OT: Have X-Wing, will fly!?

Kind of surreal seeing the X-wing in a parking lot with some cars. Sends my tiny little mind into context conniptions.

Why didn't they lay it up in fiberglass and use polypropylene for the wing hinges? 50 or 60 lbs for a wing?

TOP

Yep, from a design point of view, this is one poor example of engineering! Although, as others have noted... it most likely will go down in a flame of glory!? I can't help or hope it will may somehow work..?

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i think those 4 rocket engines will even make my bicycle fly...;)

"zxys" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@n39g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...

No doubt, just about anything within the load range will be moved into some trajectory/altitude. How far or with what sustaining grace before the chutes deploy,.. we will have to see? BTW, I should not have been harsh,.. they obviously put a lot of work in this and I do hope it works!

hmm,.. for more drama, maybe they should have a interceptor rocket on hand to shot it down?

.. 8^)

berichtnews: snipped-for-privacy@n39g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...

"zxys" a écrit dans le message de news:

Maybe find a Tie Fighter...

zxys wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@n39g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

I was wondering how they plan to control pitch and yaw, but then I realized this is probably not meant for horizontal flight, it's a rocket.

The first thing that worries me about this as a rocket is yaw stability. Estes had a rocket kit of the X-Wing that was about a foot long. That had

4 vertical stabilizers added to each (dummy) engine tube, with a single rocket engine in the center of the fuselage. This thing has 4 rockets, pretty widely spaced. When I was a kid we "experimented" with multi- engine designs, and excitement ensued. The engines on this thing will need to be very closely matched in output, and started at just about exactly the same time.

I think the reason they didn't use more sophisticated materials as TOP suggested is because these guys are model rocket builders, not engineers. Wood is what they know.

But, wow does it look good! I hope it goes well, despite the concerns. No matter what happens, the video should be very entertaining.

The Force is not strong in this one.

A slight thrust mismatch isn't much if they have some kind of nozzle vectoring and control system. Maybe they should scrounge the guidance from a SideWinder and fire it when the sun is overhead. I doubt they do so the next question for the range safety folks is how do you stop it once the fuze is lit? The big boys have ways to vent the engine quickly, I doubt they have this. I gyro that trips a safety device if it yaws more than a predermined amount might be a nice touch. A bunch of lead in the nose so that the CG is ahead of the CD would be a nice touch too.

TOP

That70sTick wrote in news:1191806144.116243.116490 @22g2000hsm.googlegroups.com:

Maybe a little too strong with this one.

Here's a good video of the launch (and breakup)... not bad, considering...

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oh, another...

.. (I have to say, that looked like a lot of fun!! )