Monday, February 10, 2014

Red River Rocketry Starliner DST, Part 2 Parts



The nose cone seems to be made by BMS.
It has the dowel already glued in place with yellow wood glue.

The nose cone was made from dense balsa and a little rough.
Sanding with 220 then 400 will smooth it out.
The 12" parachute was interesting.

There are eight shroud lines, not six. The paper reinforcement rings are placed on the fold points.
The parachute instructions have you put a reinforcement disk on both sides of the parachute. The supplied kit rings are paper.
I switched out the paper rings for some Avery plastic rings.
Paper rings can tear, the plastic rings are much stronger and would only require a disk on one side.

It's interesting the chute was cut round and not eight sided. There are no corners where a tear could start.
Mylar tears pretty easily if there is a nick in the side.
One paper ring on either side could prevent a tear from starting, but I'd rather go with a single stronger plastic disk.

No comments:

Post a Comment