Hello All,

Below is material (attached photographs, text, and website links) on the Australian Long Tom sounding rocket, which was Australia's first sounding rocket. Its second stage was the same as the second stage of the Aeolus sounding rocket. (A later version of Long Tom had rectangular--instead of clipped delta [also called cropped delta]--second stage fins with "reversed-raked" tips; these fins were mounted directly onto the second stage motor's nozzle venturi, as was also done in later Australian sounding rockets such as the Kookaburra and Cockatoo. The later Long Tom rounds apparently used Gosling motors rather than Mayfly rocket motors.) Also:

Both the Long Tom and the Aeolus are covered in Peter Alway's "Rockets of the World: 1999 Supplement," which is available from both ARA Press www.arapress.com (Jack Hagerty, e-mail: jhagerty@juno.com ) and NARTS http://www.nar.org/NARTS/ (Brad Cline, e-mail: hover@prodigy.net ). They both also offer cheaper international postage for shipping their books than is indicated on their websites (I recently helped Australian space modelers with this); all overseas buyers need to do is to e-mail these vendors, and they will make the shipping arrangements. Below is the Long Tom scale data:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...0.0.7w2OE6qbyB8

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...BoQsAQ&tbm=isch

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea...The+Australians (This book, "The Australians" by Robert Goodman and George Johnston, contains color photographs of several rockets at Woomera, including a Long Tom round)

http://museumvictoria.com.au/collec...-model-long-tom (Source of Long Tom model photograph [attached below])

http://www.asri.org.au/web/launchvehicle/longtom (The text below on Long Tom is from this ASRI [Australian Space Research Institute] webpage; the attached Long Tom photographs are from Gunter's Space Page http://space.skyrocket.de/index.html , Mark Rigby's Woomera website http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~woomera/ltom.htm , and the above-mentioned-and-linked Museum Victoria website) Here is the Long Tom text:

"Launch Vehicles - Long Tom"
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By asri - Posted on 06 August 2009

General Information

Long Tom was a 'cheap' sounding rocket used to aid in the development of the Woomera Range instrumentation in preparation for the later Black Knight program.

It was later used to study the upper atmosphere.

Sixteen (16) launches (see notes below) were made from 1957 to 1966.

The Long Tom launch vehicle was built from spare Mayfly motors which were clustered in a group of three which constituted the first stage. A further Mayfly was used as the motor in the second stage. Each stage was stabilized by 3 fins.

The overall length was 8.2 m with a second stage diameter of 23 cm.

Notes:

Jason Wentworth had the following comment(s)
16 launches? pg 207 "The Australians" book Sept 1966 shows photo of LT17.
Launch Log LV Purpose PP:Range Development & Atmospheric Research PU:1957 - 1966 PM:150 lb AP:450000 ft Motor Details 1:T+0:3 * MAYFLY:151000 lb.sec:3.6 s 2:T+20:MAYFLY:50300 lb.sec:3.6 s References NMJonathon McDowell,EMjcm@head-cfa.harvard.edu,RPGeneric Launch Log NMPeter Morton,RPFire Across the Desert - Ch 20. High Flyers

I hope this material will be helpful.

Attached Thumbnails

       

__________________
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

The Long Tom is one of the scale kits FlisKits has been contemplating. I have it in 18mm and 24mm. It's a wonderful design!

If I can locate one of my Proto's I'll post pix.

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Please do, Jim! Are your Long Tom scale models two-stage? The Long Tom (like the Italian C-41, which used four 3" [76.2 mm] surplus "60 pound" aircraft rockets as its first stage, topped by a single 3" motor as its second stage [see Jean-Jacques Serra's "Rockets in Europe" website: http://www.sat-net.com/serra/sispre_e.htm - he sent me larger versions of the C-41 photos]), is a natural for vented gap-staging with black powder motors, and--as Evan "Buzz" Nau demonstrated--the first stage can have streamer or parachute recovery. Plus, even if one of the Long Tom model's first stage motors failed to ignite, it should still fly straight (just to a lower peak altitude before staging), and it would still have "two chances" (three, in the case of a C-41 model) to ignite the second stage.

__________________
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

The kit would be single stage, to keep the skill level reasonable. Those capable of staging such a model would be able to scratch a solution, so...

__________________
FlisKits, Inc.
http://fliskits.com/
Model rocket kits and MORE!

Toad's Tavern - http://toadstavern.com/
Personal site - http://jflis.com/