Small X-15 R/C rocket glider kit?

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I really enjoy flying these RGā€™s none of them fly the same they all have a personality of there own.This X-15 is a pocket rocket no pun intended šŸ˜ƒ its fast and smooth flyer need to carry speed on approach to get a nice soft landing.
 
Dave Schaefer put in the first flight on his X-15 at the SMALL model aircraft event in Little Rock on Friday. Excellent boost on a SU D10, great flight, landed on the grass runway. Was awesome!

Here is a pic of the X-15 boosting, just off the rail on that flight, from the RC Groups event thread. Photo by my friend Fitz Walker. Dave Schaefer on the left flying, and videographer Kim Stricker on the right. Kim videoed all of the RC RG flights and links will be posted when available.

Dave and I had a great RC RG day, with each of us putting in three RC RG flights.
There was a LOT of low power model rocket activity at this rocket friendly model airplane event. I bet there were at least 40-45 launches over the last three days.

I traded with Dave for his other 2.6ā€ X-15 kit....:)
 

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I'm so glad he finally got to fly it and that you will have one now too. I put in two flights yesterday on mine in high wind and it's still a lot of fun, those d24 boosts really scoot.

Dave Schaefer put in the first flight on his X-15 at the SMALL model aircraft event in Little Rock on Friday. Excellent boost on a SU D10, great flight, landed on the grass runway. Was awesome!

Here is a pic of the X-15 boosting, just off the rail on that flight, from the RC Groups event thread. Photo by my friend Fitz Walker. Dave Schaefer on the left flying, and videographer Kim Stricker on the right. Kim videoed all of the RC RG flights and links will be posted when available.

Dave and I had a great RC RG day, with each of us putting in three RC RG flights.
There was a LOT of low power model rocket activity at this rocket friendly model airplane event. I bet there were at least 40-45 launches over the last three days.

I traded with Dave for his other 2.6ā€ X-15 kit....:)
 
Here is my white scheme, I added panel lines but was still a bit plain so did a reversed marking scheme and I think it pops, even if not scale...did save weight overall without paint.
IMG_20210930_161209303_2.jpgIMG_20210930_161330152_2 (1).jpgIMG_20210930_161519076_2.jpg
 
You can't retrofit an existing one it would have to be a modified kit made for the 24 mm with an adapter if you wanted. I wasn't planning on doing it in general because I think it's a bit of a handful for most folks but if somebody with flying skills I trusted wanted one I could certainly do it. I just don't want people to get my kids and then destroy them on the first flight and be disappointed that's no fun.

Frank are you going to make a Mod kit to convert existing X-15 or buy a kit made with the Mod?
 
Good Morning Frank
I was wondering if it was a simple MOD. I understand itā€™s powerful now I can understand the possibility of someone thatā€™s not proficient could get in trouble real quick Thanks for the info. On another note I got asked by my r/c club to bring some of my RGā€™s out to do a demo for a Boy Scouts. So I brought all the ones I had built. I had the boys push the lunch button and pick six of the ones they wanted to see fly. It was a great afternoon! Several of them fly R/C planes there parents asked where to get them I gave them your web site so hopefully Iā€™ll some RG buddies šŸ˜œ
 
Right on, I think rgs make the best demos. If you could harden the end of a piece of 24mm tube with ca and sand it to a sharp edge you might be able to twist and ream out the 18mm tube and glue a 24mm tube in then rebalance. You need to get it fairly straight. You'll need about 20 percent more up trim. If you haven't built the model yet, you need to take about 3 mm off each side of the motor slot add off the fin tab and the motor tab.

Good Morning Frank
I was wondering if it was a simple MOD. I understand itā€™s powerful now I can understand the possibility of someone thatā€™s not proficient could get in trouble real quick Thanks for the info. On another note I got asked by my r/c club to bring some of my RGā€™s out to do a demo for a Boy Scouts. So I brought all the ones I had built. I had the boys push the lunch button and pick six of the ones they wanted to see fly. It was a great afternoon! Several of them fly R/C planes there parents asked where to get them I gave them your web site so hopefully Iā€™ll some RG buddies šŸ˜œ
 
I do have a second kit that I was going to give to my friend I could build that for me with the big motor and give him the one I have been flying šŸ˜ƒšŸ˜œšŸ‘
 
I have released a 24mm mount version of this kit, it is for advanced R/C flyers due to the much higher boost altitude on an E-6 motor(easier to get confused about orientation) and the higher glide wing loading which is less forgiving of piloting mistakes, cost and instructions are identical just the mmt size.
 
I decided to give the little X-15 a torture test on 30 D-24 motors, took about an hour and a half loading two cases at a time, handled it beautifully...It's now got over 50 flights on it.
 
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On the way back from LDRS I stopped at the Mike Adams memorial to pay my respects and take a few photos with my 1/21 scale X-15 that now has over 60 flights. Tail number 66672 had 65 flights, 66671 had 53 flights and 66670 had 81 flights, I might try to match 81 total flights since my bird is "70" :)

286919235_1102223427080966_4612719159721909160_n.jpg
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I can't tell you the giddiness I feel every time I fly this x-15 that was a boyhood dream of mine. The fast straight boost the transition to glide the way it looks so real turning base to final and that nose high flare just like the real thing. Here she is on the runway after flight number 76.289781541_1113240759312566_5063909675089697970_n.jpg
 
I've completed flight number 81 on tail number 66670 and flight 53 on 66671 so those missions/airframes are complete and matching the real X-15 flight counts. I'm on flight number 17 on tail number 66672, targeting 48 more to make 65 total to complete my 199 total X-15 flights. These are using D-13 which I prefer now as you get more fire and smoke and a little higher altitude than the D-24's.

Some flights today on X-15 # 66672 using D-13 white lighting
 
I just completed my 199th RC x15 rocket plane flight, matching the number of actual flights that the real aircraft flew. This was done over several months with three aircraft each modeling one of the tail numbers and having the identical number of flights on each tail number. Of course I was wearing my Accutron astronaut, buzz aldrin edition, the official watch of x-15 pilots. And yes the final flight landed right on the center of the runway. I have over a hundred more x-15 flights on five more aircraft that I built over the years.IMG_20220718_082931013.jpgIMG_20220718_082734961.jpgIMG_20220718_082956820.jpgIMG_20220718_082656090.jpg
 
And a couple more showing the post landing last flights on each airframe, the photo before flight 199, a photo of all three airframes and me loading motors.Frank Burke X-15 Project -1119.jpgFrank Burke X-15 Project -5862.jpgFrank Burke X-15 Project -5890.jpg66670-85thFlight.jpg66671-53rdFlight.jpg66672-65th-199thFinalFlight.jpg66672ReadyForFinal199thFlight.jpgX15Group.jpgX-15InternalConstructionOpenRocketSim.jpg
 
I revisited the 24mm version this week, built another, right under 9 oz rtf using a E-6, I was able to move the CG for launch back another half an inch and it had a pretty decent glide, right at 55 seconds after burnout consistently over 6 flights.
 
I did a further optimization, by adding 4 grams of 8" extensions, I was able to move both the rx and battery forward about 4 inches, which allowed me to remove about .3 ounces of nose weight getting me well under the 8.8 oz limit for drone registration and RFID requirements:) Now I'm at 8.68 ounces rtf with reload and battery with the 24mm E-6.

Frank
 
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