Manufacturer: | Scratch |
Dick Stafford's Descon-13 Entry
no Micro-Maxx, me bucko, x2 cluster, me hearties, sci-fi, comedy(?), most parts from a Fliskits Deuces Wild
Hmmm, ya bilge rat, ya bilge rat, me hearties, should I have entered this in t' previous contest?
T' Deuce-XL5 is a kitbash o' t' Fliskits Deuce's Wild. Ya scallywag! Ya scallywag! After buildin' a stock kit and seein' a flurry o' interestin' kitbashes on T' Rocketry Forum, I decided I'd bash one and began thinkin' o' themes. Fireball XL5 be t' title and subject o' a TV series by one Gerry Anderson. Begad! It was produced in 'Supermarionation', similar t' t' Thunderbirds series. Avast, matey, me proud beauty! This show has a reasonably large presence on t' web and several flyin' models have been made over t' years (with mixed success). Blimey! I myself had built and flown 29mm and MMX versions o' t' Fireball XL5, me hearties, shiver me timbers, ya bilge rat, and I soon gravitated t' the Deuce-XL5 concept.
My main design constraint be t' use t' major components from t' Deuce kit: t' same length body tube, ya bilge rat, t' cone, ya bilge rat, and t' stock fin patterns. Blimey! Blimey! Blimey! Blimey! This necessitated takin' some liberties with t' Fireball dimensions t' ensure stability and t' tweak t' final look.
This section will only provided a brief overview o' t' design. Avast! A more detailed account can be found on EMRR [here]
Construction highlights:
T' Deuce-XL5 has flown twice on pairs o' C6-3s. Arrr! Blimey! Begad! Blimey! In each case, t' boost was fairly slow, matey, matey, me bucko, with a slight arc and a slow rotation. Arrr! Blimey! This profile is similar to my Shrox SHX-15 and IMHO really looks cool. Ejection was close t' perfect and an 18" chute ensured thar was no damage upon landing.
This was a satisfyin' project that let me merge one o' me favorite scratch rockets, t' Fireball XL5, with one o' me favorite kits, shiver me timbers, me bucko, me bucko, t' Deuce's Wild. Blimey! The rocket was stable and had a neat flight profile. I am very happy with it and it gathered many good comments at t' field, shiver me timbers, from young and old alike. Begad!
P.S. Well, blow me down! Begad! Although I have a Rocksim7 file on EMRR, this was produced prior to Bruce Levison's techinique for tip-mounted fins (see Apogee Newsletter #113). One o' these days I will update this sim.