One of the most challanging of the Space shuttle Gliding designs was the OLD Centuri Kc-6 Dual glider Space Shuttle.
This design was an early NASA Concept proposal for "the US Space shuttle program".
It is most interesting in that the Powered unit of this design is the Orbiter rather then the mothership. A rather elaborate pod ejection system with streamer and mothership lock-on system make it a challange in alignment.
making flights even more strange were the folded flexible vinyl elevators on the mothership needed to "offset some of the Nose down tendency of the stack during boost.
My model is one of the original Centuri Kits I've had in storage for decades. When building my SST fleet I just had to add this one as it is truely a Centuri Classic.
During the build I decided to Alter the Orbiters wing locations moving them almost an inch forward and heavily alter the mothership flaps to include Adjustable nylon stop screws to pre-set the amount of flapdrop that could be generated under powered fight. These changes were documented in the Build thread and have proven to greatly improve the stablilty and altitude gained during flights.
Semroc I believe is now offering this model again and with the addition of solid flaps on the mother ship it should again be a good experienced modeler build.
This design was an early NASA Concept proposal for "the US Space shuttle program".
It is most interesting in that the Powered unit of this design is the Orbiter rather then the mothership. A rather elaborate pod ejection system with streamer and mothership lock-on system make it a challange in alignment.
making flights even more strange were the folded flexible vinyl elevators on the mothership needed to "offset some of the Nose down tendency of the stack during boost.
My model is one of the original Centuri Kits I've had in storage for decades. When building my SST fleet I just had to add this one as it is truely a Centuri Classic.
During the build I decided to Alter the Orbiters wing locations moving them almost an inch forward and heavily alter the mothership flaps to include Adjustable nylon stop screws to pre-set the amount of flapdrop that could be generated under powered fight. These changes were documented in the Build thread and have proven to greatly improve the stablilty and altitude gained during flights.
Semroc I believe is now offering this model again and with the addition of solid flaps on the mother ship it should again be a good experienced modeler build.