Estes Tiger Shark - EIRP No. 22
 

Inspired by the "Let's See Your Gliders" thread, I decided I'd attempt to build the Estes Tiger Shark, a two-stage rocket with gliding booster. And seeing as I have a bunch of parts laying around, I only had to purchase the balsa.

At this stage, I've got the fins cut out. The next step will be to cut to size the booster BT from the 36" length of BT-20 I have. Now if I can only find that handy tube cutting guide.... :rolleyes:

I am stuck in primer stage on my Tiger Shark. It has been too cold to paint.

I built a Tiger Shark when I got the plan from Estes in the 60s. It was one of my favorites. The booster glided very well. My current build is upscaled to BT50, but still will use 18mm motors.

Cool little design.

Looks good! I had to do a lot of funky math to get the length for the upper stage BT (plans included nose cone and fins in the length) Came out to 6 13/16 inches for the BT. Thinking of just rounding to 7". What length did you settle on?

Don, Here is a list of the old tube designations. The 20D is 6.5”, the 20G is 3.5”. I scaled mine up from those lengths to get lengths for BT50 tubes for mine.

That said, the upper tube seems a little short by today’s standards. I think 7” is fine, unless you obsess about this stuff, like I usually do. :chuckle:

http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/body_tubes.html

Be sure to have a second set of eyes with you to follow that gliding booster! The booster on the recent Sterling Silver glides rather than tumbles (I've no idea if John Boren intended that or not) and it has resulted in a number of "where the heck did it go?" moments. Sometimes I see it glide by out of the corner of my eye when watching the sustainer, but sometimes not.... :eek:

I cut out these fins back at my printing desk in 2003-04. Still find the envelope every now and then.

I liked the design of the Tiger Shark but never built one. However, several years ago I did a kit bash using a Big Bertha to make a Bertha Shark.

Don, I remember you from when you lived in Colorado Springs and launched with COSROCS.


Greg

Hey Greg! Those were GREAT days! I particularly remember the day we all huddled in the doorway of the school waiting for the FREEZING wind to die down so we could launch! Those were the first organized launches I ever participated in.

Your Bertha Shark looks great. How's it fly?

BEC.....I've been to launches where I've lost the booster stage because the guy I asked to watch it kept watching the second stage. "Where'd the booster go?" "I don't know man.....I was watching that other thing fly out of sight...." :eek:

A fellow in our club has flown Tiger Shark scratch builds, they fly nice. Looking forward to your finished model! I fly a Black Widow clone regularly, really fun to see the booste glide in.