My Orbital Transport

[Mike]

Hi Guys,
Just thought I'd post a pic of the Orbital Transport which I cloned from plans of JimZ. It all went together well and looks real nice. Just wish it would stop raining so I can trim the glider.

Stupid weather, it's really nice for an hour, blue skies, sun, the ground starts to dry out then it goes and rains again! Been doing that since Sunday.

 

[Micromeister]

Looks very good Mike:
I know what you mean about the "Stupid weather", but hey it's March....if ya don't like the weather wait a minute! Spring will break soon, I have a brand new RC/BG and a RC firebird that's just busting my chops to fly... but the W has jest been way to high for any kind of gliders.. well any glider you'd like to get back
Good Luck with your OT.

 

[Stewart32]

One of the early rockets I constructed after returning to the hobby was the Quest Flat Cat. This was my first glider and pop pod. I took great care with construction trying to sculpt airfoils and later trimmed per the dircetions. So it was a new building experience as well. The first flight on a B6-X was great! Lost the pod while tracking the glider. Found the pod the next day. The glider seemed to be in good trim.

Later that season, I got bold and tried a C6-X. MY GOD! The glider must have caught an afternoon thermal (August weather). It began a slow spiral descent in huge circles (R=400'). I was afraid to take my eyes of the glider for fear of loosing it. Soon it became clear that I would have to give chase. Finally, 10 minutes later and nearly a mile away it touched down. Whole lotta fun for an $10 investment. Looking forward to building and flying another.

Any suggestions?

I have the orbital transport in a bag. How does it fly?

 

[sandman]

Mike,

Very ambitious! and it looks Great! too.

Now comes the hard part...all that lumber needs work!

Good luck.

sandman

 

[jflis]

Recommendation...

Paint the underside of the glider flat black, along with the leading edge of the wings and part of the underside of the body and nose cone to resemble the heat shield tiles of the space shuttle. I did that with one of mine and the look was incredible!

 

[Bob Stephenson]

Hey Mike, now tell the truth. You saw the ad 'way back when' and just had to build one eventually, didn't you ?

Congratulations on the nice repro job - not too shabby an effort at all ! Anyone out there built a repro of the Centuri 'Space Shuttle' (image attached - very similar to the Orbital Transport) ?

Cheers

(Evil) Bob

 

[shrox]

I am hoping to get the Star Shuttle back in production, that one is really fun to fly, especially when the glider comes down looking like the Pan Am shuttle from 2001.

https://www.shrox.com/SHXStarShuttle01.jpg

shrox

 

[Bob Stephenson]

Originally posted by shrox
I am hoping to get the Star Shuttle back in production, that one is really fun to fly, especially when the glider comes down looking like the Pan Am shuttle from 2001.

https://www.shrox.com/SHXStarShuttle01.jpg

shrox

Hey Shrox, do you accept MasterCard ? :^)) This is only the second rocket of yours that I've seen and now I know what I want for Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary presents... oh hell, who needs an excuse!

Are any of your rockets designed for D's or smaller ? They look like they are meant for soemthing more substantial...

Cheers

(Evil) Bob

 

[dtomko]

Shrox,
Please, oh please bring back the Star Shuttle!! I'm sorry I missed that one when it was available.
Bob, here's my Blast From the Past Centuri Space Shuttle. A beautiful kit that hopefully also will be back in production soon (along with an upscale). With vac-formed nose cones, both the booster and orbiter are excellent gliders.
Drew Tomko

 

[saunassa]

that is one fine looking OT. i built an OT way back when and i loved it. took alot of time to get everything just perfect but when done and painted it was BEAUTIFULL.
i brought it to the county fair and entered it in the model competition. the only rockets there belonged to my brother and me. we had to go up against all of the plastic and wooden models people had built. i pulled first place, wow
The judges could not believe that someone would spend all of that time cutting, sanding, sealing and painting and then launch it and take the risk it would not come back.

 

[saunassa]

one other thought, if you do launch it please please use a fresh engine. i launched mine with a B6-x and it went up, glider came off and everything landed about 50 feet apart.
then in a fit of stupidity and just having to launch it higher, i dug around in the box and found and older C6-x and launched it.
man did it go and the glider came down great. only problem was that the ejection charge did not go off until the main rocket was about 50 feet from the ice - i now had an Ice Pick.

we launch during the winter out on the lakes, best place to find a wide open, smooth surface and being white everything stands out.

would you call it an ice pick, dart.....
I picked it up off of the ice, went home and put it in the fireplace. kind of a funeral pyre.
gave up building rockets after that. sob....

 

[Bob Stephenson]

Originally posted by dtomko
<snip>Bob, here's my Blast From the Past Centuri Space Shuttle. A beautiful kit that hopefully also will be back in production soon (along with an upscale)</snip> Drew Tomko

Drew,

once again a first for me - I've never seen the Centuri SS except on the back cover of my (original) 1970 catalog. You must have spent days getting the final finish on this one. How does it fly ? I'm always worried that my rocket boost gliders will catch a thermal and just fly off into the sunset

I agree with you Drew - bring back the Centuri range (the SS in particluar)! Who owns the rights to their kits now anyway ? I saw a report on rmr some time back where somebody 'located' Lee Piester. Not that he was ever 'missing' I'm sure ...

Cheers

(Evil) Bob

 

[Initiator001]

Originally posted by Bob Stephenson
bring back the Centuri range (the SS in particluar)! Who owns the rights to their kits now anyway ?

Estes owns the rights to Centuri kits.

In 1969/70 Damon bought Estes then Centuri a few months later. In the early 1980's Damon closed down Centuri. A few Centuri kits were re-issued as Estes kits.

Check out Semroc for 'Centuri' kits.

 

[shrox]

I'd love to bring back the Star Shuttle, I just can't keep a steady supply of the proper nose cones.

shrox

 

[kelltym88]

Originally posted by shrox
I'd love to bring back the Star Shuttle, I just can't keep a steady supply of the proper nose cones.

shrox

I have one of your Star Shuttles, haven't built it yet. You wouldn't by chance have another Icarus? I luanched it last Sunday at Lucerne using an 18mm RMS motor and it flew great. The problem was at ejection the shock cord broke/seperated from the body and it went lawn dart. It pushed the forward body tube about 2 1/2 inches back and the stress ripped the smaller body tube just behind the ping pong ball. I know I can fix it, but another one would be nice.