Thursday, July 30, 2026

 Curtiss Jenny

 This one is an upscale of the 1964 Estes "Flying Jenny"

  • Retro Curtiss Jenny paint,
  • 12" Wingspan with Jenny style wings (vs 8-1/2),
  • BT-52H (vs BT-20),
  • Streamer Recovery for the 24mm motor (vs headbanger recovery),
  • 1/4" Plywood Construction


 2026-07-31 Nose Cone and Plywood

Cut the Nose Cone on my wood lathe, and then cut the Wings, Rudders and BT-52HMF.​
Updated Open Rocket​
 






 


Gluing Center Wings to the Body Tube




2026-08-01 Gluing Rudders to Center Wings
 


 
 
Gluing Bottom Wing to Rudders
 

  
Gluing Top Wing to Rudders
 

 
Gluing Strut Rod to Body / Bottom Wing 
 



Finished, Less Motor and Ballast
 



2026-08-02 Nose Cone Ballast

Installed the Ballast into the Nose Cone, then glued the sub-assy into the BT-52HMF

 
 

Launch Lug Install and Motor Mod's

The thought is the asymmetric drag from the launch lug will make the "Glider" bank to the left... :dontknow:
The C11-3 motor was modified by adding to masking tape Centering Rings on each end. Then some Bird Tape mylar was installed as a Streamer between the Centering Rings.​
 




Swing Test

Schwing! It passed!​​Rock solid stability, Open Rocket shows a Caliber of 0.631 and a Percentage of 8.62 using a C11-3 motor.​
 
 


 
 


 

 

 
 

Monday, July 20, 2026

Furshlugginer... A Scratch Build

 

Furshlugginer: - in Yiddish it means something that is old, battered, or junky.

I chose this name because I really have no idea how this rocket will turn out, or what it's design will entail.
I started out using the LEGO model of the USS Defiant, which has a center body and a couple of large nacelles as outriggers.
 

 So lets started with a BT-80H body tube and a couple of BT-80H outriggers. These will be glued together and left to dry.
 




 2026-07-21 Forming the BT-80H Sub Assy

I submerged the BT-80H Sub Assy for 5 minutes in cold water, then clamped it in a fixture to make the overall height 2". Clamped the sides to make the BT-80H Tube Fins rectangularish.​
I'll release the fixture tomorrow and check it out.​
 





2026-07-22 Tube Forming - 24 Hours Later

Released the BT-80H Tubes from the fixture and there was a small amount of spring back. So I soaked them in water again for 5 minutes and stuck them back into the fixture​
CAD

Fired up the CAD Station and knocked out a quick study drawing:​
 

  
Open Rocket

Used the study drawing to build an Open Rocket model and simulation:​
 

2026-07-28 CAD Drawings