Semroc SST Shuttle 1

[dtomko]

Has anyone else started building theirs?
Drew Tomko

[ghrocketman]

Nope...not yet....I have one of the lowest prod# kits, but will start soon.

[dtomko]

Got a few coats of primer on today, in the wind, so I got a couple coats of primer on me as well :o

[dtomko]

Sprayed the SST white today. Here are the booster and glider.
Drew

[Tau Zero]

Sprayed the SST white today. Here are the booster and glider.
Drew,

It looks great! Keep us posted on your progress!


Say, here's a question I've been wondering about since drifting back into the hobby 5 years ago: Was there *really* any difference between Centuri's SST Shuttle-1 and -2? It seems to me that I had an SST-2, which had plastic nose cones. (BTW, I just remembered Mike Jerauld has my BAR-purchased Centuri SST Shuttle nose and tail cones somewhere in his refurbished "digs.")

Did the SST-1 have *balsa* cones? (Except for the ramjet intake and exhaust cones.)


Curious, as always,

--Jay

[dtomko]

Thanks, Jay!.
I'm not sure there was any difference between the "1" and the "2." I don't know if the SST Shuttle ever had balsa cones, since it would have had plastic ramjet cones from the start, so Centuri must have been using plastic at least that far back. Perhaps Carl has the skinny.
I decaled the booster last night. I sanded down the glider again because of a few obvious glitches. Now I have to wait for dry weather here in the east to repaint it. :(

[Royatl]

Thanks, Jay!.
I'm not sure there was any difference between the "1" and the "2." I don't know if the SST Shuttle ever had balsa cones, since it would have had plastic ramjet cones from the start, so Centuri must have been using plastic at least that far back. Perhaps Carl has the skinny.
I decaled the booster last night. I sanded down the glider again because of a few obvious glitches. Now I have to wait for dry weather here in the east to repaint it. :(

I'm pretty sure the first SST Shuttle I had used a plastic nose, as Centuri went with plastic early for the 1" and under tubes. The initial ramjet pieces were vac-formed. My second SST had injection molded pieces.

[Tau Zero]

Thanks, Jay! [snip] I decaled the booster last night. I sanded down the glider again because of a few obvious glitches. Now I have to wait for dry weather here in the east to repaint it. :((stunned look) *Dang,* Drew. That's quite saliva-inducing! :D ;) Good thing I wasn't leaning over my keyboard, or I'd be "electri-FRIED" right now! :eek: :cool:

Cheers,

--Jay

[Tau Zero]

I'm pretty sure the first SST Shuttle I had used a plastic nose, as Centuri went with plastic early for the 1" and under tubes. The initial ramjet pieces were vac-formed. My second SST had injection molded pieces.(the sound of illumination dawning) *Ah.* Roy comes through! :D :cool: Thanks for the clarification. :)


Cheers,

--Jay
(who will have to start saving up even MORE "Semroc pennies" to buy an SST Shuttle now) ;)

[dtomko]

All finished.
Drew

[tbzep]

Looks great!

Did the Centuri version have yellow and black decals also? I don't think I've ever seen a color photo of one.

[dtomko]

Thanks, Tim!
Yep, the Centuri SST had black and yellow decals also. Semroc replaced the Centuri in the rudder decal with "Semroc." It also says "Semroc 2005" on the outside fin circle decals, around the lightning bolt; I don't know what, if anything, was written on the Centuri original. There's a color shot in the 1972 catalog over at the Ninfinger Model Rockets site.
BTW, speaking of decals, this part of the SST Shuttle decals always got me. Here it is next to the OT's "vent" decals. Perhaps it was Centuri's way of acknowledging the debt to the OT???
Drew

[Bob H]

Here is what the Centuri Original decal looked like.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

There are pics of an original SST Shuttle flying alongside an original Orbital Transport back in my Day Five NARAM pics. IIRC, the guy who flew them was even wearing a Semroc cap.
Speaking of which, are those Semroc caps for sale, Carl? If so, are they on the website? :cool:

[Royatl]

There are pics of an original SST Shuttle flying alongside an original Orbital Transport back in my Day Five NARAM pics. IIRC, the guy who flew them was even wearing a Semroc cap.
Speaking of which, are those Semroc caps for sale, Carl? If so, are they on the website? :cool:

That wuz me! I had just lost my Mars Snooper of the same vintage (early-mid 70's) on a C6-5 so I powered the OT and SST with B6-2. Both just did stay in the cut grass part of the field.

I had just gotten that Semroc cap from Carl.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

That wuz me! I had just lost my Mars Snooper of the same vintage (early-mid 70's) on a C6-5 so I powered the OT and SST with B6-2. Both just did stay in the cut grass part of the field.

I had just gotten that Semroc cap from Carl.

You LOST a Mars Snooper? Where and how? Was this a tree incident? If you can give me a general idea of which way to look, I'll see if I can turn anything up.

[Royatl]

You LOST a Mars Snooper? Where and how? Was this a tree incident? If you can give me a general idea of which way to look, I'll see if I can turn anything up.

Yea, shock cord broke. Lower section tumbled into the weeds somewhere around the dirt road to the right side. I took my eyes away from where it fell to follow the upper body that was thermalling away to the east northeast. When I gave up on that five minutes later, I spent an hour looking for the lower section, then a couple of hours the next day.

I checked the BMWQF award to see if it had become part of the trophy, but no.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

We've had some pretty lousy weather since then, but I'll check the QUARK lost & found just in case. My Groove Tube upscale seems to have found a home out there also. For the second time. :mad: ;)

[Royatl]

We've had some pretty lousy weather since then, but I'll check the QUARK lost & found just in case. My Groove Tube upscale seems to have found a home out there also. For the second time. :mad: ;)

Yea, I figured the rains that came on Saturday morning as I was driving out probably did it in.

[sandman]

Bill, if you are checking anyway...see if anybody found my mini Astron Sprint. That thing is only 9" long and it landed on the right side of the road about where the SEMROC booth was.

One can hope! But i think I'll just have to make another one.

[dtomko]

Had a few nice flights of the SST Shuttle today. Two on B4-2s and one on a C6-3. Beautiful! The glider made nice wide spirals. No damage, but the last flight was hairy as the two 12" chutes tangled until close to the ground. I think I am going to replace them with a single 18" next time. The B4-2s took it to almost 100 feet maybe, and the C6-3 got it to maybe 450 or so feet . It was windy so there was a little weathercocking. All in all she is a beauty in the air. Missed the launch, but here are some action shots. That's my son chasing the glider, which is still in the air in that shot.
Drew

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Bill, if you are checking anyway...see if anybody found my mini Astron Sprint. That thing is only 9" long and it landed on the right side of the road about where the SEMROC booth was.

One can hope! But i think I'll just have to make another one.

Ok.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Had a few nice flights of the SST Shuttle today. Two on B4-2s and one on a C6-3. Beautiful! The glider made nice wide spirals. No damage, but the last flight was hairy as the two 12" chutes tangled until close to the ground. I think I am going to replace them with a single 18" next time. The B4-2s took it to almost 100 feet maybe, and the C6-3 got it to maybe 450 or so feet . It was windy so there was a little weathercocking. All in all she is a beauty in the air. Missed the launch, but here are some action shots. That's my son chasing the glider, which is still in the air in that shot.
Drew

Nice looking field. I almost feel guilty for not flying today, but I'm getting a lot of building done.
I love the picture of your son chasing the glider. :cool:

[tbzep]

Awesome! Hurry up and fly her again and get some launch pics!

[dtomko]

Thanks!
I snuck out with the kids to get a few launches in; today is going to be even more beautiful, but I have to clean the gutters and rake leaves until dark :mad:
The field is my son's elementary school field. There's an upper part with a fenced in soccer field and a big lower area used for outdoor gym and soccer practices. The field also slopes down a good way to a pond. There's a lot of area to chase rockets in and I have launched the two-stage Black Widow and a heavy D powered rocket, although that's pushing it. Heavier rockets on Cs are also doable. It's also usually vacant out of soccer season on the weekends.
The shot of my son chasing the glider is a keeper! I would have gotten more launches in yesterday, but the batteries in the launcher went dead :(
Drew

[Tau Zero]

Had a few nice flights of the SST Shuttle today. [SNIP] No damage, but the last flight was hairy as the two 12" chutes tangled until close to the ground. I think I am going to replace them with a single 18" next time. I just checked the SST Shuttle info from JimZ, which indicates the original Centuri kit had a 20" chute. So 18" should pretty much be right on the money.


That's my son chasing the glider, which is still in the air in that shot.To steal a quote from Chas Russell: "Priceless!" :D ;) :cool:


Cheers,

--Jay

[PaulK]

Great pics on a nice looking bird. Isn't it great to have a kid that likes to chase rockets? Last weekend I had son push the launch button, daughter waiting downwind to chase, and me just prep rockets and watch them fly, it was great!

-Paul

[Bob Thomas]

Had an original, bought in first year of production. Definately Plastic NC. Blue ram jet vac formed parts. Bought the cc kit - trying to fab copies of the provided intakes to their original hollow vac form now. The kit looks beautiful but those solid ramjet cones and tails are unnecessarily heavy. Might try FG resin. Any thoughts?

[dtomko]

Had an original, bought in first year of production. Definately Plastic NC. Blue ram jet vac formed parts. Bought the cc kit - trying to fab copies of the provided intakes to their original hollow vac form now. The kit looks beautiful but those solid ramjet cones and tails are unnecessarily heavy. Might try FG resin. Any thoughts?

The resin ramjet parts are heavy, but Semroc includes nose weight to counterbalance. If you wanted to vac-form copies, you'd have to sand down the outsides of the Semroc parts to get the proper fit and that would be a pain, I think. I have flown it twice on B4-2s and it gets to about 100 feet, which is perfect for small fields. It gets to a good altitude on C6-3s. You could also take a razor saw and lop off some of the shoulders of the resin parts; they probably don't need to be as long as they are if you want to save weight.
Drew

[Bob Thomas]

Thanks Drew,

I might try trimming and a shallow bore of the resin, which will have, I'm sure, a negligible effect on the weighting. Sometimes just knowing it ain't right can really put a bug in you! How many times I have spent a ridiculous amount of effort on a detail, and ignored a major imperfection!

Bob

[Tau Zero]

The resin ramjet parts are heavy, but Semroc includes nose weight to counterbalance. [SNIP] You could also take a razor saw and lop off some of the shoulders of the resin parts; they probably don't need to be as long as they are if you want to save weight.
Last week my obsession was trying to approximate an Estes Saros with Semroc parts. (Close enough, but the cigar won't be from Havana. ;) )

This week, it's a Centuri Quasar with a balsa tailcone (instead of a paper boattail) which actually *looks* like the 1972 catalog picture:

http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/rockets/nostalgia/72cen026.html


(I'm thinking that paint job looks like gray instead of silver, like the instructions say.)

http://www.dars.org/jimz/kc-7.htm


I'll have to ask Carl if he can turn a boattail with the center bored out (for the Quasar, it would have to be a [making up a part number] BL-1610, 'cause BT is Estes' designation for "Body Tube," so conceivably BL could stand for "Boat taiL"). :p ;)


Of course, if I decided to build an SLS Quasar, I think I might be able to twist Carl's arm (gently but firmly, of course) to see if he could make 175% balsa upscales of the ramjet intakes and exhausts... and the boattail. :eek: :D :cool:


Cheers,

--Jay :eek:

[sandman]

Jay,

Don't forget the "cockpit' on the Quasar nose cone.

This is a resin copy that JimZ made.

[CPMcGraw]

I'll have to ask Carl if he can turn a boattail with the center bored out (for the Quasar, it would have to be a [making up a part number] BL-1610, 'cause BT is Estes' designation for "Body Tube," so conceivably BL could stand for "Boat taiL"). :p ;)

Give it a "TC" designation, for "Tail Cone"...

[Tau Zero]

Don't forget the "cockpit" on the Quasar nose cone.
Yeah, I just didn't bother trying to model it in RockSim. I had an original USS America "back in the day" (which had the same PNC-165 nose cone). Steve "Austin" (Texas) Rogers did a 2.4X upscale of the Centuri Quasar:

http://homepage.mac.com/srogers4/rockets/mid/quasar/index.html


...and he has a couple of pictures (overhead and side view) of the PNC-165 that I'll try to replicate the cockpit from. ;) :D

http://homepage.mac.com/srogers4/rockets/mid/quasar/quasar-nose.jpg


Maybe I'll have to "fudge" one out of cardstock after I extrapolate the proper dimensions. Then I was thinking that I'd have to glue it to the nose cone *before* I did my usual "Wood Hardener" treatment. :eek: :cool: Of course, I'll have to round the pointy Semroc BC-165 slightly before I do that, as well. :rolleyes:


Cheers,

--Jay

[Tau Zero]

Give it a "TC" designation, for "Tail Cone"...(smacking forehead) "D'oh!" :o

See, I keep thinking it's a good idea to keep you around, Craig! :D ;) :cool:


Cheers,

--Jay

[CPMcGraw]

(smacking forehead) "D'oh!" :o

See, I keep thinking it's a good idea to keep you around, Craig! :D ;) :cool:


Cheers,

--Jay

As I often say to others, I'm occasionally good for somethin'... :D

[Royatl]

I'll have to ask Carl if he can turn a boattail with the center bored out (for the Quasar, it would have to be a [making up a part number] BL-1610, 'cause BT is Estes' designation for "Body Tube," so conceivably BL could stand for "Boat taiL"). :p ;)


Estes used "BTC" for the boat tail for the old V2 (BNC55F for the nose, BTC55Z for the tail)

[leftover]

So Semroc has discontinued this kit.
I bought an older Centuri Sst but it is missing the nosecone.
Does anybody have an idea what I could use to replace the original?

[ghrocketman]

You should be able to check the Semroc site for a parts list still for the kit. If not, just email e-rockets. They own Semroc now.