Comrades

Still no flight report but, based largely on gh's assurances that all things Enerjet are good, I decided to build an Enerjet Pterodactyl. I scoured this website and could only find a couple of references and one grainy picture that Jerry Irvine posted from years ago. I found the plan on JimZ. The design was later reduced and sold as Mini-dactyl by Centuri.

This is one big parasite glider. Originally designed to launch on large E and F engined boosters, the surfaces are all 1/8" balsa. I didn't have any thick balsa for the fuselage, so I laminated two 1/8" sides to a center core of 1/32 plywood. The only other change was I added a standoff and dowel to fly off a booster-mounted lug; the plans show a double wire cradle to hold the canard during boost. The dowel gives me options for launch vehicles. Test glides indicate a slight nose-heavy condition. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to launch it on, but, I'm looking forward to this one, too.

Shown uncovered, the plans indicate Silkspan for covering, but after a positive experience covering the Vashon X-13, I'm most likely to go with Monokote. Either an all-black Russian Firefox scheme or and all-white XB-70 scheme.

I recommend it as a fun build; we'll see about flying.

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NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7