DICKEYBIRD

This is a pic of the D12-9 Estes rocket powered delta I built back in the middle 80's for club fly-ins and airshows. Sorry 'bout the fuzzy quality but I think you get the gist of it. The intrepid launch guy is Joe McClure....he's probably thinking "What the heck am I doing here!!"

It had onboard ignition for the rocket plus 2 channel elevon control. We took it up piggy backed on a Telemaster, released it at altitude, dove down to 20 ft. or so, pulled up vertical and powered up the rocket for a spectacular launch back up to altitude for a deadstick glide & landing....great fun!

The pic shows a water take-off at one of the the club's float fly-ins. I cobbled up some foam floats and stuck them on with double sided tape. It worked great!

phuffstatler

My Feedback: (20)

D-powered! Wow, bet that was spectacular....

phil in austin

DICKEYBIRD

Yup, it was pretty neat, but since it weighed a little under 9 oz., about the time it began to pick up some real speed, the rocket burned out! It would've been REALLY cool if it had the same thrust for about twice as long! With modern radio equip., I could probably do one now with the same functions and at least 2 oz. less weight.

Of course if I did one now the FBI would grab me for making some kind of terrorist missile.

jason_ices

i interesting about how to activate the rocket ! How to do that?? what we need for all that ? What material we use for the combution system ? What kind of rocket engine and how long can they burning? This is very interesting subject for 1/2 A !!!!

kgough

You are in luck. The new Estes E-9-P is the same diameter as the D engine, with less peak thrust, and longer duration.
And it is specially made with no ejection charge for gliders.

I used the E-9-6 on an 8-oz glider and it worked great.

Ken

jason_ices

do u have the pic. where can i get it?? what is the cost? i really know nothing about that engine. Can u tell me more. Thanks. Opss ! It's this type engine dangerous?

BMatthews

Dang it. I've been comtemplating doing an inflight activated rocket plane for the past few years. I thought I had something original and now I find out you beat me to it by quite a bit, from the looks of the pic.

It would still be super good fun though.

DICKEYBIRD

The inflight ignition was pretty simple actually. I used a servo actuated microswitch connected to the throttle channel. The flight battery was a 9V (6 cell) NiCd pack. I tapped onto 4 cells for the radio rcvr. and used all 6 for the momentary power needed to ignite a standard Estes "Solar" ignitor, the little pigtail gizmo with the tiny pyro blob at the end. I stuffed the ignitor up the engine's nozzle and held it in with tissue paper. I had some small alligator clips attached to the rear to attach the ignitor leads to. It never failed to ignite! Only problem I had was one time the motor exploded just after spindr handlaunched it....BOOM!....it blew off the whole tail assy.....and permanently stained his best Sunday skivvies!

WINANS

Launching anything other than in a near vertical orientation is expressly frowned upon my the model rocket organizations (NAR).

I have heard of people utilizing electronic speed controllers for that purpose.

Lynn S

I read a thread about the delta rocket plane from estes on another board and it is back in production.

ajcoholic

My Feedback: (10)

In one of my older RCM's there is a great article on a RATO Goldberg Falcon. The dude put an estes engine in a pod under the belly and lit it off while taking off, and the falcon got off pretty quick!

They used to use a 9V battery to ignite an old camera flash bulb that was taped to a piece of fuse. Now, with the high power a small nicad can deliver, even a bent piece of nichrome wire and a pair of 2000mah cells will easily ignite a rocket motor.

I fooled around a lot (maybe too much!) with model rockets in high school. The only thing is the cost, low run time per engine!

AJC

fastlash

My Feedback: (7)

I can see a JATO assist in my 1/2a pylon racer in the near future???

BMatthews

I suspect you'll find that they were specifically targeting free flight rockets. The intent was to avoid launching unguided scale Sparrows and stuff from radio models. The results would have been disasterous as you can imagine. For radio guided models it's just another power option and as such has much in common with an uncontrolled engine running until the fuel runs out.

Of course I'm not the AMA or MAAC lawyer so what do I know....

kgough

RocketWing prelaunch jitters.

Ken

kgough

Gone in a heartbeat!

Ken

PCARROLL

You guys ned to go to www.tripolitulsa.org If you really wnat to see some bigger rockets. The guys from dallas built a 10ft long x30 space plane with r/c glider recovery. You can see it at
http://www.dars.org

PCARROLL

Here is an image of the big X30

PCARROLL

Here it is at launch

kgough

It's a good thing the thread is titled "not really 1/2 A"

'cause that thing is REALLY not really 1/2 A !

Especially by the rocketry definition of 1/2 A

Ken