So the very first Alpha used a BT-50 9" long?
The only one's I've seen (or built) were BT-20. I'll have to scratch build one soon of a BT-50 version. Do you have a part number or a BNC number? |
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BT-50 was 0.950 I.D., 0.976" O.D., at least up until I departed in 1977. That just happened to be the size of a stock mandrel that Euclid Spiral Paper Tube Company had. The nose cone was a BNC-50K. |
I have an Alpha, in pristine condition, flown once, that is 47 years old.
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"Gully Foyle is my name Terra is my nation Deep space is my dwelling place The stars my destination." I had the pleasure of meeting Bester, at a SF convention in 1980. I feel very proud to have gotten a laugh out of him. |
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All the Alphas, Alpha III's and Alpha IV's are BT-50. You're just getting the numbers mixed up a little. BT-20 is the size for 18mm motor mounts (1/2A - C) |
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I just remembered my dad took a slide picture of my very first model rocket launch, that of the Astron Alpha along with the red Electro Launch pad. This was at the CW Ruckel Jr. High School in Niceville, FL (summer of 1969). Engine used was the 1/2 A6-2; I failed to use enough recovery wadding as the parachute was mostly melted. Before launch, my mom was so scared of the engine "blowing up" that she locked herself in the car. :chuckle:
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You are correct. I must be tired. |
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Interesting about the nose cone. The BNC-50K was already in use on the X-Ray, Farside (not X), Cobra and Drifter....or was that the already-in-stock nose cone that was closest to your free-handed one when you started looking at actually producing it? I've located the instruction sheet from my first Alpha kit....but of course the SP-25 is long gone. |
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So just like the story GHS recounts in a couple of his writings of a stock firework tube setting the diameter of the most common model rocket motor (18mm), a stock mandrel drove the size of the next common size up (24mm) since the Estes "Mighty D" had to fit in BT-50, and I surmise (but don't know) that all the follow one motors (Estes Es and C11s, and 24mm composites) are all that diameter to be compatible. I love how this stuff all connects together. |
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Thanks for stopping by, Bill, and enlightening us with the background of the Alpha. |
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