The Estes Sandpiper kit was produced from 1983 - 1984.
Vashon (Freon, "cold power") previously produced a Sandpiper about the same size. The Vashon version was hardly scale, there was no tapering tail cone.
With the release of the new, large Estes Jayhawk, I thought it would be interesting to build this variant.
This is almost a spare parts build, the 3D printed nose cone was explained in the previous post.
I redrew the decals, fin patterns and shroud. The shroud (as it is right now) may not fit the BT-20 and BT-50 tubes. I'll make adjustments before the PDF is available to Patreon subscribers.
The BT-50 tube is 7 3/4" long, the engine mount tube is 3 1/2" long.
The tail cone length is approximately 1 11/16" tall. The nose cone is 4 3/8" tall, exposed.
The launch lug is an LL-2E at 9 1/2" long. 12" long launch lugs can be ordered from jonrocket.com and cut to size.
Clay weight square (not shown) is 1/2 oz.
The payloadbay.com website is down right now,
I had to find another shroud generator, this one is from:
https://www.delorie.com/rockets/transitions.html
Before I had the 3D nosecone, I had ordered a SEM-BNC-50YP balsa nose cone from Erockets.biz.
If I couldn't get a plastic PNC-50S, I was going to add the upper vanes like in the old Vashon kit. The vane template is directly below the balsa cone.
This was the Centuri Jayhawk that Estes modified with the nose and replaced the fiber fins with balsa. I just finished the Centuri version.
ReplyDeleteHi Scigs,
DeleteI had built the Centuri version in the late 1970s. After I saw the Estes version I wondered if it was a reissue with changes. The decals are very different.
I've built a few "Jayhawks" over the years: https://modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com/2020/07/wolverine-jayhawk-build-background.html
My name is not Anonymous, my bad.
ReplyDeleteThe different names of Jayhawk and Sandpiper (for very similar-looking target drone) had me rather confused. If I look up information by the AQM-37 designation, I generally see the Jayhawk name and not the Sandpiper. According to the Wikipedia article, the Sandpiper name came from a USAF project investigating an alternate propulsion system (see under "AQM-81A Firebolt" heading).
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AQM-37_Jayhawk