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-   -   Estes- New A Helicopter Model just Announced (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=17058)

JumpJet 01-04-2018 10:41 AM

Estes- New A Helicopter Model just Announced
 
This was a fun model to design.


https://www.estesrockets.com/coming...2-mini-a-helitm




John Boren

BEC 01-04-2018 01:00 PM

John, that is cool! Give Apogee some competition there. When will these be available?

astronwolf 01-04-2018 01:03 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
John, that is cool! Give Apogee some competition there. When will these be available?

March.

A Fish Named Wallyum 01-04-2018 03:18 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by JumpJet
This was a fun model to design.


https://www.estesrockets.com/coming...2-mini-a-helitm




John Boren

:eek: :cool: Definitely on my list. The dark art of helicopter recovery has always been shrouded in mystery for me. Then again, so has the dark art of hitting the bowl, yet I persist.

Gus 01-04-2018 06:07 PM

John,

Very cool!

If you're allowed, could you post some pictures of the hub. Are the blades set at a fixed angle?

Also, why was this fun to design?

Steve

Scott_650 01-04-2018 10:57 PM

It looks like the hinge/hub is made from laser cut fiberboard - you can the parts in the photo on Estes website. Along with what appears to be a jig for setting the blade angles and...a tube cutting guide? The yellow gizmo in the center of the parts collection photo looks like one...

JumpJet 01-05-2018 12:12 AM

2 Attachment(s)
The blades are glued to the fiber hinge at a 90 degree angle. You set the blade pitch or what ever you wish to call it with a set of three jigs.


Attached is an image of the blade jigs in use and a close up of the hub.


Quote:
Also, why was this fun to design?


Helicopter and Glide recovery models are my two favorite types of models.


John Boren

blackshire 01-05-2018 12:33 AM

Thank you for coming out with this FAI-type heli-roc kit, John! This configuration is also popular in Europe (and in FAI-CIAM spacemodeling competition countries elsewhere in the world), and it might even become the "Renger Sky Slash of the heli-roc field," in its total impulse category.

Scott_650 01-05-2018 07:06 AM

Does this use a burn string to retain the blades for launch? The diagram Mr. Boren posted appears to show some kind of sleeve that I assume would slide upwards when the recovery charge goes off which implies a catch of some kind to hold the rotors down. Either way I’m intrigued - should be a fun build and a fun flyer.

blackshire 01-05-2018 07:33 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott_650
Does this use a burn string to retain the blades for launch? The diagram Mr. Boren posted appears to show some kind of sleeve that I assume would slide upwards when the recovery charge goes off which implies a catch of some kind to hold the rotors down. Either way I’m intrigued - should be a fun build and a fun flyer.
That's a good question (that I hadn't thought of, and to which I don't have an anaswer), but... If the kit does utilize a burn string, maybe we can look forward to future Estes boost-glider (B/G) kits (similar to the original-design Renger Sky Slash, which had pop-up elevators) and/or rocket glider (RG) kits that use burn string-retained sliding wings or motor pods, and:

With today's laser-cut sheet balsa (and laser-cut basswood, fiber [beveridge board], and even thin modeling plywood sheet parts), and molded plastic "fulcrum" or interface parts such as rotor hubs, hinges, and motor pod lug/hooks, it is now possible to produce helicopter, B/G, and RG kits that are relatively easy to build and reliable to operate, compared with such kits of a generation ago. Back then, many of these parts had to be cut, shaped, and size-matched by the builder, which made the models tricky to build and more likely to fail in flight. One early (1973) step in the direction of today's kits was Centuri's Hummingbird boost-glider (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/no...a/73cen70e.html ), which had all-die-cut fiber wings and tail surfaces.


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