Mizuno Sinryu Type II rocket glider

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tab28682

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After a few years of focusing on more conventional R/C aircraft, I am back and ready to do a few new r/c rocket gliders.

It is a little hard to find subjects that Frank has not already done an excellent job on modeling, but I have a few I want to do.

One is the proposed, but never built Mizuno Sinryu Type II rocket powered interceptor. It was being designed in Japan when the hostilities ended. It was intended to put up in the defense of Japan against the fleets of B-29s we were sending their way.

They designed a pretty sharp looking rocket interceptor. This is one I have wanted to do for a long time. It is not all that far off of being something like an Astro Blaster, being a swept wing canard.

Based on BT-80 tubing and the PNC-80K nose cone. Wing will be 9mm Depron with a little carbon added. Canard and tail will be 6mm Depron, with a touch of carbon where needed. Should be fairly ballistic on the reloadable E6, although it will have a fair amount of nose weight due to the short nose moment. Span is 28" and length is 21".

Still looking around on my garage/RC airplane storage facility and graveyard for a suitable canopy that would look OK on the model. Somewhere I have a Mitsubishi Zero canopy that might serve well, but it is hiding. Backup plan would be to carve it out of foam, spackle and paint it.

Will give it a minimal lightweight spray paint finish, in a suitable green over gray per the attached color profile, with some Rising Sun emblems from my vinyl cutter.
 

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Got a fair amount done over the last couple of evenings.

Put a slot in the NC for the canard. The shape of the PNC-80K is fairly close to the nose shape of the Type II.

I decised to taper the aft sectkion of the fuselage, reducing the BT-80 from 2.6" OD to about 2" OD, to give it a little better look.

Removed a thin wedge from the aft BT-80 tube and added a 1/4 wide doubler over the length of the tube joint.

Modified a tubing coupler to join the normal BT-80 to the tapered aft section by slicing the rear half of it into 12 petals and then removing some wedge shaped sections. Worked out nicely.
 

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Next up is the wing, canard and vertical tail.

This model will not have a functional canard. Control will be via elevons only. The canard area is fairly minimal and the model will fly just fine with a good CG.

Wing has a 1mm x 6mm carbon spar imbedded and the canard will have a .5mm x 3 mm carbon spar, mostly there to make it harder for the canard to get broken. Will do a bit of up-armoring of the leading edge of the canard, as well for weed protection.

Did not take long to get the surfaces cut out and glued up and reinforced.
 

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After letting things dry overnight, I slotted the airframe for the wing and the vertical tail and dry assembled the model.

Starting to look like a Type II! Buck the dog has been supervising my efforts...:)

Next up will be sanding a bit of an airfoil into the 9MM thick wing (a rounded LE and adding a little taper over the last 1.25" of the elevon) and then can glue the airframe components together.

That will leave the motor mount, rail buttons and RC installation, coming up with a solution for the canopy, plus paint and vinyl markings.

Current goal is to have it ready for a local launch at the end of January, weather permitting. I have a pretty full week this coming week and a really busy week after that, but my schedule gets much less busy around Jan 8 and I will have a lot more building time.
 

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I like what you did with the tail cone as well, shape overall looks good

it was an extra hour or two of work to taper the aft tube, but worth it, I think. Significant improvement in the look of the model.

My non functional canard experience is the same as yours: my models have handled well with a fixed canard. Heck, I have several canards with optional pitch control and sometimes never turn on the TX mix, leaving them fixed for a flight. I do like how my XB-70 trims for glide with a little canard "flap" activated.

This one has some potential for good fun as an electric powered pusher, as well.

Hope to make more progress this weekend and get it ready for paint, or perhaps even painted.

Still looking for a suitable canopy, though
 
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Had to work some this weekend, so not a lot of model progress. I did find a Sig WWII canopy in my garage that works for what the model needs. After some trimming, it looks fairly decent and will serve well enough for the canopy on the model. Here is a pic of it taped in place.

Waiting for rail buttons and a couple of other parts due to arrive this week.
 

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I decised to taper the aft sectkion of the fuselage, reducing the BT-80 from 2.6" OD to about 2" OD, to give it a little better look.

Removed a thin wedge from the aft BT-80 tube and added a 1/4 wide doubler over the length of the tube joint.

Modified a tubing coupler to join the normal BT-80 to the tapered aft section by slicing the rear half of it into 12 petals and then removing some wedge shaped sections. Worked out nicely.

So, in other words . . . You did this for the coupler.

https://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/US%20ROCKETS%20AIR-4%20REPORT%20ACE%20FUGUE%20SHROUD%20METHOD.pdf

Dave F.

1E.JPG


1F.JPG
 
My apologies. I have been misspelling the name of this concept aircraft and cannot edit the posts now. It should be Mizuno Shinryu, not Mizuno Sinryu.
 
It should be Mizuno Shinryu, not Mizuno Sinryu.

'Divine Dragon'. Great project. I only became aware of this aircraft through a series of books from Salamander Press, "Combat Aircraft of WW II'. Each volume covers a year. I only have three of the six books, which is unfortunate.

A good resource for colour schemes for any project. Some great ideas for BGs in those books...

Anyhoo, kudos on the project. Looking forward to the next instalment.
 
Back a work on the Type II a little today. Made a standoff for the rear rail button, required due to the boat tail and the shortness of the fuselage. Finally had some time to sand out the wing (rounded the wing LE and sanded some taper into the bottom trailing edge, giving the wing a trace of reflex). About ready to cut the elevons free.

My 9 gram servo inventory was lower than I thought and ordered a dozen of them last Friday. Should get the servos and linkage installed this coming week.

Currently debating whether to add some depth to the front of the cockpit and add a pilot figure. rudimentary instrument panel and glareshield, or to go the lazy route and simply paint the inside of the canopy silver and carry on. The jury is still out.

Decided to not go to the launch this coming weekend and attend the virtual NARCON instead. The MKII should fly in late Feb at one of the next launches.
 
Well, after various delays and diversions into other projects, I made time this week to complete the Mizuno Shinryu type II RC RG.

I removed the radio gear and set about doing a little spackling and sanding and prepping for paint.

Lightly sanded the inside of the clear canopy and gave it a light coat of silver on the inside. Gave the model a coat of flat gray on the bottom and let it dry overnight. The next day, I masked off the paint separation line on the side of the fuse and gave the top a coat of Tamiya TS-28 olive drab. Also painted the rear portion of the canopy olive drab.

After this was dry, I remasked the paint separation line with rolled over masking tape and fogged on some more olive drab to give a soft color separation. I also made some 1/8” and 1/4” strips out of white vinyl, sanded the vinyl with 600 grit and painted the strips olive drab. This painted 1/8 vinyl striping was used to create the frame on the canopy and the 1/4”’was used to bisuallyclean up the canopy to fuse joint line after the canopy was glued on.

Canopy is glued to the nose cone only.

While the paint was drying, I got out the Cameo vinyl cutter and whipped up the hinolsyru markings. Late war Japanese aircraft often sported interesting tail flashes, so I made up a red and yellow lightning bolt to liven up the vertical tail. Added yellow vinyl leading edge wraps.

Did a little panel lining with a black extra fine point sharpie.

Decided that the olive drab varied a little too much in reflectivity, so gave the entire top of the model, except for the silver canopy areas, a coat of flat clear. This evened out the finish nicely.

The model is complete except for having the radio gear and servo linkage reinstalled.

First flight should be in the next two weeks. Dave Shaefer and I are working on setting up a RC RG day at one of our local RC fields. The three models I finished earlier this week and this new one will make four first flights that day!
 

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Prepping the Mizuno Shinryu for first flight tomorrow. Went over to the local vacant lot with 12” grass and tossed it a couple of times to check CG location and glide trim.

No issues. Nice and straight and a pretty decent glide.

Was too wet to test glide the Athena, due to the bare white tube. Will have to start putting a little clear flat on the tubes to make them water resistant, given that north Texas seems to have developed a semi permanent monsoon season in late April, May and early June.
 
I've been using one or two strips of clear packing tape on the bottom of my unpainted tubes and that works fairly well.

Prepping the Mizuno Shinryu for first flight tomorrow. Went over to the local vacant lot with 12” grass and tossed it a couple of times to check CG location and glide trim.

No issues. Nice and straight and a pretty decent glide.

Was too wet to test glide the Athena, due to the bare white tube. Will have to start putting a little clear flat on the tubes to make them water resistant, given that north Texas seems to have developed a semi permanent monsoon season in late April, May and early June.
 
Well, the Mizuno Shinryu had a mostly successful flight. Test glides went well Friday and today. Only needed 1/4 oz in the nose cone for a nice glide.

Have a video to post that a new friend from TRF, Bad Idea, took at the Texas Shootout today. Coming soon.

The first boost went well, angled into a gusty 12-15 mph wind. Need to rate down the controls a little, but was easily controllable in the boost. The first 2/3rd of the glide was a delight. Good hang time. When setting up to position for a turn to base, I banked more and pulled a little more pitch than I had previously tried. The MS promptly departed into a spin...:) Opposite aileron and down elevator had no effect.

Luck was on my side. It hit a nice muddy spot and the only damage was to the left hand canard. Already fixed.

Best guess is that when I pulled a little more back pressure, the airflow over the wing changed and the vertical was blanketed and no longer effective enough. I will say I had a faint worry that the vertical was a little small, even after an increase in size early in the build.

Moving the CG forward a bit is likely enough to fix it. Could do a larger vertical tail, might could do some ventral fins that clear the rail on each side.

I predict an easy cure.

Note the red mud on the nose...:)
 

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Flew the Mizuno Shinryu again on Friday at the SMALL model aircraft event in Little Rock.

Adjusted rates, added another 1/4 oz of nose weight. Excellent boost and a decent glide to the runway. With the lower rates, I can get rid of that last 1/4 oz of weight used on this second flight. A very satisfying flight.

I had an excellent videographer this time, plus my buddy Richard Ng on the stills. Links to the videos as soon as they are edited.
 
Congrats did Dave get to fly his X-15?

Flew the Mizuno Shinryu again on Friday at the SMALL model aircraft event in Little Rock.

Adjusted rates, added another 1/4 oz of nose weight. Excellent boost and a decent glide to the runway. With the lower rates, I can get rid of that last 1/4 oz of weight used on this second flight. A very satisfying flight.

I had an excellent videographer this time, plus my buddy Richard Ng on the stills. Links to the videos as soon as they are edited.
 
Congrats did Dave get to fly his X-15?

Yes, he did. I was his LCO.

Excellent boost on a single use D10, great flight, landed on the grass runway.

The same videographer and photographer covered his X-15 flight and mine, so will have some video and pics of the X-15 soon.

I posted a pic taken by a flying buddy of mine, of Dave’s X-15 flight over in the X-15 thread just now.
 
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