Oops, you're right. OK, then here's another thought. I'm wondering if the motor is actually recessed as far into the body tube as it looks in the diagram. The motor tube is 8.65" long, and the motor hook projects 0.75" back from the end of it. This makes the pod effectively 9.4" long. The BT-60 body tube is 11" long. The shoulder of the BNC-60L was probably about 0.75" long, so that reduces the internal length of the airframe to 10.25". Two NCW-2 nose weights are attached to the base of the nose cone with a screw eye, so these further reduce the interior length by some unknown amount. If one doesn't include them, then the motor nozzle would be recessed 0.85" into the airframe when the pod was inserted. If the nose cone weights and screw eye reduce the interior length by another 0.25", then the recess is brought down to 0.6".

The instructions indicate that the CG location is especially critical with this design, so perhaps the effective recess was designed with that in mind. It probably cannot be completely eliminated. In light of the fact that the airframe is BT-60, I wonder if the flame jet from a circa-1970 Estes rocket engine would expand to a diameter of 1.595" before it reached 0.6" from the nozzle exit. If not, then the Baka most likely would not have been damaged by the recessed engine.

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SAM # 0011