Turbine powered space shuttle
 

Years ago I scratch built this space shuttle. I put an air start Mercury in it for power. I only attempted to fly it once many years ago. When I installed the landing gear they were set to have the shuttle sit on the ground with a negative AOA, like the real one. For the test flight I made a nose gear extension that was to fall away upon liftoff. What happened was on the take off run the nose got light but it wasn't at flying speed and the extension fell away. The extension broke and jammed under the fuse knocking a big hole in the bottom, skewing the shuttle off the runway and ripping the nose gear out. I was really bummed so I took everything home and put it on a shelf where it has been sitting for the past 5 or so years. I got a little motivation to take on the challenge again for this flying season and maybe see if I can get it in the air. I had an old PCM radio in it witch I don't even have any more. I used to share my buddy's scuba tank and support equipment which all ran through a nine port plug. I want to eliminate all that and try starting it manually. The engine is accessible so it shouldn't be a problem. I just need to refresh my memory on how to have it recognize a new radio. Then I will watch Dr. Hondas video on manually starting a turbine a few more times. I am thinking of making a cradle for the tale off attempt this time. Anyways I'll post the progress between this and the 1/6 scale Vigilante. We should wind up with a video of something happening. Either it will fly or I will end up with more room in the garage.

Keep us informed,,ould love to see this flying.

Skunkworks in your own backyard Ronnie... I could tell you, but then I would have to .... you know.... :eek:


Danno

Rather than a cradle, how about a bungee or catapult launch?

They make nosegear struts that extend and compress with air so that can solve the the issue, BVM has it on their F4s so that's a start.

Looks cool!

Boli

Ihave a new one I wont be using. PM me if interested.

Ronnie, Kevin Whitlow and myself were involved in a shuttle project a few years back that had a P200 installed. It was huge. A few attempts were made to get it airborne but it never made it because of various issues. One of the issues was that the builder used nylon bushings on the wheels and they melted on the take off roll and never got off the ground. We tried to do the maiden at the Clifton Airport north of Waco. I think there were three tries to get it airborne and the project was shelved.
Nasa wanted it to display it. Not sure where it is now..

I thought about a catapult launch. But I am not sure how or even if it is going to fly. Even though I piggy back launched its little brother glider a hundred times successfully. So launching a turbine at full power on the first attempt started to seem like not such a good Idea. After I know it flies a catapult would be a cool thing. I was given the suggestion of installing an additional longer nose gear but I didn't want to complicate things…………Thanks for the offer on the extendable strut……….. I want to try getting it in the air as is, so I am leaning toward the dolly. If I can find the extension I made I will post a pic. of it. It is around here somewhere broken in two pieces. I engineered it to come off to easy. Hey Bob how big was the shuttle with the P 200 in it? I also had a dream of making a huge one after this one flew, but the Idea stopped when this one didn't get off the ground. Its not hard to scale mine up. everything is foam cut except for the nose.

Bob'o,

I guess I will have to "Take care" of you too !!! :)

D

Good Luck!! It is a very unique project!

Joe I think the dolly should look like the main lift off rackets this will look so cool ,it should have own radio and rx for stearin for the spotter to ster when on the ground .

That would be really cool, especially if there were two rockets in it pushing it down the runway. we'll put that idea in a file with the catapult idea. I was thinking of putting a plug on the bottom of the shuttle for the dolly steering servo to plug into and just have it unplug at liftoff.

Some Pix?

Or maybe let's try longer runway than the 300' back there and smother to.but the rocket power dolly will be the hit of all.

You can see in the pix how the model sits with and with out the extension. Without the extension the model is a little more neutral on the AOA than the full scale. The short nose strut and the mains so far behind the CG are all designed for landing and not taking off. Once everything touches they wanted it staying on the ground. There is some runway rash on the broken extension. Back when I built this I made an extra nose to build a fleet of them. I even made a mold to lay up some engine bells. they are a little big and they are tail weight which it doesn't need.

Just instal small main wheels and bigger to the front this might help .

Vladimir machine 6 aluminum hubs to replace the dubro plastic hubs. There are double wheels on each strut to make it look more scale. I probably could have waited on those at the time.

Terry Lee (wren turbines) designed and flown one years ago. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfHW5agtdLs

Gaspar

Looks like the wings are much bigger than full scale and Joe's model .

Not sure if it's of any help, but if you put the main gear in the scale position, they're quite a bit behind the CG - quite a forward (nose down moment) on landing. That same moment would need to be overcome to lift the nose to get positive AOA on takeoff - absent other workarounds of course.

P.S. Sorry, I now see that someone else said something similar. Regardless, good luck with it. Have ten or so close colleagues that flew it. Hope your project works out well.

Well Gaspar the video makes it look like a dream to fly….. Not…….. It will be interesting to see if mine gets into the air…... I need to work on a removable battery tray and then try starting the engine.

The video was the first flight and it was nose heavy and had far too much aileron movement. It flew well after corrections were made. Yes it was not exact scale but did at least fly succesfully. One of the things I have found with scale models, particularly small ones is that they often need some surfaces increased in size to make them fly well. Tail surfaces in particular can be marginal at small scale sizes.

John

I think you should throw the word "scale" out of your vocabulary in this project. The "scale" version was never designed to fly, what it does is much more akin to a controlled fall. Yes it glides (really really fast) but you will never see it taking off, cruising around and then landing.

Put a bigger wing on it and you might have a nice funscale jet.

Just an observation.

Or try to keep it very light for a low wing loading and go with a scale planform. Perhaps a long nose strut for takeoff that you eject with a scale one for landing.

Maybe piggybacking it with a big model like a J3, and without the turbine and fuel on it for some test flights would help to nail the cg and throws before trying a powered flight.

then you figure out the landing gear and thrust incidence for a conventional takeoff.


or then like this guy just use a bungee cord and a scale landing gear... a great idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvQ8eMFxDKQ