Shinden Rocket Plane

fliteadmin

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As some of you may know, our next planned release was going to be the Shinden. This has been one of the more difficult design to recreate into a good flying foamie.
We have decided to push back the relase to give this plane the tender love and care it needs to actually fly well. We promise that when it is release it well be significantly less of a headache than it is currently. The wait will be worth it.
We don't want to leave you high and dry so we are still going to have a release this month, but more on that later.


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With the constant redesigning of this plane we had more than a handfull of prototypes lying around. Instead of just throwing them out, Peter decided that we should make some use of them.
How did he want to do that?


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By strapping a rocket to it of course!


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We tried to launch a rocket plane from a flying platform in the past, but it didn't work out so well. We had success launching from the ground but we still had the itch to take it off from the sky.


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Our favorite big boy, The Kraken, selflessly volunteered to haul the explosive strapped Shinden into the clouds.


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We got up to altitude, boot the Shinden out of the nest, and watched to see if it would fly.


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Success!


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We we thrilled to see that the rocket worked without fail, but were slightly disappointed to see the final speed.
We reached a max speed of 54.7 mph (88 km/h) with an E-Model rocket engine. Passable, but we wanted more.


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Bring in the F-Model rocket engine!


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The last time David strapped this style rocket to a plane it disintegrated. All the more reason to try it again!


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Well, I guess we should have saw that coming.
To be fair, we did jury rig the motor because we did not have the correct ignitor. Our best guess is the lack of a long enough fuse being replaced by black powder didn't make the rocket very happy.
DO NOT DO THIS YOURSELF! We want you to have all your fingers. It's easier to fly that way.
We pulled all the shrapnel out of our Shinden and went back to work on the design. We had to come up with something to release in its place.


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With winter just around the corner for some of us we though this would be a much better time to release our minis!


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We have been stewing on a few of these designs since earler this year and came up with a few more along the way.
There will be smaller versions of some of your favorite FliteTest designs along with a few you've never seen before.
Even if winter doesn't visit you where you live (lucky you) these baby planes are great for flying around if you don't have a ton of room to do so.
Keep your eyes peeled for these to show up in the store very, very soon.

As always, thanks to the ones who asked for us to play with more rocket engines (Peter specifically loves you) and thanks for watching and supporting FliteTest!
 

AkimboGlueGuns

Biplane Guy
Mentor
Awesome guys, one of my favorite designs thus far. Have you seen the devastator from the game crimson skies, it looks like a biplane shinden. devastator.jpg
 

Havok

Junior Member
Nice, but can I make a recommendation for some basic safety equipment when playing with Rockets. Plus you really want to lead by example. ie: A face-shield, some gloves when arming it.
 

PropSpinner

New member
Nice, but can I make a recommendation for some basic safety equipment when playing with Rockets. Plus you really want to lead by example. ie: A face-shield, some gloves when arming it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the episode but must agree with this post.
 

JohnRambozo

Posted a thousand or more times
I thoroughly enjoyed the episode but must agree with this post.

Great episode!

As one who has experienced the effects of stupidity applied to solid rocket fuel and fireworks (at different times), I must also agree with those concerned about safety. I fried my hands as a kid. It could have been much worse, but I still remember the excruciating pain that lasted for days.

Having said that... I think the exploding motor was simply due to sealing in the black powder with hot glue. The pressure at the time of ignition... the expanding gas takes the path of least resistance and the engine itself is mostly solid fuel, which isn't very durable. If a hole was left for the pressure to release out the back, it might have worked.

PS - I love the mini planes!
 
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Balu

Lurker
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
Does anyone have an idea what that quad "surfboard" with "Helipad" marking in the back was?

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stay-fun

Helicopter addict
Hey guys, AWESOME episode! It was only missing Josh&Josh's ROCKETPLAAAAAAAAANE! Sure you don't have to fill the episode with it, but once is nice as a wink to the previous episode :)

Also, I agree with the others: lead by example. Basically you're saying you're doing dangerous things, and telling us not to do that... So why are you guys being unsafe and why would that be ok for you guys but not for us?
 

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
What a fun episode!

Some remarks on safety from a reasonably experienced rocketeer:
The only ignition hazards I saw were 1. the use of hot glue around the motor (really, that part is not a good idea at all) and 2. Peter having his face in the wrong spot during the critical period of hooking up the igniter leads. You want to have the motor perpendicular to you during that stage so that if it lights off you don't get burned and don't get hit. That's the policy I've always followed, and it has worked well, but then I've never had a premature ignition, either, because the entire system is disarmed during hookup for a ground launch. You don't have that option with an air launch.

The gloves and face shield suggested by someone else are over the top and likely to just get in the way, leading to worse mistakes.

The use of black powder to aid ignition wasn't a good idea--BP will go runaway in an enclosed space such as a plugged combustion chamber, and it blows the motor apart. It has its uses for ejection charges and for secure ignition of multistage rockets, but is a supremely bad idea in the combustion chamber. It is not, however, a safety violation since the model was kept a safe distance away from the flight line at ignition.

I am a bit alarmed by the casing rupture on that motor. The E and lower Estes black power engines typically just blow out the nozzle or the other end, as those are the lowest strength components. Casing ruptures are much more catastrophic and much more dangerous. Clearly the Aerotech cases are not built to withstand a nozzle plugging.
 

PropSpinner

New member
Get the right igniter and try the F engine again. Make an arming plug for it though so I don't get the creeps when you apply the power with the engine facing you. You can arm it last thing before you take off.
 

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