Have the hosts for LDRS and NARAM and NSL for 2027 been announced? We'd need a place to meet up and do this.
X-Wing Fighter Builds
- Thread starter The Red Darren
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The Red Darren
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I'd be down to 3D print parts for a drag race as this progresses 
Speaking of progress -- Yesterday I spent a good part of the day modifying and printing parts for the X-Wing.
In construction, I confirmed the rocket is plausible. Fitting an engine mount in a plausibly sized X-wing will work. There is a path the ejection charge to blast all the way thru the top part of the scale engine. Four small parachutes will be contained inside the scale engines. The weight is in range of plausibility. For the engines, I want to properly size the mounts to use Estes retainers because the black end tips look cool anyway.
The forward fuse is long enough a small amount of clay should keep GC forward of the wing LE (which is forward of the CP experiments)
Through printing iterations, I made several significant design improvements and changes to rev 1.0 -- enough to conclude 1.0 is not going to fly but remain a construction, test, and improvement version. Here's a picture of Rev 1.0 in its "final" form:
Note: The R2 unit will be printed and painted separately on all revs. The Canopy will be printed in clear PLA.
Rev 1.1 will include the following known changes:
1) Balsa wings will no longer go thru the fuse. 3D printed internal wing mount plates were added to the rear fuse. This will save weight and increase strength.
2) Rear fuse was clipped (non-scale) to reduce tail weight.
3) Almost all internal fuse structural supports removed to save weight
4) Engine mount scale detail will be removed, reducing weight and drag. A purpose-driven design sized for the Estes 18mm motor mounts and screw retainers will be done.
5) Cannons will be narrowed and slightly altered from scale to reduce wingtip drag.
My 3D printer is about done with the Rev1.1 fuse upgrades. I should have some Rev 1.1 photos later today.
Speaking of progress -- Yesterday I spent a good part of the day modifying and printing parts for the X-Wing.
In construction, I confirmed the rocket is plausible. Fitting an engine mount in a plausibly sized X-wing will work. There is a path the ejection charge to blast all the way thru the top part of the scale engine. Four small parachutes will be contained inside the scale engines. The weight is in range of plausibility. For the engines, I want to properly size the mounts to use Estes retainers because the black end tips look cool anyway.
The forward fuse is long enough a small amount of clay should keep GC forward of the wing LE (which is forward of the CP experiments)
Through printing iterations, I made several significant design improvements and changes to rev 1.0 -- enough to conclude 1.0 is not going to fly but remain a construction, test, and improvement version. Here's a picture of Rev 1.0 in its "final" form:
Note: The R2 unit will be printed and painted separately on all revs. The Canopy will be printed in clear PLA.
Rev 1.1 will include the following known changes:
1) Balsa wings will no longer go thru the fuse. 3D printed internal wing mount plates were added to the rear fuse. This will save weight and increase strength.
2) Rear fuse was clipped (non-scale) to reduce tail weight.
3) Almost all internal fuse structural supports removed to save weight
4) Engine mount scale detail will be removed, reducing weight and drag. A purpose-driven design sized for the Estes 18mm motor mounts and screw retainers will be done.
5) Cannons will be narrowed and slightly altered from scale to reduce wingtip drag.
My 3D printer is about done with the Rev1.1 fuse upgrades. I should have some Rev 1.1 photos later today.
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Very cool thread!
I've also always wanted to build a mid/high power X-Wing and even have the legendary NCR kit (planning to build it one day).
I'm down for building perhaps a 4" diameter one for a 2027 launch. I should be retired by then and will try to meet and if I can't, I'll try to launch on the same day and record it.
I've also always wanted to build a mid/high power X-Wing and even have the legendary NCR kit (planning to build it one day).
I'm down for building perhaps a 4" diameter one for a 2027 launch. I should be retired by then and will try to meet and if I can't, I'll try to launch on the same day and record it.
The Red Darren
Member
Sure Saluki!
Most were modified from a publicly available Tinkercad design -- that I am becoming less and less happy with as I dive into it.
I've now done a simple redesign of the Engine files (mine from scratch).
The Body and Cannon designs are modified from the detailed design that is not mine.
NOTE: I noticed the LR engines on the attached file are not mirrors but the same. One will need a mirror flip!
Most were modified from a publicly available Tinkercad design -- that I am becoming less and less happy with as I dive into it.
I've now done a simple redesign of the Engine files (mine from scratch).
The Body and Cannon designs are modified from the detailed design that is not mine.
NOTE: I noticed the LR engines on the attached file are not mirrors but the same. One will need a mirror flip!
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The Red Darren
Member
Here are some pictures of the redesigned engine mounts with Estes retainers. These turned out great
The Red Darren
Member
X-Wing V1.2 assembled. Photo below.
A few notes on progress and plans for first flight:
The rocket is assembled minus the engine mounts, retainers and recovery system. The only outward change will be the addition of four black estes motor retainers (pictured above) at the aft end of the X-wing engines.
Note: the cannons are taped on -- I may omit them for first flight.
Design considerations for V1.3:
A few notes on progress and plans for first flight:
The rocket is assembled minus the engine mounts, retainers and recovery system. The only outward change will be the addition of four black estes motor retainers (pictured above) at the aft end of the X-wing engines.
Note: the cannons are taped on -- I may omit them for first flight.
Design considerations for V1.3:
- Shrink the rocket 25% (except the engines) and it would be more scale and lighter.
- Modify the aft body piece and engines to be all one print for additional strength
- Add launch lugs between the engines and fuse. There's a nice space for a 1/4 tube.
- Fix the fuse. The fuse should taper in just forward of the engines. This model doesn't so the fuse is too wide forward of the engines.
- Make the canopy part of the fuse. Printing it separately didn't turn out cool at all.
- The recovery system ejecting from the engines is novel -- More on that as I complete it.
- The fuse may not be lift/drag neutral. There's a decent chance it will veer up or down given the shape and differences between the top and bottom of the fuse. I'll need to document and perhaps tweak the nose.
- I'm debating flying the balsa wings without reinforcement given the stronger mounting scheme in V1.2. They would benefit from glassing -- but its so easy to replace broken bits, I may try it without the added weight/complexity first -- mostly because I'm concerned #2 will have more effect than a wing failure anyway.
- Given the weight of the rocket, I don't think B engines will suffice for a first flight. I'm looking at 4 x Q-Jet C12-4's for power.
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Gee, how much does it weigh? 4×B6 is equivalent to a D24, pretty much. For the Estes B6, that's about 10.8 lbf initial thrust and 4 lbf sustaining, 4.7 lbf average. Well, now that I've run the numbers, I guess it could easily weigh more than a pound with all four engines loaded, so yeah, I guess you're right.
Beware though: the C12 won't give you a lot more kick off the pad than the Estes B6 (about 50% more). You might want to consider C18s. Or 2×C18+2×C12 in diagonal pairs.
The Red Darren
Member
I do like the C18 -- That will be a nice kick off the rail.
The rocket will likely be just over 1lb on the pad. I should have it very near completion this weekend and have some good numbers.
Is simming anything like this possible in OpenRocket? Or RockSim for that matter? I was able to get a decent sim of the testbed X-Wing, but this is quite a bit more complicated. And none of the parts really seem to be reasonably modeled.
The rocket will likely be just over 1lb on the pad. I should have it very near completion this weekend and have some good numbers.
Is simming anything like this possible in OpenRocket? Or RockSim for that matter? I was able to get a decent sim of the testbed X-Wing, but this is quite a bit more complicated. And none of the parts really seem to be reasonably modeled.
I was curious about this so I ran a quick sim with the Simple Model Rocket example in OR:
So the C12 gives you a bit more kick. 4 mph is not a lot but it's also not nothing. Clearly and obviously the C18 is the "get it moving fast" champion here.
It absolutely can be modeled... you just have to be careful and a little creative in deciding how to model each part. For flight simulation, you will often be substituting parts that don't look exactly the same, but should aerodynamically behave similarly. It's certainly a bit of an art for models like this.
