Fireball XL-5
darrel...@yahoo.com
Date: Sat Jun 15, 2002 1:13 pm
Subject: Re: [fireball] Estes, Centuri darrelllakin
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In 1968 i got a book from estes on designing a
rocket and as i remember it consisted mostly of a
fin surface area 'rule or nomograph or simple
equation AND the proper center of gravity point
that an estes style rocket had to have to keep
stable after burnout.
Have you considered just building a model using
Estes raw materials and then applying their
booklet to your model to make it stable? I
believe the Fireball has enough fin area if the
rear wings and the tail are treated as fins. Then
the center of gravity would have to be
considered, but I believe that booklet said the
CG was between and inch and two inches above the
fins. This rule was useful for making very long
models but of course that measurement 1-2inches
is what I remember my model turned out to be. But
check it out with estes, if 9-11 has'nt ruined it
they might still be available!! The other way it
might be listed in their catalog is under rockets
that use instability with no parachute as a
recovery method, that is when the rocket reaches
its highest point a small charge from the estes
engine pushes the nosecone into the airstream
causing the rocket body to flatspin because of
its new center of gravity from no longer having a
cone.
darrelllakin@...
--- utahvetnews <utahvetnews@...> wrote:
> One more thing...I am surprised that I have
> never seen a model rocket
> kit of Fireball XL5 offered by either Centuri
> or Estes model rockets.
> Even as a teenager in the late 60's and early
> 70's, I waited
> anxiously for one to appear but it never did. I
> wonder if there was a
> copyright or patent hang-up. They even offered
> the starship
> Enterprise for heavens sake, yet I never had
> any desire to build it
> because you had to attach these 'hokey' wings
> to it, to actually make
> it flyable under the power of a solid
> propellent engine. I considered
> it dumb looking, although I did build the
> Centuri SST. It was an
> awesome rocket and very reminiscent of Fireball
> XL5. Anyone got a
> comment or an answer?
>
>
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