RC Foam Board Rocket Glider

[kuehnx]

Hi all!

I joined the forum a little while back and I am now just getting around to making my first post. I come from an RC background so I thought the first thing I would do on here is share some video and pictures of an RC foam board rocket glider I recently built and have been flying

https://youtu.be/1zf6Eij-BE4

https://youtu.be/vqfMQpZJs9w

 

[aerostadt]

Nice looking model! Do you have any plans? What size motor does it use?

 

[rstaff3]

Do you have any further info on your motors? Just please don't post details on the propellant formula(s) as this is against forum rules.

 

[kuehnx]

Nice looking model! Do you have any plans? What size motor does it use?

Thanks! I don't have plans for this specific design. It was loosely based on a Flite Test design blown up to 200% of the original size and if you were to just built one per their original design but at that size it would fly comparable to mine I'm sure.

I used a LOC 29mm motor mount with an Estes 29mm retainer and it is currently flying on a prototype XAIR XR29 fully reusable rocket motor which as we're currently loading it is an F45 with very close performance to an Aerotech F50.

 

[kuehnx]

Do you have any further info on your motors? Just please don't post details on the propellant formula(s) as this is against forum rules.

Sure. This is quite a bit different from what I tried to do unsuccessfully awhile back with my 3D printed motor. This motor(as well as the other motors I'm currently working on) are fully reusable, but now meet Tripoli requirements so they could be flown by anyone who is L2 at a Tripoli research launch. I'm L1 right now and am rapidly working on getting my L2 rocket put together so I can get my certification and start flying these at Tripoli events.

I'm not sure how much detail I can go into given the rules of this forum, but just general information on this plane; it is a 29mm motor, uses 3.5 ounces of propellant, casing is 6061 T-6 aluminum, comparable specific impulse to Estes motors, this particular motor is an F45 as currently loaded, comparable total impulse to an Aerotech F50, has a progressive thrust curve, 1.6 sec burn time, and the cost per flight is about $1 to $2 depending on what you use as an initiator.

 

[rstaff3]

I picked up that it was 3-D printed from one of your videos (maybe not the ones posted, I have followed your channel). I was curious about the makeup of the motor hardware.

Once you are L2 and if you are here in the states, you can join the 'research' forum and post all about your motor work. In the meantime, please continue to post about your rockets.

 

[kuehnx]

I picked up that it was 3-D printed from one of your videos (maybe not the ones posted, I have followed your channel). I was curious about the makeup of the motor hardware.

Once you are L2 and if you are here in the states, you can join the 'research' forum and post all about your motor work. In the meantime, please continue to post about your rockets.

The hardware is very very simple. Once I get into the research forum it wouldn't surprise me much if someone has done this in the past/something similar as a one off, but maybe not in this specific way or with the intent to produce it. This motor is not 3D printed like the old one was, the prototypes are just built with off the shelf aluminum tube, but the production version will likely be a single piece that is done on a CNC lathe so the forward closure is integrated into the casing, that or it's possible it will be a few CNC pieces that get bonded to a standard piece of tube, yet to be decided. Other than it is a little simpler and utilized in a slightly different way the hardware isn't all that different from what you would find with Aerotech RMS hardware or Loki hardware, etc.

And thanks for the welcome! I'm probably going to be wandering over to the high power area shortly to see if I can get some advice on my HyperLOC 1600 setup for my L2.

 

[dixontj93060]

Very nice work!

 

[MaxQ]

Welcome aboard. You'll find some kindred spirits here.
Who was flying the camera drone in the first vid ?...that is a solid, stable platform there.

Nice project.

 

[kuehnx]

Welcome aboard. You'll find some kindred spirits here.
Who was flying the camera drone in the first vid ?...that is a solid, stable platform there.

Nice project.

My friend from work was flying the drone. He is Part 107 and does aerial photography and videography for local realtors part after he's done with his day job.

[video]https://youtu.be/MfRRuvzXcHQ[/video]

https://www.ascend-dynamics.com/

 

[kuehnx]

Had a rather spectacular flight last week with my rocket glider... Although it didn't leave the ground so I guess it can't really be called a flight.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B570Ble7IFPkeWk1WnBnMVc1Mlk/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B570Ble7IFPkelNVMVEzOXE4clE/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B570Ble7IFPkXy1RQUlrX1FNRlE/view?usp=sharing

 

[aerostadt]

What happened ?!

 

[kuehnx]

I was in a hurry when I was casting propellant and got a pretty substantial void in the grain... Completely my own fault and shouldn't have happened. The motor failed safely though as it was designed to do which was good. It just happened to shear off my bonded on thrust ring when it ejected the nozzle from the casing so the motor got shot up through the fuselage... Haha

 

[aerostadt]

I was in a hurry when I was casting propellant and got a pretty substantial void in the grain... Completely my own fault and shouldn't have happened. The motor failed safely though as it was designed to do which was good. It just happened to shear off my bonded on thrust ring when it ejected the nozzle from the casing so the motor got shot up through the fuselage... Haha

Interesting. Is it worth repairing? Sometimes I repair my rockets successfully, but it takes a lot time.

 

[kuehnx]

I'm going to build a new fuselage for it I think so it can be flown again. It isn't going to be pretty anymore with all of the charing on the wing, but it will fly again.