Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper

The Canadair CL-415 is designed specifically for aerial firefighting.

My wife and I saw a couple of these planes in action last week at Stagecoach Reservoir in Oak Creek , CO. They were "gathering water" for the Elk Creek Fire, which they and the ground crews obtained 100% containment on. Quite spectacular flying... here's a video:

Canadair 415 Fire Fighting Plane - Stagecoach Reservoir - Elk Fire - Oak Creek , CO August 2025

So my mind got to thinking about a scale version of the plane, but as a rocket. The upper wing would be removed for flight... or perhaps the plane could be made as a glider.

2025-08-22 CAD Drawing Of Fuselage

2025-08-23 Fuselage Blank

Glued up the fuselage blanks... I mean... after all... what else wood I use... it is a Boat / Plane / Rocket.

2025-08-24 Fuselage Fabrication

Used my wood lathe and a 2" diameter Forstner bit to bore the hole. Then cut the bevels on the table saw, and sanded the final profile.

Came out pretty nice... and the weight was even less than the CAD model. All in all a pretty good end result.

2025-08-29 CAD Model... In-Process

2025-08-30 Drawing Set, Rev 01

2025-09-13 Spool Tube and Plywood / Dowel Items

Tuba-Paloosa... Cut the (6) tubes for the Spool Tube, as well as cutting the Fuselage to length.

The BT-52H Motor Tube is sleeved with a C-55, the C-50 is sleeved with a BT-50H, both secured with Elmer's White Glue.

The (2) C-55's were cut longitudinally and are used as spacers between the BT-52H and the BT-50H, all secured with Gorilla Wood Glue.

Also cut the items from 1/4" Plywood and 3/4" Dia Dowels

2025-09-14 Centering Rings and Bulkhead

The Centering Rings were cut from 1/4" Plywood. A 1" Forstener bit was used to cut the holes for the BT-50H tube and the elliptical holes were cut using a 3/4" Forstener bit and a Dremel. This will be the Altimeter Bay opening.

The Rear Centering Ring was then attached to the Rear Bulkhead using Gorilla Wood Glue. Once the glue set-up, the altimeter opening was then drilled thru the Rear Centering Ring.

The rings were then placed over the BT-50H and Gorilla Wood Glued into place.

Destroyer HVY-PD

Here's a design that stretches the aerodynamics of odd-roc building... at least in my mind. It's loosely based on artwork by Pablo Dominguez, titled "Desert Run".

I've moved the motor downward to align with the CG, and for stability it has horizontal fins, as well as tube fins.

The actual as built rocket will have a nose made from a sculpted pair of glued up 2 x 6's, while the body will be a mix of C-204 tubing and BT-52HMF tubing. The main fins are 1 piece, and fabricated from 1/4" plywood, while the upper fin is made from 1/8" basswood.

Parachute is 30" Nylon and deploys from the rear of the rocket.

I'll knock out some preliminary CAD study drawings. Looks like a fun build.

2025-08-03

Here's the preliminary CAD Drawing... needs some refinement.... and lots of greebles and panelizing.

2025-08-05

Did a bit more work on the cad model and created a drawing of the nose cone. I figure that'll be the 1st thing to build, then go from there.

I cut some 2 x 6's into 3-1/2" x 5-1/2" blocks for the Nose Cone and glued them together. They'll serve as the basis to start building it from.

Check out how tight the wood grain is, I picked some scrap boards left over from our pole barn build. They're really good.

2025-08-06 Nose Cone Day 02

Took the Glued Up Block and cut it to size on my table saw. Then turned the (2) Shoulders on my wood lathe from a pine 4x4.

Used Gorilla Wood Glue to glue the Shoulders to the Nose Cone.

Updated the Open Rocket Simulation.

2025-08-08 Nose Cone Day 03

Drilled the holes using a 1" dia. Forstner bit, then used my Table Saw and Chop Saw to finish up the cuts.

I'm thinking of leaving it as is and not sanding the radi... kind of looks sinister.

And the angles on the shoulders... plus a screw up miter for good measure..

2025-08-09 Drawing Set, Rev 02

2025-08-10 Sanded the nose cone.

Cut the Body Tubes, the Main Structural Fin and the Ballast.

Installed and glued the Ballast

2025-08-11 Lags Screw Install

This was kind of cool. I cut a 1" dia. dowel at 2-1/2" long and then bored a hole on my wood lathe in the center of the dowel. The Lag Screw has a 3" long shank, that means it'll penetrate into the nose cone 1/2".

Placed glue into the lower 1" hole in the nose cone, injected it into the hole in the center of the dowle and then applied glue to the o.d. of the dowel and slid it into place. I then screwed the Lag into the Dowel.

I let that sit for half an hour and then screwed the Lag Screw the last 1/2" into the Nose Cone. You can see where the Lag actually is pushing the wood glue out between the grains of the wood.

2025-08-12 Gluing C-204's to Nose Cone

Layed out the C-204's and then glued them to the Nose Cone Shoulders. I'll cut the profiles into them once the glue dries.

2025-08-19 Slicing the C-204's & 1st Gluing of Wing

Cut the C-204's and started gluing the Wing.

2025-08-20 Gluing C-204 to Wing and Motor Mount - Cutting Side Plate

Continued gluing the sliced up C-204 to the Wing, and installed the 29MM Motor Mount.

Also cut the Side Plates from some 1/8" Plywood. They were a bit warped, so they were soaked in water and then clamped to a flat surface... I'll report back on how that worked.

2025-08-21 Installing Side Plates

Started gluing the side plates to the C-204's, just external glue at this time, just the longitudinal seams, not the front.

The wetting and subsequent clamping of the side plates helped the warping, but they are still warped inward a bit. That's not such a bad thing, should help them to contain the ejection charge... but I'll try to add an internal cross brace to straighten them back out.

Cross Brace

Installed the Cross Brace and glued it into place. I'll also glue it to the Motor Tube tomorrow.

2025-08-22 Front Cross Plate, Side Plates

The front of the Side Plates needed pushed outward. I cut and installed a Front Cross Brace and then clamped externally the side plates from the front. Then, glued the Front Cross Plate to the front of the Side Plate and to the Nose Cone.

2025-08-23 Internal Fillets and Launch Lug

2025-08-27 Upper Wing Panels 1 and 2 and Wing To Body Gussets

2025-08-28 Upper Wing Segments and Leading Edge

Cut the Upper Ring Segments and the Two Leading Edge Strips.

The Upper Leading Edge strips I made from a 1-1/4" dowel and cut them using my table saw. I was surprised at just how well they fit. Anyhoo... I used Gorilla Wood Glue to attach the parts to the wing and C-204.

2025-08-29

I took a stab at re-designing the rocket to use single oval C-80 tube fins on each fin in Open Rocket. That would make the rocket look much more like the Pablo Dominguez artwork. Stability goes from 16.2% down to 13.2%. Still on the fence... might have to just build a fixture and try it.. see if it passes a swing test.

Performing internal Wing glue fillets and installed the rear gusset Filler Panels.

2025-08-30 Blocking Altimeter Bay From The Ejection Blast

In order to block the Altimeter Bay from the Ejection Blast I glued a 5/16" dia and a 3/16" dia wooden dowel across the front of the Altimeter Bay.

C-80 Oval Tube Fins and Wing Gusset Filler Plates

Used the same procedure for making the Oval Tube Fins as previously discussed.... I had to make a fixture though from a 2 X 4. These are a bit more rectangular in shape.

Also installed the Wing Gusset Filler Plates.

2025-08-31

The rectangular Tube Fin came out great..... But if it's mounted forward on the wing itself, where it looks good, the stability of the rocket drops dramatically.

I did a redesign however, with the Rectangular Tube Fins mounted below and rearward, supported by nacelle pylons.

It looks cool and it places the Tube Fins in the optimal position for stability.

Here's the Open Rocket Simulation and a Mock-Up

2025-09-01 Tube Fin Nacelles & Rectangular Tube Fin Mystery Solved

Cut the Tube Fin Nacelles and glued them to the wings.

I discovered that the the Rectangular Tube Fins I had previously made were different sizes? (1) was a C-80 and (1) was a C-300. So I set about making another Rectangular Fin out of each size. I'll likely use the C-300's... their size just seems to be better for this rocket.

2025-09-02 White Washing The Tube Fin Bores

I decided to go ahead and white wash the bores of the Fin Tubes with Wood Glue. Should give some rigidity to the tubes.... we'll see how this turns out.