OK, I've never been (much) into airplane shaped rockets, preferring rocket shaped rockets. (I do have a Quest Force-5 in my fleet; it was a gift.) But there's one I just might have to build.
A bunch of years ago I made a rocket with an elliptical body tube and two 24 mm motors along its major axis. It was a 4FNC apart from the odd cross section. But looking at it, I thought that tube just begs to be made into a jumbo jet. Assuming that one day I get the parts cut to rebuild it (I have figured out some improvements and now have access to a laser cutter) I might make two sets and do the jet liner also.
Now here's the thing. If it's going to be a jet liner then it also would be totally cool to use glide recovery. What I'd like to do is start with the wings' roots parallel to the tube's axis, i.e. having no angle of attack (which seems pretty much necessary for a straight ascent) then rotate when the ejection charge fires so that it does have a positive AoA. The CG should move aft as well. And yes, I know, I'm asking for some pain as this will be a bear to trim.
The CG shift has been done many times. Does anyone know of a way that's been done before to rotate the wings? I can come up with schemes; what I"m asking for (at least for now) is methods that have proven success. Having a good way to do this may just be the thing that pushes me over from thinking about building the plane to doing it.
A bunch of years ago I made a rocket with an elliptical body tube and two 24 mm motors along its major axis. It was a 4FNC apart from the odd cross section. But looking at it, I thought that tube just begs to be made into a jumbo jet. Assuming that one day I get the parts cut to rebuild it (I have figured out some improvements and now have access to a laser cutter) I might make two sets and do the jet liner also.
Now here's the thing. If it's going to be a jet liner then it also would be totally cool to use glide recovery. What I'd like to do is start with the wings' roots parallel to the tube's axis, i.e. having no angle of attack (which seems pretty much necessary for a straight ascent) then rotate when the ejection charge fires so that it does have a positive AoA. The CG should move aft as well. And yes, I know, I'm asking for some pain as this will be a bear to trim.
The CG shift has been done many times. Does anyone know of a way that's been done before to rotate the wings? I can come up with schemes; what I"m asking for (at least for now) is methods that have proven success. Having a good way to do this may just be the thing that pushes me over from thinking about building the plane to doing it.
