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One of my Holy Grail engineering challenges has been to get a booster that recovers by gliding. Since I am strictly a black powder low power staging guy (okay, maaaaaybeee I might stray to mid power, but I am definitely and proudly L-0!), and I enjoy long gap staging, recovery of the booster is challenging, as typical long boosters with no streamer or chute tend to convert to “Core Samplers” soon after staging, as the longer boosters tend to remain stable.
I have tried Estes Tiger Shark (which I think is the same as the Centuri Black Widow) and was somewhat underwhelmed with the booster glide performance, both with ground and flight testing.
typical Back Slider single stage rockets require extremely long length to diameter ratios, like 40 or 50 to 1 (to my knowledge, trying it on boosters hasn’t been attempted, please correct me if someone knows otherwise). I am thinking part of that may be because the weight of the nose cone, however light, tends to drag the nose down. Wondering if, since post staging the booster is Nose-Less, maaaaaybeeee can get away with shorter length.
also, normal Back Sliders (perhaps an oxymoron) have a forward puff port that throws the angle attach hopefully way off zero, like Horizontal Spin Rockets (in fact, I HAVE used horizontal spin for booster recovery and it works.) I am thinking that at staging the booster is likely “blown out of whack” with black powder staging, as it doesn’t have that much mass and the open forward tube probably has a lot of initial drag, since staging occurs at max V for the STACK (max V for sustainer may be lower or more likely higher, since it is starting at a decent velocity and has a fresh motor.)
maybe @Rktman , @Dotini @lakeroadster , or @PeterAlway might have some ideas.
I have tried Estes Tiger Shark (which I think is the same as the Centuri Black Widow) and was somewhat underwhelmed with the booster glide performance, both with ground and flight testing.
typical Back Slider single stage rockets require extremely long length to diameter ratios, like 40 or 50 to 1 (to my knowledge, trying it on boosters hasn’t been attempted, please correct me if someone knows otherwise). I am thinking part of that may be because the weight of the nose cone, however light, tends to drag the nose down. Wondering if, since post staging the booster is Nose-Less, maaaaaybeeee can get away with shorter length.
also, normal Back Sliders (perhaps an oxymoron) have a forward puff port that throws the angle attach hopefully way off zero, like Horizontal Spin Rockets (in fact, I HAVE used horizontal spin for booster recovery and it works.) I am thinking that at staging the booster is likely “blown out of whack” with black powder staging, as it doesn’t have that much mass and the open forward tube probably has a lot of initial drag, since staging occurs at max V for the STACK (max V for sustainer may be lower or more likely higher, since it is starting at a decent velocity and has a fresh motor.)
maybe @Rktman , @Dotini @lakeroadster , or @PeterAlway might have some ideas.