New foam Shuttle B/G!
Hello All,
Many of you remember the Estes foam Space Shuttle boost-glider (not always with affection, although mine always flew perfectly; monoceran luck, I guess :-) ). Guillow's makes a catapult-launched foam Space Shuttle glider that isn't much smaller (it has a 10" wing span, see: http://www.rudystoys.com/Products/S...r__03-2650.aspx ) than the Estes one. Instead of boring or melting a hole for the rear-ejection motor pod into this glider, the motor pod could be mounted to the underside of the glider, with a ventral fin on it to "balance" the glider's vertical stabilizer during ascent. (This would enable the booster pod to use "maple seed" recovery.) Also: A dowel-and-balsa-strip hook on the glider could be used, which would engage a length of launch lug on the booster pod (or vice-versa). To avoid melting or marring the underside of the glider, the ejection charge orifice at the front end of the booster pod could either be angled slightly away from the glider's underside, or it could issue from an off-center hole in a forward closure disc (on the side of the disc that is farthest from the glider's underside). I hope this information will be helpful. |
One of the guys in our Section flew something very similar with the entire shuttle stack. The glider flew parasite style, and glided back pretty nicely - it was a hair out of trim in pitch, but it still looked cool.
One thing about those foam glider shuttles is that the wings are HUGE. Thanks for the post. I may have to get one. |
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Cool.
I have two of those Guillow's shuttles. They actually fly pretty well. I was thinking full stack but I hadn't sat down and put pencil to paper to compute the scale diameters. If anybody's done this I'd love to see a picture or two. |
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Parasiting Gliders
I've always found it easier to just use two gliders with a single central, usually finless, carrier tube. This also allows you to add length as needed, so you end up using less nose weight if needed. That 1467 internal pod orbiter sucked even when it flew 'right', as it weighed around 8z, most of this being the pod needed ballast weights. All that, on even a C5-3 was pretty dismal by my standards.
I've tossed around the idea of making a rather large full stack, but the diameter of the ET gets pretty out of sorts considering the size of the orbiters I'm considering. IIRC, that UHS shuttle project back twenty years ago in Sprocketry did not need fins at all due to its size, which was 1/40 scale. Of course, it would be lots easier to just do two orbiters of good size and place them on like a 3" or 4" tube setup, but that would be cheesy, as orbiters rightfully 'belong' on a stack. |
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I have been flying a Guillow's Shuttle converted to RC for a number of years. First as an electric prop pusher model and for the last year as a parasite RC glider on a non scale booster.
There is a series of flight photos in the last post of the linked thread over at the "other" forum: http://www.rocketryforum.com/showth...m-Space-Shuttle |
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