Originally Posted by mwtoelle

Does anyone have the lengths of the body tubes in the kit? I know that it uses ST-13 tubing.

Originally Posted by BARGeezer

Gee, guess I had an upscale Enerjet 1340 without realizing it. Will look into resizing and repainting my Eliminator XL bird. Or maybe Phoenix Bird XL?

Originally Posted by blackshire

Not directly, but going by its 26.3" overall length (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...-2/782cen6.html ), and the 28.0" long Enerjet 1340 Sounding Rocket's component dimensions (given on page 2 here: http://www.oldrocketplans.com/enerj...340/enj1340.pdf [its main body tube was 13" long, and its payload tube was 8" long]), it should be possible to derive them. One difference between the two was that the 1340 Sounding Rocket used quite large, high-impulse Enerjet motors, and the length of the protruding rear portion of the motor counted as part of the 28.0" length. What was the typical "protrusion length" for these motors? (For 13 mm motors, it's 1/4", and for 18 mm motors, it's 1/2".) *ALSO*:

This picture of the "bulbous payload section" 1340/20 (see: http://www.oldrocketplans.com/enerj.../enj1340-20.pdf [its main body tube--to the rear edge of the fin unit, the drawing seems to show--was 12.0" long]) shows the protruding motor pretty well; it looks like it's protruding 1" or so behind the rear edge of the fin unit (there's also a short length of motor tube, or body tube, just behind the rear edge of the fin unit). Here (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca.../72ejetcat.html ) is the 1972 Enerjet catalog, which shows the big motors the 1340 Sounding Rockets used.

Originally Posted by blackshire

Hello All,

Last night I was looking up documentation on the Centuri Phoenix Bird (*not* the Estes re-issue) and its higher-powered sister, the Enerjet 1340 Sounding Rocket. The Estes Eliminator kit contains all of the Phoenix Bird's airframe parts except one--the plastic tubing connector, which was a molded plastic component. It was a cylinder with blunt conical front and rear ends (which fit inside the body tube and the payload section tube; the rear cone had [I think] a molded-on loop, not necessarily circular, to which the parachute and the shock cord were tied, and:

When the rocket was fitted together for flight (or display), the only portion of the plastic tubing coupler that was visible was a short section in its middle, which was the same diameter as the 1.34" O.D. body and payload tubes (Centuri #13 and Estes BT-56 designations). Does anyone have the dimensions of this #13 tubing coupler (particularly the length of the exposed "ring section" that matches the body tube diameter)? Re-creating this part would enable the Estes Eliminator to be converted to a Centuri Phoenix Bird or Enerjet 1340 Sounding Rocket clone.

Many thanks to anyone who can help!

Originally Posted by blackshire

Stick a delta wing on it rather far back, and you've got a "*very* freely interpreted" Pegasus XL ( http://www.google.com/search?q=pega...iw=1440&bih=794 )... :-)

Originally Posted by Earl

Jason-

I glanced through the thread somewhat quickly (and possibly you've already noted it), but the 1340 used heavy walled tubing that was thicker than the standard Centuri ST-13 tubing (Semroc/eRockets would have it). The 29mm motor mount tube (also heavy walled) is a "glove fit" inside that tubing.

The O.D. of this heavy walled ST-13 tubing is the same as the regular ST-13 tubing, but because it used a thicker tube, the nosecone was different than that used in the Phoenix Bird, Eliminator and other kits that made use of that similar looking plastic cone. I think the cone profile was the same; what was different is the 'shoulder' had a smaller O.D. to account for the thicker tube wall.

That said, the nosecone and fin unit from an Estes Eliminator can be used to make a nice clone...it just won't be as 'beefy' as the original 1340. The fin unit is the same between all kits that have used it off and on now for 46 years. It holds up well under F power from what I understand, but I think Jerry Irvine has reported fin flutter/fin breakage under G power.

Earl

Originally Posted by BARGeezer

Funny you should mention that. Just received Frank Burke's Pegasus X R/C rocket glider kit.

https://dynasoarrocketry.com/?page_id=1640

Would have loved to build the TMRK Pegasus kit, but they went defunct, plus it's a tad out of my budget ( Okay, more than a tad).

http://tmrk.rocketshoppe.com/pegasus.htm


Looked into cloning it, but the wing to body transitions look very difficult.