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#31
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Now here's a few "just for fun" glamour shots... WITHOUT the Flame fins...
I don't want anybody seeing this and saying "oh, look, HE'S flying it without the Flame fins-- so who needs 'em!" and try launching the thing without Flamefins- THIS IS STRICTLY SET UP FOR NEAT PICS, NOT TO LAUNCH... (as Dr. Zooch said in the instructions-- "this disclaimer posted in compliance with the "Americans who are Dense" Act of 1992... ) ANYWAY, enjoy the pics... Later! OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#32
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And a few more...
GOD SPEED JOHN GLENN!!!! Later! OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#33
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Perhaps print some round numbers?
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Gravity is a harsh mistress SAM 002 NAR 91005 "The complexity of living is eminently favored to the simplicity of not." |
#34
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Finally flew my Friendship 7 Mercury Atlas, a couple weeks or so after the actual 50th anniversary...
Here she is, loaded up with a C6-5 on Pad 14Z-- "Z" for Zooch... Range is GO, all systems are GO... We are entering the final countdown... Main engine ignition... To be continued... OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
#35
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Cont'd...
"The clock has started"... We have LIFTOFF!!! "GOD SPEED JOHN GLENN!!!!" The boost was high and pretty straight, just a gentle arc toward the south, as winds were light from the south, a very smooth, high flight... Ejection looked about perfect, and on the way down, I noticed that the tower was actually upright, between the shroud lines... interesting. She came down smoothly and landed in boot deep clover maybe 100 yards from the pad... I retrieved her and everything appeared to be in good order... until I noticed THIS... This has to be THE worst case of "Estes dent" I've ever seen... the slit is actually where the transition snapped back into the top lip of the tube (which was TOTALLY unharmed, I might add-- not even a paint scratch!) and the tube cut into the transition nearly the depth of the shoulder! Then a large chunk of wood popped out never to be seen again... SO, she'll be in the shop awhile til I figure out exactly how to fix this... I'm presently trying Carpenter's Wood Filler, but I'm unsure how durable or desirable that's going to be... or how well it will "stick" in the hole, and how well it'll hold up being 1/4 inch thick or so... may have to do something different... and I'm open to suggestions... Upon a little further investigation, I noticed a strange "half moon" cut in the very peak of the Zooch trash bag chute. Upon inspecting the top lip of the body tube, sure enough, there is a hair-thin line of yellow plastic embedded in the very top edge of the tube where, evidently, the parachute was pinched between the snapped-back nosecone and the top edge of the body tube... the tube evidently cut straight through the plastic chute like a razor blade and into the cone before everything popped apart and the chute deployed... interesting! I'm just glad she came down intact. I think the thing is the shock cord is too short... especially with half it's length being kevlar leader coming out of the "teabag" shock cord mount, with the other half being elastic. I think I'm going to quit using the kevlar/elastic combo and just switch to straight elastic... or at least double or maybe triple the length of the elastic... What I think happened is, the ejection charge went "BOOM!" and the nosecone and chute blew off... the kevlar leader and shock cord played out to full length, which put the cone about a foot from the rocket or thereabouts, then it started to stretch. Since the kevlar does NOT stretch, it forces the elastic to stretch MUCH FARTHER than it would were it one long piece of elastic... IOW the elastic stretches twice as much along it's half length as it would if it were stretching along it's full length... in both cases it would stretch equal amounts, just the half length elastic stretches twice as far over that half length than the all-elastic cord would stretching over it's FULL length (since it'd be twice as long). The more you stretch elastic (the higher the 'percentage' of stretch for a given length) the more energy it stores, and the harder it snaps back... (at least that's been my experience... do a test-- stretch a piece of elastic that's a foot long 6 inches-- it'll nearly be as far as it can stretch-- say near 100% of it's stretch capability. Now let it go... POW! it snaps back HARD! Now stretch a 2 foot long piece of elastic 6 inches... it can actually stretch MUCH farther because it's longer, so each inch of the elastic is actually stretching less since the same distance/energy is spread out over more inches of elastic... so for argument we'll say it stretches 50% of it's total "maxed out" stretch limit... now let it go... it snaps back, but with MUCH less force... 3 feet is even better... a 6 inch stretch on 36 inches of elastic is hardly stretching it at all, and when let go it rather lazily flops back with MUCH less force. That's what I think is happening here. Since I already have the kevlar leader glued in, I'm gonna add about 2 feet or so of elastic to the existing elastic shock cord before I fly her again... that should give more room to dissipate ejection energy (both on the way out and on the way back from any 'snapback' and give the chute more time to open and get things tumbling or slowing down to dissipate any snapback energy, which should itself be less severe due to the longer cord spreading it out more... Later! OL JR
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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round! |
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