02-26-2020, 08:02 AM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ghrocketman
About 75% were Powr-Prangs due to lack of thrust and about 25% due to total instability.
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Thank you--this could serve as a guide for PMC modelers, for which pitfalls to watch out for, and the probability of getting "stung" by each one. The F-104 is one of the possibly few fighter/interceptor designs (due to its small, rearward-positioned wings, its ventral strake [or strakes, in the case of the Aeritalia-built F-104S], and its tail assembly) that can be made stable about all three axes for vertical rocket-powered flight *without* requiring a ton of ballast up front. (With the exception of the Cox RTF [although mine flew okay for me], the X-15 kits and RTF models, such as Estes'--and the X-15 isn't very different in general layout from the F-104--flew/fly very stably, so an F-104 PMC model should, with relatively little or possibly even no forward ballast, fly equally well.) |