McDonnelDouglas LIM-49A Spartan

[Retired_for_now]

Nicely done! What size pipe do you use to make this a stomp rocket - a flying ABM (Anti-pigeon Ballistic Missile)?

Yogi (We also have the Nike Zeus and Bomarc missiles in the downloads - space and aviation sections respectively)

[nando]

Originally Posted by Retired_for_now

Nicely done! What size pipe do you use to make this a stomp rocket - a flying ABM (Anti-pigeon Ballistic Missile)?
Yogi

Thank You Yogi, but my missile is only for static display. My father and my uncle were great dinamic modelers and when I was younger (very younger!) I did some dinamic model,
but bad experiences took me on the side of the static modelism (the dark side? ).

Originally Posted by Retired_for_now

(We also have the Nike Zeus and Bomarc missiles in the downloads - space and aviation sections respectively)

Yes, I know. But your Nike (correctly) is a Nike Zeus B, with fins of the third stage different in form and with the first stage larger then other ones. The Spartan version (Nike X) was different in dimensions, with the first stage longer and more powerful,and obviously different in the guidance, warhead, etc.
Thus we have two versions available and one is flyable.
One note: In your model You put the warhead over the third stage, but the Nike Zeus and the Nike X (Spartan) had the same third stage, with the engine pointing forward.

A duct of the nozzles "U" shaped redirected back the jet, wich the terminal part was incapsulated into the fin. During atmospheric flight the fins of third stage are the only steerable surfaces. During the third stage firing, the jet of the engine came out from each fin, still steerable, allowing to drive the missile outside the atmosphere. It's a characteristic unique of this missile and I tried to reproduce it with small black circles in the rear notch of the fin. There's a video depicting, in the second part, a test of the rocket engine of the third stage that shows this strange but elegant solution.



Sorry for my pedantry, but this particular was one of the main reasons for wich i decided to design this subject.
Your model is beautiful and above all it flys. I love your models, particulary the "Martian" ones: the small and tender Pathfinder and the big and sophisticated Science Lab.

Best, Nando

[Retired_for_now]

Not pedantic at all - very interesting and a fascinating insight into how to engineer an elegant solution to the control problem (and how to capture it in the model). The Nike-Zeus does fly, but in terms of detail and accuracy your Spartan leaves it in the dust. The design point for any stomp rocket is the thrust tube and making it simple enough to replace (ballistic recovery is rough on the model ...). My accuracy on the stomp rockets is just a bit above "cartoon."

Yogi

[nando]

Jonathan kindly published my model at The Lower Hudson Valley E-Gift Shop.

Thanks Jonathan.