something funny about Aerobee 300

[bobby_hamill]

The Aerobee 300 or sometimes called the Spaerobee has something funny about the transition section .
Looks like the Estes version of the Aerobee 300 transition section is a tad to long ?
It works out to the Estes Aerobee 300 transition section is 0.861 " to long

 

[bobby_hamill]

2 compare

 

[PeterAlway]

Looking at my drawing, I noticed that I only had an angle for the transition, and not an actual length. It's a 14.5-degree half angle cone, transitioning from 15" to 8". That's a 7" diameter difference, or a 3.5" radius difference, giving a taper length of 3.5" x Tan (90-14.5) = 3.5 x Tan (75.5) = 13.533" long. That's about 1 1/5 times longer than the length given in your source drawing (From a Vought document, which was one of my source drawings).

At first glance, the tapered section looks longer than the 15" diameter of the main sustainer stage, but if you look closely, the taper is a bit shorter than the "lighter black" section, which includes a wee bit of 9" cylinder. I don't remember where I found that taper angle, but it's closer to the Estes kit than that Vought drawing.

One of the weaknesses of that Vought report is that the photos are all cut out and pasted on a neutral background. The idea was to make them clearer, but it also makes them useless for measuring them for profile.

 

[bobby_hamill]

From NASA Publication


NASA Sounding Rockets 1958-1968
A Historical Summary NASA SP-4401
=============================================
# 6 Indicates Aerobee 300 or 300A

U = Experimenters Affiliation Code U indicates a College or University

I & A = Experiment Code

I = Ionospheric Physics

A= Aeronomy

Firing Sight Abbreviations

FC = Fort Churchill, Canada

WI = Wallops Island, Va

6.01 UI 16 March 1960 Fort Churchill, Canada

6.02 UI 15 June 1960 Fort Churchill, Canada

6.03 UI 3 August 1960 Wallops Island, Va

6.04 UI 26 March 1961 Wallops Island, Va

6.05 UI 22 December 1961 Wallops Island, Va

6.06 GA 20 November 1962 Wallops Island, Va

6.07 GA 18 April 1963 Wallops Island, Va

6.08 GI 20 July 1963 Wallops Island, Va

6.09 GA 29 January 1964 Wallops Island, Va

6.10 GA 28 July 1964 Fort Churchill, Canada

6.11 GA 20 March 1965 Wallops Island, Va

NOTE Assumption

Wallops Island, Va had a 4 rail launcher but no 3 rail launcher for the Aerobee 300
So The Fort Churchill, Canada launches should be of the Aerobee ( Spaerobee ) 300 Launches
And the Wallops Island, Va Launches should be of the Aerobee ( Spaerobee ) 300A Launches

Spaerobee was also known to be spelled as Sparrowbee

The publication referred to is attached below .

The 15 meg PDF file was to large to attach here

 

[bobby_hamill]

@ PeterAlway

Peter
I just found and downloaded a copy you wrote on the Aerobee 300 that was in the Upstate Rocketeer Jan/Feb Volume 8#1
Great article