Mini Porthos II...CLUSTERING GONE CRAZY!!!

[havoc821]

After spending much time at www.gbrocketry.com and admiring the Gates Brother's Porthos II, I decided to build a mini version. Mine is not to scale but it looks pretty similar. For those of you who don't know what the Porthos II is, let me give you a run down. The actual Porthos II is 19 ft tall, weighs over 600 pounds!!!, and has a 19inch base that transitions to 11.5inchs. It has a 150mm central motor with 6 98mm outbaords, I think. On one of the flights it used a central P10000 and once in the air it ignited 3 N4000 (I think it was a 4000, I could be wrong), and after that it ignited 3 more N4000. It went to 25,000 feet!!!!! Talk about a LOT of money and a LOT of free time.

My mini version uses a 4.375inch BT-55 tube for the base and transitions to an 8inch BT-50 body tube. It will have a central 24mm MMT and 6 18mm outboards. All of these will be ground started. So far I have everything built except for the outboards.

Does anybody know where I can find 6 of the NC-20 Viking type nosecones online without spending a lot of money?

In the picture attached I have my mini version (with a borrowed Gemini DC nosecone to show you what it will look like) along with some pictures of the real Porthos II. Enjoy!

BTW, the transition on my rocket was the nosecone that came with the CC Express. I just cut out the bottom and cut off the tip of the NC so that the ejection could go to the parachute. I will include more detailed construction stuff later. That's all for now. Let me know what you think. Also, one more thing. With the combined thrust of 6 C6s and a D12, which is a little less than an AT F44, the rocket should go to a little over 3,000ft!!!

 

[Mike]

Sounds good, just make sure you launch system is able to fire all those ignitors quickly. 7 motors is quite a few to light.

 

[Justy]

My dream is to build a rocket like that, but the boosters would fall away and streamer- or helicopter-recover when they were spent. The boosters would be powered by normal commercial single use BP motors, the core would have an RMS favoring duration over thrust. Ideally I'd like this to all happen without electronics, but I can't figure out how three of the boosters would ignite the other three boosters when they're beside each other.

 

[JeffK]

I really don't mean to shift this thread off-topic, but the name of that rocket made me think......(scary aint it?)

Porthos....One of the Alexandre Dumas' Three musketeers.....

If they were musketeers, why did they fight with swords?


I'll go back to mumbling to myself now.

Carry on.

Jeff K

 

[Ryan S.]

Thats a cool rocket, and I think Jeff is right. That is one of the three muskateers. There are another two rockets in there fleet named after the other muskateers

 

[Justy]

Originally posted by JeffK
If they were musketeers, why did they fight with swords?

My guess: because it's a fantasy, Dumas probably thought that musket duels wouldn't be very dramatic, and "The Three Swordsmen" didn't have the same ring to it.

 

[wscarvie]

Originally posted by Ryan S.
Thats a cool rocket, and I think Jeff is right. That is one of the three muskateers. There are another two rockets in there fleet named after the other musketeers

Indeed: Aramis and Athos. No d'Artagnon rocket yet, that I know of

I'm checking on some history links (military history is another of my interests), but I think the term Musketeer, in the case of the King's Musketeers, was honorary/legacy by the 1620's. Certainly there were still (many) actual musketeers (i.e. foot soldiers with guns) in the French army at this time, but the King's Musketeers were, I believe, a Guard Cavalry unit during the reign of Louis XIII. So, swords would be fitting. In addition to being members of the military, they were also all gentlemen (well off...having most likely purchased their commisions) and would therefore have carried swords even out of uniform, and would have known how to use them.

As for the "fantasy" theory, Alexandre Dumas was actually a fair historian. There was even an actual Captain of the King's Musketeers named d'Artagnan. I doubt whether enough was known about him to claim that many/any of the events of the novels were factual, but there is certainly reference to him in a short passage about another Musketeer who reported to him.

More than you probably wanted to know, I'm sure

But, hey, ask and you shall receive.

Will Scarvie

 

[havoc821]

To bring this thread back onto topic.........

Justy,

It is near impossible to ignite the other three motors when they are beside each other. There is really no way to do this without timers. I decided to keep it simple and ground start all 7 motors! Taking the rocket to around 3000ft! Let me know how your project comes along.

To everyone else:

Does anybody know where I can get 6 of the Viking type nosecones? I am thinking about waiting for Hobby Lobby to have another 50% off sale and picking up 3 Gemini DCs and using the nosecones with it along with having extra parts to make another scratchbuild of something else. I'll have more pics once I finish the outbaords but that may be a while.

 

[jetra2]

Havoc,

This is an awesome rocket, I would love to see it fly.

For your nosecones, I would ask Sandman to turn them for me. He does HIGH quality work for a very good price. He's at NARAM, now, so if you can wait, you can ask him when he comes back.

Jason

 

[havoc821]

jetra,

Do you know or have any idea about how much he would charge. BMS has what I need for $1.65 each nosecone! That's absurd! Almost $2 for 1 nosecone. Thanks.

P.S. How does paypal work?

 

[havoc821]

Well, I finally got the outbards cut and epoxied on. I don't have the nosecones for the outbards yet but I will be getting them from sandman shortly. THANKS SANDMAN!!! Anyways, I think I have gone clustering crazy! SOMEBODY STOP ME!!! Not literally! I don't know when its first launch will be. I am thinking about making an 18mm motor mount that can fit inside the main 24mm mount so that I can test fly it with a C and actually have some chance of getting it back. Think about it, a 19inch tall rocket painted blue and silver with 1 D12 and 6 C6s in it!! It may be rather hard to find it at 3000ft.!! Oh well, I will just wait for a day with absolutly NO WIND! Well, that's all for now.

 

[Rocketman248]

Very cool so far. I love the Gates Brothers rockets. I am planning a downscale of the Athos using 4" tubing. It won't be clustered. I'm too cheap for that.

BTW, there is a D'Artagnan rocket. Check it out here.

 

[teflonrocketry1]

You could have tried parallel staging the beast. That is use a 24mm D12 core sustainer with 2 x C6-0's and 4 x B6-0's in drop pods. Any other symmetrical combination of motors would also work e.g. 3C's and 3B's. That way the side pod or outboard boosters would drop off as they do on a Delta rocket during flight. You can simulate the parallel staging with RockSim.

Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055

 

[Ryan S.]

cool rocket, it is appealing.

Hey wescarvie. They do have a rocket called the D'argetan (sorry I cant spell it) it is smaller that the other ones so it doesnt catch your eye when checking out theier page. I am positive I saw it though

 

[Rocketman248]

Check out my last post. There is a link to the D'Artagnan. It is a small rocket with 4 54mm mounts. They used it to go for the M altitude record using two K250's and airstarting two more. Check out the onboard video here. Click on D'Artagnan 3rd flight.

The rocket looks very cool so far. I need to build a cluster rocket. I only want one that flies composite motors though. I've kind of moved past low power.