THE_RED_BARON77

Has anyone ever tried to strap rockets to there rc plane and the take off with there assistance, if so lease tell me ow you did it, pics and video would be a great help,, building a scale c130 like the ble angel Fat Albert, and need rockets tohelp me get off te ground!!

derek_lee_alby

hey there red baron...I've never done this before myself however I do remember reading a website about two brothers I believe that built a home-made rc plane out of stripped 2X4's and put a weed eater engine on it...they then put model rockets on top of the plane to launch as missiles(not a really good idea but the assured everybody they launched them in the middle of a giant cornfield somewhere). Anyway, when they went to fly it the added wait was to much and it was difficult to get it in the air. That's when the decided to add the JATO(Jet Assisted Take-Off). I believe they used 6 D size model rocket motors which can be bought at almost any hobby shop. I'm not sure how they ignited the motors but I think they used some battery's. Anyway, you could probably find more information on it if you just did a yahoo search for the website. I'm not sure what the address is but I know they called it the Weed Whacker Plane. It was quite a while back when I saw this website so lemme know what you find out. Also lemme know what you do and I'd really like to see some pictures when your done!!! Or even video if you have that capability!!!



Derek Lee

Carl.E

I put a D-size motor on a .15-size Lanier Shrike a few years ago. It was for an in-flight speed boost though, not for take-off...should work about the same though. You can modify an old servo motor controller board to be an electronic switch that uses the receiver battery for igniting the rockets. I didn't take any pics of my setup, though sorry! What size rockets do you plan on using?

Carl

kriegsmacht

My Feedback: (12)

Something like this on the 5th channel?

biteme

You might try looking in the sailplane sections, I have heard some of those are rocket take off, rather than being towed or bungied. Sean

50+AirYears

You might check the Flying Models plan site. They may still sell the plans for a model they ran sometime in the late 60s or early 70s that was designed around a 16 to 25 glow engine and used a C or D size rocket engine for a RATO take off. Aviation Modeler International also has a couple RPBG scale designs like the German V-1 Buzz Bomb and the Japanese Okha(Misnamed the Baka) rocket bomb. If you have extra channels, an electronic switch like Tower sells could be used to fire off the rocket engines. They sound great for today's plugged motors or for some of the composite reloadables with a plug in them instead of the ejection charge.
The old American Modeler magazine had an article on people firing rockets from planes. That got stopped after some injurioes and property damage. If you try it today, just remember that if anything unfortunate happens, The AMA insurance WILL reject any claim you put in since this is specifically against the safety code, maybe any other insurance you put a claim with will do the same, and lately there seems to be a rash of homeowners insurance companies dropping people after a claim filing of any kind, whether or not a pay-out is made.

ptulmer

My Feedback: (5)

Remember that the Estes engines only last three seconds at the most. Check out my "Blast-off Buzzard" thread over in the 1/2a forum for some good info on igniting the engine. Make sure you use the glider engines so you don't have a charge to pop the chute! D11-P and E9-P

jmupilot

Myself and a friend used rocket assist takeoff to get an under powered Telemaster40 to take off with a flying model of the space shuttle on top. He had 3 c size Estes rocket motors mounted on the belly of the Telemaster. On take off roll he would light the motors with a set up like some one in this thread posted above. The 3 motors would generate enough thrust to get the rig airborne. It was a slow climb after the motors quit but it did get us off the ground. The Telemaster 40 would roll down the grass runway at full power and would rotate but not leave the ground with out the rocket assist. We have videos of a few flights, I'll ask rryman to see if he can post them here. Oh yeah, we even used booster engines so that they would fire and after we got airborne they would light the second stage engine to really get us going.

Dang I'm gonna have to get that shuttle dusted off and fly it again sometime. We did this 15 years ago before micro flight packs, bet I could save quite a bit on weight now. I had a mechanical mixing device in the shuttle and standard servos and Rx and battery.

I'll ty and find some photo's to scan and post.

Pete

secretspy

a friend of mine used a speed control to ignite a rocket on a slow-stick. just hook up the leads of the rochet igniter to the leads of the speed control. another friend did the same thing on a spaceship-one he built, but had problems with it igniting prematurely because of a little radio interference. its less complicated than the servo method (no moving parts), but a little higher risk if you don't have a good receiver and speed control.

kriegsmacht

My Feedback: (12)

Here's something at Tower Hobbies that makes my drawing and all mechanical switches obsolete.

[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXBJD7&P=7]Switch[/link]

Now thats cutting edge. Soft start and everything.

ptulmer

My Feedback: (5)

That idea has been around awhile. Check out the "opto-isolated e-switch". The soft start has me wondering. Using an ESC on the fifth channel gives you a switch for a throttle lever. Should be instant on...(I think!) I've already got an ESC, so that's what I plan on trying first. BTW, the e-switch is used on the "Ladyhawk". A largish boost glider. Also, it only needs two 50mah Nicd's to fire off. The lower internal resistance of the Nicd's will put as much power out as four alkalines!

http://www.emsjomar.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=6