| Midget 204 2" (ST-20) Upscale | Midget Family |
| This Midget variant was built using Totally
Tubular's version of Centuri's ST-20 (2") tubing. Totally Tubular
calls it T-2.04", hence the name of the rocket.
The Midget 204 was designed to fly on 24mm black powder motors using gap staging. One of the gap staging vents is visible in the picture. It turned out to be too heavy to fly on D12 boosters - it lumbers into the air. But it sure looks pretty The boattail tapers to BT-55 with a 24mm motor mount. Since it is set up for gap staging, a motor hook can be accomodated. The booster mates to the sustainer using a BT-55 coupler. |
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Both colors of paint are regular RustOleum.| The nosecone is turned from balsa, and has been hollowed out.
That allows a little extra room for recovery harness and lets any stabilizing
noseweight be moved farther forward thereby reducing the amount of weight
required. |
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Here's a pre-flight shot. I think it's only ever flown once in staged configuration, maybe twice. It can just barely be flown, but it crawls up the rod. Extremely calm air is needed. I have built another booster which uses a composite motor and has a recovery system. It also includeds a battery and timer for starting the sustainer motor (BP), but I've never flown it. One of these days... With its much higher thrust, it should perform much better off the rod. Here's a drawing for the new booster airframe showing the precious little space for motor and recovery system: ebooster.pdf The battery is mounted on the outside of the airframe while the timer is mounted on a fin. It's been described as "borg". Pics later. |
12-25-2008 |