Centuri X-16 and X-7 fin patterns?
 

Hello All,

I'm looking for the fin patterns for the X-16 single motor/two-motor cluster rocket and the X-7 single-stage/two-stage rocket from the Centuri Power System Outfit (see: http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...pshandbook.html ). Does anyone here have the fin patterns for these two rockets?

Semroc carries balsa versions of both rockets' nose cones, so cloning them would be easy.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Been looking for plans on these myself - so if anyone has em :D

~ AL

Working on them ...

My absolute favorite 3 words I love to hear from Carl. Good enough for me!

Wow, I never knew that those designs even existed. Cool! :cool:

MarkII

That's "as good as legal tender" for me as well!

The X-16 (with or without its optional payload section) also carried a constant-drag, falling sphere experiment for measuring the rocket's altitude at ejection. A 1.5" (38 mm) diameter ping-pong ball was ejected and fell at a constant 30 feet per second, so by timing the interval between the ball's ejection and landing and multiplying that figure by 30, the ejection altitude in feet could be computed.

This is the same principle used in the 1 meter diameter inflatable aluminized mylar "ROBIN" (ROcket Balloon INstrument) falling spheres carried by some versions of the Arcas, Loki-Dart, Super Loki-Dart, and Viper-Dart meteorological rockets, which were/are tracked by radar and timed during descent to yield atmospheric density and wind profiles.

The single-stage X-7 was the same rocket (with different decals and without the optional payload section) as the Lancer kit in the mid-1970s Centuri "Stellar Series" of kits that they sold through their "Rocket Times" newsletter. The "all up" two-stage version of the X-7 with the booster module and the payload section was the same as the Lance Corporal kit in the Stellar Series.

There are already Lancer fins available from Semroc: http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts...?idproduct=2181 So there's your X-7 fins.

No picture, though.

BEC, thank you for the tip about the Lancer fins! I wonder if they include the Aerobee-inspired balsa strip "conduits" (used on the Lancer and Lance Corporal, but not on the X-7 from the Centuri Power System Outfit)? It's no problem if they're not included, as I'm happy to have the fin set available.

On getting the full Power System Outfit parts set available (the X-16 and X-7 *and* all of their optional modules: http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts...rts.asp?ID=1121 )--Carl, that was *FAST*! Are the four flat "half-moon shaped" centering/sealing pieces for the motor tubes in the X-16's two-motor mount included in the laser-cut balsa parts sheet? (If not, it's no problem--I can use the old "tissue/glue putty" method to seal the spaces between the two motor tubes and the ST-16 stage coupler that they're glued into.)

Incidentally, the X-16 would also be a very good, stable booster for carrying parasite boost-gliders aloft. If you produced, say, a 3-in-1 parasite boost-glider "Combo Kit" consisting of the Firefly (http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts...arts.asp?ID=128 ), the "T-tailed" glider from the Multi-Roc kit (http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts...arts.asp?ID=168 ), and the canard glider from the Condor kit (http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts...arts.asp?ID=134 ), the X-16--especially with the two-motor cluster mount installed--could carry one or more (and perhaps all three) of these gliders at a time! I know what I'll be ordering when my next state disability payment comes in later this month... :-)

Actually, you are in a better position with respect to these classic old designs than me. I knew that they existed, but not having the money to buy them "way back when," I was restricted to catalog-gazing.

While I am a firm believer in the joys of delayed gratification (having experienced it myself many times), thirty-plus years of delayed gratification is a *LONG* time! It is sometimes much nicer to discover a rocket design when, as an adult, one has the income to purchase the kit or parts set.