Yeah, there was no Estes PSII Nike-X but there should of been. I've decided to build one. It may not be a perfect replica, but going for close as reasonable. I'm not done designing, so some ideas and input are more than welcome before I start any kind of assembly.
The base of the build is 2.5" diameter PSII tubing and their 2.5" nose cone. The nose cone is not the correct profile, but there's a few reasons I chose this. A BT80-sized balsa nose cone with the correct profile was ~$35, and other BT-80 cones were too short. This cone is 10" long (not counting shoulder) and the scale-up would put a nose cone around 10.3" for this tubing (10.5" or so if using BT80). So this was really a nice way to go with it, IM
HO. The 2.5" tubing is a lot beefier than normal BT-80 so this should be more durable. With the above parts, I have 8" long 29mm motor tubes and threaded retainers on-hand, so that will be used. I plan to use 1/8" birch ply for the aft fin set, and 1/8" balsa for the front and mid set. All fins left square in my sims for now. I'm not an altitude junkie. Got a 24" nylon chute and various grades of kevlar and elastic cord to use for slowing it down before it hits the ground, so I should be set there. I'll be making my own centering rings like I did for my 3" Goblin project.
Now, the fun part I'm noodling on, and this is where any input is welcome, is how to handle the body coupling and separation at ejection. The length of BT from Estes came in 15.5" long pieces. I need about 34.3" of body tube. So, there's a 3.3" chunk of it in there somewhere. I have two 4" long couplers. One I've initially designed to be a baffle. In the attached OR file, I've got the short chunk of BT in the middle, BT-55 stuffer up to the rear coupler, then the front coupler would house a baffle.
With a baffle, I could pop the nose cone like normal or I could make this zipperless. I'm not too sure on zipperless. I don't know if I trust this lighter, lower inertia, stuff to actually ensure the laundry gets pulled out of the tube. But, it is a viable option from what I've read. Or, I could forget the baffle and run the stuffer up further and nomex blanket the recovery gear...and even that could be zipperless...right? I've also thought to cut two tubes down, and make it so a coupler is in front of the front centering ring, adding support/strength and really giving this the ability to fly harder hitting motors with less worry. Can still do stuffer/bafffle. Heck, I think I could even make a payload bay with this pile of parts and shrink the area for the ejection charge to fill that way. What would fellow TRF'ers do to make for reliable flights?
Thanks for any input, and as I build, I'll turn this into a build thread. Should be a fun one.
Current OR Screenshot
NC
Two 4" long couplers.
three 15.5" long body tubes
The base of the build is 2.5" diameter PSII tubing and their 2.5" nose cone. The nose cone is not the correct profile, but there's a few reasons I chose this. A BT80-sized balsa nose cone with the correct profile was ~$35, and other BT-80 cones were too short. This cone is 10" long (not counting shoulder) and the scale-up would put a nose cone around 10.3" for this tubing (10.5" or so if using BT80). So this was really a nice way to go with it, IM
HO. The 2.5" tubing is a lot beefier than normal BT-80 so this should be more durable. With the above parts, I have 8" long 29mm motor tubes and threaded retainers on-hand, so that will be used. I plan to use 1/8" birch ply for the aft fin set, and 1/8" balsa for the front and mid set. All fins left square in my sims for now. I'm not an altitude junkie. Got a 24" nylon chute and various grades of kevlar and elastic cord to use for slowing it down before it hits the ground, so I should be set there. I'll be making my own centering rings like I did for my 3" Goblin project.
Now, the fun part I'm noodling on, and this is where any input is welcome, is how to handle the body coupling and separation at ejection. The length of BT from Estes came in 15.5" long pieces. I need about 34.3" of body tube. So, there's a 3.3" chunk of it in there somewhere. I have two 4" long couplers. One I've initially designed to be a baffle. In the attached OR file, I've got the short chunk of BT in the middle, BT-55 stuffer up to the rear coupler, then the front coupler would house a baffle.
With a baffle, I could pop the nose cone like normal or I could make this zipperless. I'm not too sure on zipperless. I don't know if I trust this lighter, lower inertia, stuff to actually ensure the laundry gets pulled out of the tube. But, it is a viable option from what I've read. Or, I could forget the baffle and run the stuffer up further and nomex blanket the recovery gear...and even that could be zipperless...right? I've also thought to cut two tubes down, and make it so a coupler is in front of the front centering ring, adding support/strength and really giving this the ability to fly harder hitting motors with less worry. Can still do stuffer/bafffle. Heck, I think I could even make a payload bay with this pile of parts and shrink the area for the ejection charge to fill that way. What would fellow TRF'ers do to make for reliable flights?
Thanks for any input, and as I build, I'll turn this into a build thread. Should be a fun one.
Current OR Screenshot
NC
Two 4" long couplers.
three 15.5" long body tubes
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