Wakeboard fins for rockets?

[Ozymandias]

Here's some food for thought. Why not use wakeboard fins for rocket fins? They are G-10 and have a perfect airfoil shape. Wouldn't these look cool on a rocket?

 

[wyldbill]

cool idea. Who makes/stocks them? What are costs like?

 

[GL-P]

Prolly pretty expensive. You could make much cheaper fins. Would be cool just 4 fun tho

 

[Neil]

Looks like the root edges arent quite straight though... That could make things difficult. They are proabably curved to fit better to the board...

 

[Ozymandias]

Originally posted by Neil
Looks like the root edges arent quite straight though... That could make things difficult. They are proabably curved to fit better to the board...

No one ever said they are a direct fit. That would be boring!

 

[edwardw]

I called a local store in town and they have some in stock. They have flat edges and are airfoiled. He said they were about 12" long and 4" wide. $6 apiece. Not bad, and plus from a landlocked state of Colorado.

Edward

 

[wyldbill]

Who did you call, Ed? At that price, I might use 'em for an upcoming project....

-bill

 

[Stymye]

very good idea Oz... !.. and a little time at the sander would solve the curve issue. definately worth looking into.

 

[Neil]

you could always turn a custom boattail for em...

 

[dave carver]

you gotta find a way to keep those graphics...

 

[OccamMD]

they should have some smaller ones as well, the ones on my board are about 6" long

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by Ozymandias
Here's some food for thought. Why not use wakeboard fins for rocket fins? They are G-10 and have a perfect airfoil shape. Wouldn't these look cool on a rocket?

d00d! Awesome idea!

After a bit of research, it looks like kiteboard fins are more to our typical sizes, though some wakeboard fins would be good too.

Check out Tracker fins from
https://www.omnitech-engineering.com/
$4.59 each + $2.00 shipping for up to 4 fins.

You could slice off the screw posts for surface mount, or use them as the basis for attaching a tab for TTW.

I've request info from a couple manufacturers.

 

[Ozymandias]

Originally posted by DynaSoar
d00d! Awesome idea!

After a bit of research, it looks like kiteboard fins are more to our typical sizes, though some wakeboard fins would be good too.

Check out Tracker fins from
https://www.omnitech-engineering.com/
$4.59 each + $2.00 shipping for up to 4 fins.

You could slice off the screw posts for surface mount, or use them as the basis for attaching a tab for TTW.

I've request info from a couple manufacturers.

The fins I posted are technically "wakeboard style" kiteboard fins. There's a kiteboarding club here at ERAU and one of the guys has the black Cabrinha fins on his board. That's where I got the idea.

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by Ozymandias
The fins I posted are technically "wakeboard style" kiteboard fins. There's a kiteboarding club here at ERAU and one of the guys has the black Cabrinha fins on his board. That's where I got the idea.

Check out the thread in "Scratch Built". True Ames is thinking of making rocket fins.

 

[Ozymandias]

Here's some more fins I found. These are made by True Ames. I've done some research on these and they are very interesting. It looks like there's all kinds of technology out there we can find a new application for. It's like the first rocketeers who saw the concrete forms at the hardware store and thought "rocket!".

 

[GL-P]

I like the kitesurfing fins from True Ames!

https://www.trueames.com/xkitesurfing.htm

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by GL-P
I like the kitesurfing fins from True Ames!

Chuck Ames was the only one of the manufacturers to answer my inquiry as to whether they'd be interested in selling to another market, and maybe making some other designs.

He told me to fax him some designs. I did, and even wrote him several pages on what our most common fin shapes are and why.

In the mean time I'm going to try out the 2" flat top Tracker from Omni-Tech and the 2.5" A-TAC from Rainbow. I think they'll go great with composite tubes.