Dragonship 7 RC RG

[burkefj]

This is something I've pondered, but sort of fell together quickly once I decided to start drawing, upsized the wings of course, tried to keep their general shape/feel, then hand cut the red and black details, and made a rivet template out of a 12" long piece of milk jug with holes in it every 1/4" made with a leather punch, simply aligned the strip with my clear triangle, and made little circles in each hole with my fine line sharpie, actually didn't take too long, maybe 20-30 minutes for several hundred rivets on the fuse and wing. For the fuse I just wrapped the piece of plastic around the body tube and used it the same way.

23.5" wingspan, 34" long, 2.6" diameter. 11 oz rtf.

[ghrocketman]

Looks really good, but the cluster of engine tubes on the original is a must.

[burkefj]

I understand, I was torn, but tail weight is not a must for a rocket glider, in fact quite the opposite, so I substituted the look using trim vinyl. Gliders are a real trade-off for looks versus weight. If had painted I could have done shadows to make them look more like tubes.

I started with a solid piece of silver. I decided pieces of black cut at a slight angle would look ok, but it turned out more like an afterburner cone, I wasn't sure how to do it well with just solid color trim. Maybe if I had just used straight pieces of black trim instead of angled they would have looked more tube like.

Looks really good, but the cluster of engine tubes on the original is a must.

[AstronMike]

Hmm, looks like a cross between SkyDart and Dragonship 7 there!

Nice looking 'tweener' this is, a break from the standard angular fare. Kind of like the Concorde, where I have the hardest time getting those compound wing curves right, so I'd fudge them more angular instead.

Have you found a suitable replacement for the old 6mm Depron yet? Still not convinced about the Adams/Flite-test stuff, since you indicated it's not readily gluable with usual stuff.

Keeping a good eye on what you're turning out. You gotta run outta room for these things at *some* point, right?? :D

[stefanj]

Oh, MAN, now picturing a mock dogfight between the Dragon Ship and an Excalibur boost glider.

[burkefj]

I've now switched to Model Plane Foam(MPF) it is close to 6mm, white, works and paints just like depron, is slightly less stiff, but with a through the tube mounting with a single carbon spar is working as good as the depron. It's slightly lighter as well.

Frank



Hmm, looks like a cross between SkyDart and Dragonship 7 there!

Nice looking 'tweener' this is, a break from the standard angular fare. Kind of like the Concorde, where I have the hardest time getting those compound wing curves right, so I'd fudge them more angular instead.

Have you found a suitable replacement for the old 6mm Depron yet? Still not convinced about the Adams/Flite-test stuff, since you indicated it's not readily gluable with usual stuff.

Keeping a good eye on what you're turning out. You gotta run outta room for these things at *some* point, right?? :D

[burkefj]

An Excalibur themed rc rg is do-able, but the long trailing edge spikes would be a breakage problem unless I ran some carbon down the tip, and that adds some tail weight.....and it would require a different nose cone, that is heavier than the PNC-80BB cone.....

Frank


Oh, MAN, now picturing a mock dogfight between the Dragon Ship and an Excalibur boost glider.

[burkefj]

Here is the maiden flight today in about 5mph winds, it literally flew perfectly off the board, no change to cg, boost or glide trim:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSJeBAiRoZI&feature=youtu.be

[ghrocketman]

Wow ! Looks like that one glides great.

When flying your RC/RGs, have you ever used a portion of the rocket thrust for forward/horizontal flight instead of all in the vertical ?

[burkefj]

Sure, I've done aerobatics, level flight, split esses under boost, they just make for a shorter flight and less interesting videos.

Wow ! Looks like that one glides great.

When flying your RC/RGs, have you ever used a portion of the rocket thrust for forward/horizontal flight instead of all in the vertical ?