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Star Wars Gamma -Wing Fighter

Another rocket inspired by a photo from the internet.

The site where I found this image from states it is a T-Wing. As the site goes on to explain "this is the winning model from Koensayr, the designers of the Y-Wing bomber that served the Rebel Alliance so well during the civil war."

I've searched the internet and it appears that this is not in reality a T-Wing? The R-60 T-Wing appears similar to the X-Wing (Fuselage) but with (3) wings. A photo is shown below:

The Star Wars Fandom site explains it here... R-60 T-Wing Interceptor

And the Gizmodo site seems to back that up.... Star Wars Wings, Ranked

Regardless... I like the design of the R-60... I'll put it on the build pile.

Back to the Design

The rocket design uses a C-204 for the center body tube, BT/C-80H for the fin tubes and use 3/4" pine ahead of the CG and 1/4" plywood and 1/8" Basswood behind the CG. It features a 29mm motor and a rear eject spool / parachute.

2025-11-10 Revised the rocket to look more like the sketch...

2025-11-13 CAD Model and Preliminary Drawing Set Rev 00

2025-11-14 Finished up the CAD model and the drawing set.

Made the Tube Fins an inch longer, and straightened out the Vertical Stabilizers.

2025-11-15 Build Day 01: Front Fuselage

Used some left over hardwood Red Oak flooring for this piece. All cuts were made using my table saw, except for the clearance slot which was cut on my Radial Arm Saw and finished using a wood chisel.

Nose Cones and Body Tubes

Cut the Nose Cones from Redwood... then started gluing everything up. The cockpit will cut longitudinally once the glue is dried.

Front Fuselage scallops for Motor / Recovery Bay

2025-11-16 Gluing Front Fuselage To C-204

Cutting the Cockpit Assembly

Messing around with some ideas for finishing the rocket.

I also revised the stabilizers to have forward facing sweep.... yeah, I'm gonna do that.

2025-11-17 Rear Fuselage: Upper Basswood

Rear Fuselage: Lower Basswood

I used a 1/2" thick shim and a 1/4" thick shim on both sides to locate the lower Basswood supports... then glued them in place.

2025-11-19 Rear Fuselage Extension

Added a 1" extension to the Rear Upper Fuselage

Attaching The Tube Fins

I took the rocket out to the barn and sanded the top surface flat to remove any glue and to align the Front and Rear Fuselages. I then shimmed the Fuselage in preparation for gluing the tube fins.

Tube Fins were cut to length and then perforated with a push pin where they will attach to the Basswood. The holes were reamed with the push pin to enlarge them.

Gorilla wood glue was placed onto the Tube Fins at the perforations and then pushed into the perforations with my index finger. Wood glue was then placed onto the Basswood and the Tube Fins were pushed into place.

Video Of Perforating The Tubes

2025-11-20 Internal Titebond Quick and Thick Fillets and Altimeter Bay.

2025-11-23 Vertical Stabilizers

Cut and began gluing on the Vertical Stabilizers

2025-11-24 Cockpit Rear Hump

Basswood To The Rescue

2025-11-24 Gluing the Cockpit and Photo Shoot

2025-11-26 Launch Lugs aka: Pew Pew Cannons

Front Fuselage Ballast

Cut a couple of 1/2" Dia x 2" Long Steel Ballast Bars to insert into the Front Fuselage holes.

When I first ran the OpenRocket simulation for this rocket I had planned on using 3" long ballast bars... but now that the rocket is nearing completion, it looks like 2" will work. I also cut (2) 7/8" long 1/2" Dia. Pine Dowels to occupy the space below the steel.