O l d g l o r y
Old Glory is an Aerotech Mirage kit. The Mirage is a real nice 2.6” paper &
plastic kit that is ideal for the flyer that wants to fly 29mm F & G motors
to low altitudes, or for the uncertified flyer that wants a big looking
rocket. But as it seems always happens
when I buy a kit, I made a few changes during construction.
I did not start with a
plan. I was just inspired to make
changes as construction progressed. It
started when I noticed the rather substantial motor mount tube was not only
considerably longer then a G motor might need, but also that it is rather beefy
for a paper tube. So, “just in case” I
decided to cut off the forward “motor stop” from the motor hook, leave out the
thrust ring flange, and shove the thrust ring in to about 8.6” (29/240 RMS case
depth). The fiber washer centering
rings, butted to the fin-locks and through-wall fin tangs seemed to be quite
strong, so all I did there was ensure good fillets of strong epoxy along all
seams of the motor mount, centering rings, airframe, & fins.
As construction
continued I got stuck staring at all that empty airframe. I just could not build a rocket whose sole
purpose was to transport a large volume of air to a different altitude. So I settled for creating a dual-deployment
electronics bay to out of the coupler for the top two sections of
airframe. This kept me happy for a
while until I realized that this rocket really needed dual deployment like I
needed to drop a brick on my toe. By
that I mean that the paper airframe was really better served letting the
booster recover on it’s own chute as designed.
(Otherwise it was going to fold.)
It was somewhere around this point when I decided to use the low
altitude channel to deploy an American flag instead of a completely unnecessary
parachute. The Aerotech 2.6” nose cone
has great shape, but not much strength, and no weight. So foam filling the nose cone served two
needed purposes. The foam made the cone
much more rigid, and added the needed weight to properly fly a flag.
Old Glory flew nicely
many times including once at Black Rock, and on a variety of motors. Her favorite was the H180. But after a dozen or so flights she was
looking a bit stressed, and I really did not want to witness a shred wrapped in
stars & stripes. So she is retired
now, and at this writing graces one corner of my living room still carrying the
flag.