Po' Boy Rocket Power

[Acorn Man]

Hey Guys,

I have always wanted to make a rocket powered balsa plane, but never have been successful. But now that I know how to make my own rockets, vesco fuse rockets, (like a pop bottle rocket without report), I think it will work. The one thing I can't figure out is where exactly to put it. I would assume either directly under the wings or at the balance point. By the way, I was planning on using a simple little model (pure balsa), like the Jetfire, Starfife, or Eagle. Which would you use? Thanks.

[David Lewis]

My suggestion is mark the CG, remove the noseweight, and mount the motor(s) as far forward as possible. Then add back noseweight as necessary. The thrustline should be as high as possible. Trimming will be easier if thrust equals about 1/2 the gross takeoff weight. I tried gluing motors to the Jetfire and Starfire and they both flew extremely well on bottle rocket power.

One modification I made was to move the CG back and get rid of some of the decalage. That reduced speed-pitch coupling and raised L/D. It might also be worthwhile to convert to high wing configuration and use a higher performance airfoil -- an airfoil that extends the entire length of the wing.

[WIDDOG]

I tried some experimenting with homemade rockets. http://youtu.be/_aEnPyUSs0U. I used sugar and tree stump remover for fuel. Also I used PVC pipe as my motor case. I had a problem with the motor making too much smoke and had to quite.

[stx44]

There a plans available for Jetex powered models at hippocket aeronautics.

http://www.hippocketaeronautics.com/hpa ... 780&page=3

I thing if you try house of frog

http://www.houseoffrog.co.uk/

from memory they had some rocket powered jobs as well.