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Old 06-12-2018, 04:00 PM
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Earl Earl is offline
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Quote:
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!


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
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