| SR-06 'The Darkbird' A BT-70 based rocket with twin BT-60 parallel drop-off boosters. Special thanks to USAF Holloman AFB website for cool downloads. |
| Aircraft plywood TTW fins and brass launch lugs.... Mmmm... Old School ! |
| 24mm center and 18mm outboards, all with positive motor retention and aircraft plywood rings |
| Center break zipperless design with stuffer tube and Kevlar shock cord. |
| Major component layout less recovery parts |
| Length 40" Diameter 2.25" (BT-70) Take-off weight 18 oz ( Yep - baby got fat with all that gloss black paint and clearcoat too... ) |
| Darkbird has flown 1-21-2006 ! On the first flight only one of the outboards lit as can be clearly seen in the pic on left resulting in a very squirrely flight and almost too late ejection. Dud booster never separated from the rocket, so the safety of the concept got tested and proven right off the bat as well. On the second try all three lit up and she soared straight up separating both C6-0 boosters at burn-out and deploying chute at apogee. A picture perfect flight... Oh, the 'main engine' was a D12-3 on both flights... More flight pix to follow... On the same Bat-channel, stay tuned... ;-) |
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Here she is, a rather sinister looking bird with a mix of SR-70 and F-117 with a hint of X-15 thrown in for spice... She wears a solid gloss black coat of paint with custom decals of 20th Fighter Sq 'Silver Lobos' and Air Force Space Command. The final version uses Apogee plastic nosecone instead of the original Fliskits balsa one that you can still see in the pic top right taken after first coat of paint. I needed that nc on my new upscale twin 24mm Shark, but that's another story.... |
Darkbird has flown again 02-18-2006 Check out the 'Videos' page for a clip... All 3 lit up instantly for a beautiful lift-off, C6-0 boosters separated and deployed under a full chute about a second before the main D12-3 popped open and deployed nice as well... It would have been a picture perfect flight but one of the boosters ended up waaaay up in a treetop.... I guess I 'gotta' build another one now... :-) |