Thales Starstreak build

[BrendanH69]

Started the fin repair today.
Used the Dremel to sand down the broken fin stump and rout out a new groove down about 8mm into the fin can and old fin stub. Drilled lots of shallow holes for "epoxy rivets" when new fin is made and fixed in place.
Made up some new fin sheet material - 3mm plywood with 3 layers of 135g/sq.m F/Glass cloth on each side. Vacuum bagged it with the food saver same as last time and will let it cure for a week before cutting the replacement fin from it.

 

[DrewW]

The smoke trails look like the Devil's fingers!

that sounds like it could be the name of your next rocket

 

[BrendanH69]

that sounds like it could be the name of your next rocket

Hi Drew, how's your Starstreak coming together? Had any more quality build time lately?

 

[DrewW]

@BrendanH69
Not recently, been very busy with work, but I only have one other project on the bench right now. So at least I’m not drowning in active projects like I was before. Hoping to be back on it in the next week or so

 

[Mvrck Studios]

You could use fins a bit more like these for more stability over longer burning motors like the I59-WN

 

[Ez2cDave]

View attachment 513736
You could use fins a bit more like these for more stability over longer burning motors like the I59-WN

Then, it CEASES to be a SCALE model . . .

Dave F.

 

[DrewW]

View attachment 513736View attachment 513737
You could use fins a bit more like these for more stability over longer burning motors like the I59-WN

I mean I could, but then it wouldn't really be a scale project anymore. I show plenty of stability in the normal configuration with rectangular fins. Also, as has been pointed out somewhere along the way the desire isn't to send this thing super high. In order to recover the hittiles, it makes a lot of sense to minimize the altitude at which they launch 200-400 ft lets say. Also, an I59 doesn't have enough impulse to give a safe velocity off a normal 8ft rail. At least not in my configuration.

 

[Mvrck Studios]

True

 

[DrewW]

True

But for the sake of making something that is your own @Mvrck Studios , you may very well want to do exactly as you laid out. If that's the case, go for it, and I'll eagerly watch your build/results.

 

[BrendanH69]

Got a little bit of inspiration for flip out fin solutions for the Starstreak from a Falcon Heavy project which referenced Apogee's article on this topic in POF issue 313.

https://www.apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/Newsletter313.pdf

 

[DrewW]

I finally have a two piece body tube with a fit I’m not completely disappointed in. Too much time being spent away from home lately, but starting to make some progress again.

 

[DrewW]

Alright, I now have a full scale length bus tube at 81% scale. Realized I didn't have the tube size I wanted for the fin can in my large and growing supply of tubes, and then found the I had a shipping tube in the corner of the workshop that was the perfect size. Looking to getting some wood cut down to size for various internal bits. Hoping a nearby friend will laser cut some of those pieces for me.

 

[BrendanH69]

Watched this on youtube today - Starstreak Missile is scary

A couple of the video clips show other missiles, and many clips are made from videos we've posted earlier in this thread. Still quite good though.

 

[BrendanH69]

Progressed the repairs - painted the new fin and fillets, plus the new forward ring. Then I made a little blast shield out of a $2 stainless steel thin wall camping mug.

 

[BrendanH69]

Finished making and fitting the three little stainless steel blast shields onto the upper stage of the Thales Starstreak to reduce further scorching of the F/Glass transition.

Added 21g to the weight! Had to drill a tiny 2mm hole for the kevlar retainer chord guide to poke through the blast plate, plus a 5mm hole for the e-match to pass through from inside the fwd transition.

 

[BrendanH69]

Good close-up view of the Starstreak darts at the 4:24 point in this video. Only last a couple of seconds but good.

 

[BrendanH69]

And another one. This time check out the1:20 point in the video as it shows a good close-up of the fin can area. Do I detect a little fin cant there for spin generation??

 

[BigMacDaddy]

Great thread and build. Learned a ton from your experience.

Where did you get dimensions? Did you find any diagrams or specifications / measurements for the whole system? I can find dart dimensions, overall dimensions, and some other things but no full diagrams. I can measure but figured I would ask.

 

[Ez2cDave]

 

[BrendanH69]

Great thread and build. Learned a ton from your experience.

Where did you get dimensions? Did you find any diagrams or specifications / measurements for the whole system? I can find dart dimensions, overall dimensions, and some other things but no full diagrams. I can measure but figured I would ask.

There are only a few reported dimensions that could be generally relied on, and those were for the Hittiles (darts). Reported length is 396mm and dart body diameter of 22mm.
I then had to decide on motor mount and body tube sizes that I could get for the darts and needed to scale the rest to those. So, using various photos such as the great ones Ez2cDave just posted, I basically I "reverse estimeered" all my other dimensions from those photos to get close approximations to the all the other dimensions until it basically looked right.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

There are only a few reported dimensions that could be generally relied on, and those were for the Hittiles (darts). Reported length is 396mm and dart body diameter of 22mm.
I then had to decide on motor mount and body tube sizes that I could get for the darts and needed to scale the rest to those. So, using various photos such as the great ones Ez2cDave just posted, I basically I "reverse estimeered" all my other dimensions from those photos to get close approximations to the all the other dimensions until it basically looked right.


View attachment 577330

Thank you very much for sharing this.... I was hoping that you had found some secret document with all the scale measurements...