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.

Video Of Swing Test

2026-08-04 Primer Day 01

Rustoleum Rusty Metal (Red Oxide) Primer

Proposed Paint Scheme

Pitts Special

Red Paint

Rustoleum Sunrise Red

2026-08-06 Pitts Special

Masked and shot a mist coat of Sunrise Red, followed by Rustoleum Semi Gloss White

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

2026-08-08 Furshlugginer Badger...

Revised the design.. turned the Nose Cone and Air Inlet Side Pod on the wood lathe, cut and sanded the Air Inlet Side Pods, and then glued them into place.

2026-08-08 Gluing The Nose Cones, Mitering The Fin Tubes and CAD Drawings

2026-08-10 Building the Spool, and installing the Launch Lugs

Cut the Retaining Rings using my Scroll Saw, and then sanded them to shape. They were then glued to a BT-52HMF Motor Tube.

The Launch Lugs were cut to length and glued to the Body and Fin Tubes.

2026-08-11 Nose Ballast and Lag Screw Eye

Ended up using a 1" Dia Steel Bar, a little over 2-1/2" long. There were (2) pieces that just happened to work. I cut a 2-1/8" Dia wooden dowel to 1-1/4" Long and drilled it for the Lag Screw. Then slid it all into the Nose Cone counter bore and glued it into place using Gorilla Wood Glue.