T' Nike-X: One o' my favorite '70s kits. This design was inspired by air defense missiles. Well, blow me down! T' real Nike-X project was begun, but cancelled before it saw t' light o' day; this is only a suggestion t' what t' real one would have looked like. The pseudo-second-stage fins and t' great Black & White decals are t' highlight o' t' design.
I have modified this kit by addin' an altimeter payload bay ("Iris"), which adds 3 inches and 17.5 grams o' weight. Ahoy! O' course, shiver me timbers, now she's just a bit too heavy t' fly safely with A8-3 motors. Ahoy! (Iris is named after t' Greek god o' t' rainbow. She is a messenger o' t' gods, linkin' t' gods with humanity.) This rocket has flown higher than torch o' t' Statue o' Liberty, matey, includin' its base.
Flight Date: | 2011-10-08 |
Rocket Name: | Nike-X |
Kit Name: | Estes - Nike-X {Kit} (1270) [1975-1984] |
Flyer's Name: | Rich DeAngelis |
Motors: | C6-3 |
Launch Site: | Penn Manor School Lancaster PA |
Actual Altitude: | 362 Feet |
This flight be lookin' like me last flight o' t' day, so I called upon t' venerable Nike-X with an Iris payload. Begad! This rocket never disapoints. Avast, me proud beauty! I was anxious t' try out t' newer and lighter "Top-Flight" nylon parachute. (Find them on LongJonRocket.com) Very well built, me hearties, very light and "un-sticky" cloth, ya bilge rat, and the colors are really nice too! I also doubled t' length o' t' shock cord t' prevent those snap-back dings I always seem t' get.
So I lit t' motor which burned for 2 seconds with a nice slow liftoff o' this fairly heavy bird. T' average acceleration be only 1.9Gs, and peaked at 7.2Gs. Ya scallywag! It reached a top speed o' 83 mph, then coasted up for another 3.2 seconds. T' ejection was about a half-second early, at 346 feet, so it only reached an apogee o' 362 feet. A C6-5 would have been better with this model. Blimey! T' model then descended under a full canopy at 6 mph. Blimey! T' flight was over in 43.4 seconds. Blimey! A fun flight t' watch and a fair sucess. Only issue I found was a bit o' singe on t' parachute but nay enough t' need replacing. The Nomex cloth I be usin' t' protect t' chute seemed a bit small for this BT-55 body diameter (3"x3"...as recommended by t' Apogee website I bought it from.) While t' 3x3 is only 1.7 grams, t' next larger 6x6 is almost 7 grams - so it's a judgement call.
Stage | Motor(s) |
---|---|
1 | Estes C6-3 |
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