(BAR-38) B-29 Sci-Fi Odd-Roc
I saw this photo and thought... that would make an awesome rocket?
Motor(s) would be mounted in the fuselage. Maybe a single composite or a clustered BP configuration.
Maybe rear ejection with twin chutes?
Here's a preliminary Open Rocket simulation. I didn't scale anything
yet, this is just to attempt to see if this is even feasible.
As it turns out, based on the CG, this bird basically is a tractor motor design, which IMO solves a lot of problems.
4" diameter "sphere", BT-60 fuselages. Vertical stabilizer and wings are built like a balsa model.
2024-10-08
Almost 4 years later....
So here's the sim.... 29mm spool mounted motor and chute ... tractor set-up
Build Thread To Follow....
2024-10-12
Prelim CAD Model
2024-10-13 Preliminary CAD Drawings
2024-10-17 Nose Cone Block Gluing
The side boards were sanded to flatten one side.
Applied Titebond II Premium Wood Glue to
the 3/4" side boards and also (not shown) to the 4 x 4. Then clamped
everything in place.
2024-10-18 Turning the Nose Block on my Wood Lathe
2024-10-19 Construction Overview
2024-10-19 Cut the B-29 Fuselage for the Wings, Launch Lug, Upper Turret and the Recovery Pin
I cut the Wings from 1/4" plywood and started gluing them to the BT/C-300
2024-10-20 Rev 03 of the CAD Drawings
2024-10-21 Gluing the Wing/BT-300 Sub Assy into the Wooden Cockpit
2024-10-23 Fuselage Glue Fillets & Cutting the Horizontal and Vertical Stabilizers
2024-10-23 Vertical Stabilizer Gluing To Wing
2024-10-25 Longitudinal Stabilizer Stiffeners
These will be hidden inside the BT/C-60 Side Pods.
2024-10-26 Glue Fillets... and Side Sphere's for the BT/C-60.
Played a bit of Hangman with the rocket... looks like this one won't
recover nose first and will likely sacrifice it's rear stability fin set
to the Gods Of Recovery...
2024-10-27 Slicing and Dicing The BT/C-60's
Spent about 4 hours prepping the BT/C-60 side tubes for gluing to the plywood. It's all just mocked-up at this point.
2024-10-29 Glued the BT/C-60 side tubes to the plywood.
Used quick clamps, spring clips, rubber bands and a bunch of pens and markers to push all the surfaces down to align the joints.
Also made some spacers to hold the Vertical Stabilizers "just right". I'll remove them once the glue had dried.
Applied Titebond Quick and Thick glue fillets at the Fuselages to
Plywood joints. Cut and installed the Rear Tail Gunner Stations.
2024-10-31 Sanding the Spherical Windows
Went
out to the barn in search of something to use to sand the curvature on
the Spherical Windows. It just so happens that some plastic shelving
legs are the perfect size!
The Gods of Odd-Rocs must be in approval of
this project.
I layed some 100 grit sandpaper over the shelving leg and sanded the contours to match the BT-60 tube.
Gluing the Spheres
2024-11-01
Turning the Engine Cowlings, Rear Gunner Cones and the Top Turret
Made these from pine on my wood lathe.
Nose Gun Pod
The right gun doubles as the launch lug. Just gluing it in place... to be followed by some fillets and CWF.
2024-11-02 Nose Gun: Wooden Dowel
Gluing the wooden dowel. Used a piece of 1" wood and some playing cards to get it to align with the launch lug.
Pew-Pew.... Pew-Pew
2024-11-02 Horizontal Stabilizers... these are also Through The Wall
2024-11-17 Spool and a Swing Test
Spool
Rough
cut the Centering Rings with the fly cutter and then trued up the
O.D.'s on the wood lathe. Used Gorilla Glue for the initial fillets,
then finished up with Titebond Quick & Thick. Then chucked the
finished spool into the lathe and sanded the O.D.'s to fit the the C-300
inner tubes.
Swing Test
As a recap: Open Rocket showed this rocket to be unstable with a -0.394 calibers.
The
swing test showed that it is indeed unstable.... it flies backwards
just as good as forwards, and it dances on it's nose quite fine too.
I'll
go ahead and build the "Stability Pods", basically a couple of arrow
shafts to add to the back of the rocket... then give it another swing
test.
2024-11-19 Crossbar Elevators
I cut the Crossbar Elevators and temporarily installed them using some
masking tape. She passed the swing test with flying colors.
2024-11-22 Elevator Glue Fillets and attaching the Gun Barrels to the Upper Turret
2024-11-23
Sanded the barrels so they'd be even with each other... and applied
some CWF to the "Don't Need Em Anymore Rear Stability Holes".
2025-02-19 Cockpit Glass Frame
I've noodled over this ad nauseam. So I set about to make this happen using Quaker Oats Granola Cereal cardboard.
I cut an O.D. I.D. ring but it was flat. Hmm. How do I get it to conform to the round profile of the B-29 nose?
Viola,
I've got it! I wetted a dish drying towel with water, ringed it out so
it was damp, and then laid the dish drying towel on top of the frame,
on top of the B-29.
2 hours later... just what I wanted.
Pulled out the Gorilla Wood Glue and now it's ready for the next window frame... that weird teardrop shape.
2025-03-13
As promised... cut out that weird teardrop from some cereal box cardboard, formed it to the nose cone with a damp towel and then wood glued it to the nose.
