New Scratch Build Project!

[rkt2k1]

Sandman,

WOW!!!! They look fantastic!! And I didn't even get you anymore pictures yet! I am working on that right now. I am so excited on having you work on the custom parts of this project!! You are truely a master craftsman / modeler! I appreciate all the other feedback as well. I'll post more pics of the real "proposed" bird shortly.

The nose cone and tail cone pics look great. Your thoughts, as well as Jim Flis', far go beyond my original design. This is the one area that I thought I would need to simplify the design. If you notice on my Rocksim design, I just have the engine tube extending from more or less a standard tail cone. If you look closely you'll see I've added 2 asymetrical fins to somewhat mimic the end of the aircraft. Your tailcone designs are beyond my expectations!

Wscarvie,

The Mongo ship looks like a great design!! I've tucked that picture away for a future project! I agree with Sandman, I'm sort of tired of 3FNC models.

Don't mean to sound like a kid, but this is so cool!!

 

[rkt2k1]

As promised here are some of the other pics for the Sonic Cruiser. You'll notice these are somewhat different than the 3-view I originally posted. These are pictures of later design revisions.

 

[rkt2k1]

Another pic:

 

[rkt2k1]

Another pic (screenshot from the Sonic Cruiser Screen Saver):

 

[rkt2k1]

Foamed carved designs next! Yes, yes! So many ideas, so little time! I have a few "Area 51" type designs tucked away using non-standard techniques like carved foam, built up main fuselages, etc. I even found an online source for a manufactured hobby hot-wire tool combo! If anyone is interested I can find the link and post it.

 

[sandman]

My idea was to hand carve the foam...not hot wire.

Smooth it out as best as possible and cover it with the lightest cloth available (.25 or .5 oz glass) and epoxy.

Gor a light strong body.

This will be a whole new technique in model rocket building.

I know it's sorta been done with large scale High power rockets and some ducted fan R/C jets but, I've never seen it in a low to mid power model rocket before.

sandman

 

[powderburner]

I had a thought (let's see if I can express it clearly enough to follow)

To make an offset nosecone out of balsa, rough-turn the nose cone to a bit more than the length you want for the finished (offset) design. Go ahead and turn the shoulder to final dimension (length and diam). Do not cut down the rear part of the exposed NC to final contour; go ahead and turn it to a round cross-section but leave the temporary contour a bit 'high' (maybe 1/8 inch?). Go ahead and turn the front part of the exposed NC to final contour.

Cut across the NC just above the shoulder, in the region of the rear part of the exposed NC, at an angle. Looking at your illustration, I am guessing the angle needs to be about 10 degrees. Take the forward part of the NC, rotate 180 degrees about the longitudinal axis, and re-glue to the base of the NC. The forward part should now be bent over toward one side, with the longitudinal axis bent over at double the angle of the cut (20 degrees). And it will make the NC a tad shorter in overall length. Cover the shoulder with a scrap of BT and hand-sand the glued joint (and the rest of the rear part of the exposed surfaces) to smooth it out to satisfy your eyeball. The hand-sanding will be guided by the rounded cross-section of the front of the NC and by the round cross-section of the shoulder, so you should be able to craft an acceptable blend of the lines between without too much trouble.

Did that make any sense?

 

[powderburner]

I was looking again at the concepts for the skinny fairing on the extreme rear of the fuselage, and how the motor might be positioned.

For either of the two ideas shown I believe that the motor will end up too far forward and too far down--- the nozzle would be located pretty much in the geometric plane of the wing. The wing trailing edge (of the model) would then have to be severely notched to provide a path for rocket exhaust, and this would have a major 'visible' impact on the scale appearance.
Maybe that is not important and it could be done anyway?

Here's a wild idea: go ahead and put the rocket motors in the nacelles (yeah, I know the potential problems of asymmetric thrust) and duct the ejection charges to the centerline through some BT-5-sized tubing. The scale wing thickness on this monster needs to be pretty thick anyway, so run the tube along the mid-chord of the inboard wing and build up the rest of the wing to bury/cover the tube.

 

[Stymye]

rkt2k1,
I have been playing with rocksim
I figured out how to put pods outside and away from the main body tube!!!

you can space them way out ,If need be , this could work!!

I haven't figured out how to put cones on them yet

heres a pic of my experimental .rkt file

 

[Stymye]

heres one with nacelles on the wing

 

[Stymye]

rkt2k1,
I hope you don't mind ,I took the liberty of tinkering some with your Cruiser file .I incorperated what I learned about external pods
and aded 2) 24mm engine mounts to the wing.and than added a coweling to them .crude .but you can actually load 24mm engines in them.I didn't pay much attention to location .you can move them closer or further out

heres a screen shot

 

[Stymye]

here's the modified Rocksim file

 

[Stymye]

one more view from the rear

 

[Stymye]

heres a quick load up and fly experiment with 4) D12-7.(the center motor being staged.)and the results .

forgot to install the chute LOL

 

[sandman]

I've been working on and off on this with a lot of head scratching and chin rubbing.

Well, this was a challange and I have to make another set yet!

I think I might have it without wrecking any balsa so far.

I have a lot more finish sanding to do yet but I believe these are pretty close to the final shape.

The tailcone had to have a little "poetic licence" with it to accomodate a central 24mm motor tube.

The motor tube will be trimmed to extend all the way to the tip with the motor ending roughly at the base of the opening.

The motor tube is foil lined and I will leave the foil lining on the extended portion for support of the balsa and the foil lining should protect it from the exhaust...I hope.

Waddaya think?

sandman

 

[rstaff3]

IMHO, the cone looks great! The tail is harder to visualize. Can you insert a tube and take a shot from another angle? (not that I'm doubting your work, just can't see the contour in that pic)

 

[sandman]

How does this look?

The rough edges are the motor tube. I cut it roughly real quick for the pictue. I will clean it up later.

By the way the tail and nose cone are designed to fit a BT-70 2.218" in diameter.

sandman

 

[rstaff3]

Ack, I missed this post. The X-15 delta look awesome!

Originally posted by rkt2k1
Rstaff3,

The Duece-xl5 looks great! Thanks for letting me know that the X-15 rsim files are available on EMMR. I'm thinking of doing a X-15 Delta for my next project. This was a proposed next evolution of the aircraft. They also had plans for an orbital version of the X-15 before the project was canceled.

Here's an image of the X-15 Delta configuration:

 

[rstaff3]

Originally posted by sandman
How does this look?

The rough edges are the motor tube. I cut it roughly real quick for the pictue. I will clean it up later.

By the way the tail and nose cone are designed to fit a BT-70 2.218" in diameter.

sandman

Ahh, I didn't know the tube was there. That view is much better, thanks. This will be one coo looking bird!

 

[rkt2k1]

Stymye,

Your configuration changes to my original Rocksim file look awesome!! I just got my Rocksim "booster" CD yesterday and haven't had too much time to check it out. No problem at all with tinkering with the Rocksim file, that's why I posted it! Your nacelle mods look awesome!! I ran sims on my original without the chute too! LOL

Sandman,

The cones look great!! Beyond my expectations!! You are truely a craftsman. I'm really excited about having you, and the other TRF members, be a part of this project!

Thanks!

 

[airwolfe1]

Did this sonic cruiser ever fly?