V-2 Nose Cone Upgrade

[Paul Howard]

Since packing the parachute has been somewhat of a struggle, I decided to finally do something about it that I've been thinking about for a long time. I may do this with some other plastic nose cones as well.

Sorry for the out of order upload of pictures but I think you get the idea. "JB Kwik" was used on on both above and below the "Lite-Ply" disk and was heated on the radiator to get it to full end-cure faster and harder.

The end result is a nice roomier rocket for the parachute and "parachute bucket".

Not my best paint job (acrylic paints brushed on) but it's easy to find.

Also, I filed circumferentially around the unpainted white plastic base for easier in-and-out and surer ejection.

The "parachute bucket" is cut from a yogurt cup that has lasted well for probably 5 years with a lot of launches. I stuff recovery wadding into the 24mm motor mount extension tube under the "parachute bucket" (and above the motor) and everything now fits better and works great.

 

[bjphoenix]

I did that exact thing to the nose cone in my Big Daddy after all the talk about lawn darts. My 2.6" diameter V2 is marginal for fitting the chute in it. I use a nomex chute protector otherwise there would not be enough room for wadding.

 

[Paul Howard]

Yeah, I know you mean about cramped space in a 2.6" V-2!

I also saw the Big Daddy nose-modification and was inspired to do my mod from that posting.

The parachute bucket is made from the small yogurt cup and works great -just "pull test" and "poof test" (blow through the motor mount) repeatedly to make sure it won't get stuck on anything. I figured out that I can put wadding or dog-barf into the top of the motor mount above the motor and not taking up space between the bulkhead and the bottom of the parachute bucket for extra insurance for the parachute. I install the wadding/dog-barf from the top of the tube and use a dowel (that's part of my launch gear) to corral it into the top of the motor mount. By doing this, I can add that much more burn protection for the Kevlar attached to an eyelet screw (with an added "base" opposite side) on top of the motor mount bulkhead that I made out of plywood (or "Lite-Ply") and keep it out of the initial flame-blast of the ejection charge.

Doing the nose-cone modification gave me the room I always wanted but never had in there and now I can easily put my big 24" nylon fabric chute in or Two 18" chutes, fabric or sheet-plastic (crowds love 2 chutes even more than the big 24" chute). I even have room for more wadding if I want to.

Overall I'm quite pleased with this modification on the V-2.