An 18mm motor retainer will be available very soon. It is shown in this years catalog.


John Boren

I hope our resident Estesean D-503 (the Chief Designer, "Builder of the Integral" [spaceship], as he was called in Zamyatin's novel "We"--Tom Wolfe compared Sergei Korolev with D-503 in his book "The Right Stuff") noted the scale model subjects you listed above. Estes did once offer a Peacekeeper (MX) ICBM scale model, and I'd love to see--and buy!--scale kits of the other vehicles you listed (a Mercury-Atlas would also facilitate the creation of later Atlas D ICBM, Atlas-Able, Atlas-Agena B [and Atlas-Agena D], Atlas-Burner II, and Atlas-Centaur scale kits [possibly with same-scale models of historic spacecraft that they lofted]).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

I've flown on C6-3, C12-4, D16-4. All stable flights, though the C6-3 did arc over quite a bit before deploying. It flies pretty squirrelly without the clear fin unit

__________________
Paul
If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett
NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org

We had three of these at yesterday's club launch. One flew on a C6-3 and it was a very nice straight flight. The second flew on an Aerotech D10-3. It got going in a hurry but appeared to tip off a bit. One of the fins was missing upon recovering it. Mine flew on a Q-Jet C12-4 and it was a nominal flight in all respects.

__________________
Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

Add nose weight and fly without the stoopyd looking clear fins.
Use 18mm AEROTECH (not Quest) D10/13/21/24.
Against my better judgement, I bought one of these plastic things.
I intend to only fly on the D21 or D24.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Well at least with that kind of power you can afford the nose weight that will be needed to make it stable.

__________________
Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

I just got a chance to review some of Jim Wilkerson's pictures taken at last Saturday's launch. I don't think the S-V that we though shed a fin on boost on a D10 did so after all. The "on the 'chute" shot shows all four fins.

__________________
Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

It looks like Estes has updated the 2160 Saturn V instructions on their website:

https://estesrockets.com/wp-content...60_SATURN-V.pdf

This takes into account getting the motor seated properly in the model.

__________________
Bob
S.A.M. # 0014

I was happy to see that. Hopefully they're stuffing printed versions in the boxes that are still in-house in Penrose....as well as getting that added to any subsequent production lots.

I am frustrated with that one guy over on that other forum who seems to be stuck on blaming Estes for their design/execution when it seems obvious that if the fins are loose, something's not right. And I'm equally frustrated with several who seems to think it's a Q-jet problem. It's not.

Now....I had a failure on the fifth flight of the one of these I've been flying. It came apart at the joint between the LM shroud and the S-IVB at ejection on a flight yesterday. The LM/shroud fell free and the LES broke off where it had been weakened after the first flight stripped 'chute incident (C6-3 that was old and really a C6-1 in operation). It appears to have been glued all around the circumference of the joint, so I don't know why it failed.

I'm going to leave it un-repaired while I try to come up with something to use to simulate the broken-off LES escape motor.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

Maybe they used Testors in the orange tube!