get that right---A little deflection goes a long way! Here's TIMBERWOLF--

 

[burkefj]

That's great, I remembered your thread the other day, but couldn't find it and didn't realize you had flown it.

 

[burkefj]

Here's some video from today, all three versions plus my profile kit, with an unfortunate cato of a quest D-5 in the profile version at the end...

[video=youtube;zn4g___Voc4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn4g___Voc4[/video]