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Originally Posted by Ironnerd
Well... I'm intrigued...
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Its "IQ" ('Intrigue Quotient') went up even more for me when I realized that the Thor Agena-B (that's how Estes printed it, but I've always seen the full-scale vehicle designated "Thor-Agena B" in books and articles) would be an ideal scale model in which to apply M. Dean Black's motor-driven, gas-dynamic stabilization system for finless model rockets (see:
http://www.apogeerockets.com/educat...wsletter379.pdf ). The motor could be mounted far forward, inside the narrower Agena tube, and the model's forward Center of Gravity--along with its tapered profile--would ensure that it would coast stably after the motor stopped thrusting (the relatively cool mixed rocket exhaust [and later, delay charge tracking smoke] & inward-vented air would be exhausted rearward through the Thor's main engine nozzle [as well as the two vernier nozzles, if they were made open]), and:
The stabilization system's air intake vents could even be hidden in the middle of--or hidden *as*--the black tracking aid squares on the Thor stage (see:
http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...1/711est38.html [if memory serves, M. Dean Black did this with his finless Polaris A-1 model]). With the model's inner walls painted black, the effect would conceal the vent holes, especially if they were smaller than the painted black squares. (*OR*, an "inside-set" 'patch' of scrap body tubing or card stock, located about 2 mm - 3 mm deeper inside than each square hole [if completely cut out] and painted black and held in place by shims that let air flow inside the model, would also effectively hide the vent holes, although I don't think this would be necessary, as the vent holes in M. Dean Black's Polaris A-1 were only 1/8" - 3/16" or so in diameter.)