I bought an SR71 foam jet kit from Nitroplanes about 6 months ago with the intention to make it an RC rocket glider. The kit is made by MaxJet and came with everything needed except for a receiver, servos, battery and transmitter.
The conversion for rocket boost was easy since a 29mm motor tube fits nicely in the aft end of the fuselage. The wings had pockets already in them for the elevon servos. The rudders were thick enough that a servo could be placed in them for steering.
The project was moving along well until I got some advice from an RC rocket glider expert and some feedback from RC Group discussions. The glider expert expressed concern about 2 factors. First, he said that getting the SR71 to be stable on boost would require considerable nose weight that would need to be ejected or lost after boost to get the plane to glide. That part was not a big concern for me. I planned to eject the nose weight after boost. But his second concern was that this jet would "fly like a brick". This comment was repeated by a few people on RC groups. They all felt that it would not have enough airspeed during unpowered glide to really fly at all.
This cooled off my enthusiasm about gliding it so I built it as a rocket. The fuselage separates at the junction with the forward edge of the wings and I added short 54mm tubes at that point to make a slip joint and shock cord anchorage. I figured that I will try it as a rocket on G or H motors to see how it holds up under thrust.
I still would like to try it as a rocket glider so I am anxious to see how yours works out. I am considering buying another kit after a few successful rocket launches and proceeding with my original glider plan.
I look forward to hearing about how your launch goes.
