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Winter Outing at the Art InstituteDecember 21By Bob KaplowNIRA members and families should meet atthe Columbus street (Lakeside) entrance atnoon. Those who want to arrive earlier cangather at the 12 noon at the same entrance,at the northeast corner of the museum. Ifyou've got an FRS radio, use channel 11subcode 7 as usual to track us down.The Art Institute of Chicago111 South Michigan AvenueChicago, Illinois 60603(312) 443-3600Museum HoursSunday 10:00-5:00Gallery 227Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineeringfrom NASA's Aeronautical Research explores the architecture and engineering ofwind tunnels by displaying approximately 90objects from NASA's collection, includingwind tunnel models and flight artifacts, pastand present. The exhibition commemoratesthe centennial of powered, controlled flightthat began with the landmark take off of theWright brothers on December 17, 1903.Objects included in the exhibition date backto NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA),founded in 1915. Created out of that agencyat the beginning of the space race in 1958,NASA has a wealth of often unexhibited andunpublished artifacts that not only documenttechnological advances in flight over thepast century but are also aesthetically striking. Beyond the historic dimension, the exhibition showcases some of the latest research being done for aircrafts with“morphing" wings, self-healing vehicle“skins" and biologically inspired sensors elements that NASA hopes will make future airtravel accident free, environmentallyfriendly, and affordable and accessible.In all, the project presents the history ofaeronautically engineered forms in relationto architecture and design, much as previous Art Institute exhibitions have analyzedarchitecture and design for commercial aviation, space travel, and contemporary railroad travel. Visitors are shown another example of how aviation design is as beautifulas it can be functional.Also featured this month:Manet and the SeaThrough January 19, 2004Regenstein HallThe instructions were vintage Estes rocketry, clear directions, step by step with profuse illustrations. There's a preflight checklist, a bit of problem debugging hints and anAfter reading the latest edition of RC Microf- 800 number to call during Mountain timelight, I ran off to Wal-Mart to look for a new zone business hours for problems and reEstes product which appeared in one of the placement parts.magazine's columns. Estes now sells asmall, 14" span, single channel electric air- There's a decent set of trim instructions, theplane, vaguely resembling a Monocoupemost innovative of which tells you how hard(for those of youto throw thefamiliar with thatplane. Estesaircraft). Irecommendsplunked down mypracticing with 20, got some Can empty sodacells and a 9vcan, until yourbattery and wenttossing motionback home to seelands the canwhat awaited.5-7 feet fromyou. Clever.The RC system isone that's aMy first twothrowback, butflights were cutmaking a resurFig. 1: The Pee Wee Flyer is an RTF electric, all-foam, RC short howevergence in smallby bustedrudder-only plane that uses a 3-cell NiMH pack.RC plane comprops. Mymunities. The system is 27 Mhz singleplane didn't exhibit an aggressive climb. Thechannel; I didn't experience any interference trim adjustments recommended in the inwith the system. The plane is set up suchstructions said to bend the stab to increasethat if you do nothing, it pulls a constant left the climb rate, and I didn't get that right beturn. The transmitter consists of a handheld fore I busted both props. I'll try the 800unit, slightly smaller than a TV remote, with number tomorrow and see how the replaceone button on it. You push the button toment process works.drive the rudder full right, and by pulsing it,adjust the rate of turn. Range reported inAlso of note, even though the plane seemedRC Microflight was 100' on the ground,to land pretty hard (well, hard enough towhich means more in the air.bust props anyway), the model itself wasundamaged. I was a bit surprised by that,A charging unit takes 6 C cells (which tellsparticularly given the thinness of the wing.me you could substitute a 7.2V RC car orThe slide switch is installed such that moplane pack if you soldered in the suppliedmentum moved it to the off position bothkeyed chargingtimes, preventjack). You makeing damage tosure the slidingthe motor. Reswitch on theplacing the propplane is set towas simple; popoff, plug thethe old one off,charging unitpush the newinto the plane,one on.then hold downa pushbutton forOverall, this45 sec. Unplug,thing looks like:flip the switch(a) a pretty wellon, and launch.designed pieceThe motor had aof work for 20.surprisingly de(b) to be acent amount ofwhale of funFigure 2: With the Pee Wee fuselage bottom removed, thethrust producedonce I get thepower and RC systems are visible. The motor shuts offby a supplied 3"trim sorted outafter 1 minute, but rudder control continues for landing.prop of unknownandpitch.(c) it's dying forsomeone to open it up and convert the conThe plane itself is foam, decorated withtrol portion of the beast to a very low investstickers, and all tail surfaces pre-installed.ment A BG RC system. If somebody doesThe wing is a one piece, undercambered,n't show up at a launch in the next 6 monthsrather thin foam design, elliptical planiform. doing that, I guess I'll give it a go myself.To "build" the plane, you attach the wingwith rubber bands. There's also a displayAnybody else try this little cutie yet?only landing gear, and a replacement prop.Pee Wee FlyerBy Mark BundickNovember/December 2003PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.comPage 3

greatly loved by his friends and greatly respectedearliest practical liquid fueled rocket his paranoia drove him to a secretiveness that made his by his colleagues. In short I think you will find aRocket Man by David Claryefforts a dead end. He is no more important than man, a couple in fact, who would have madeReviewed by Ken Hutchinsondelightful friends. By the way, youOberth or Tsiolkovsky.will also find a quote from a modelrocketry author you know or knowIn this book you will be inof (page 45).vited to see the truth as someThere has been a recent biography of Russianrocket pioneer Sergi Korolev, titled Korolev, and where in the middle. You willfind a man who is no moreI found Rocket Man to be well writanother book Rockets For The Reich naturallyten in contrast to a couple of othervisionary than Oberth or Tsicovered Werner von Braun although a fullertechnical biographies I have readexamination of his life is certainly possible.olkovsky but who produced alately, perhaps that is why I foundWhere is the modern treatment of the earliest of more rigorous scientificanalysis and who actually putthe practical 20th century rocketeers? Davidthem in the bargain bin. Clary repeats his themes a little more oftenClary's Rocket Man, a biography of Robert God- that science into practice.and a little more forcefully than Idard, supplies the answer.You will not find a mandriven to secrecy and parathink he needs to. That doesn't distract too much from an interesting,Clary's contention is that the Robert Goddard we noia by mistreatment at thewell told story. The book mighthands of the press but a manknow is the product of two successive publicalso have included a summary ofrelations campaigns and that the real man haswho was a publicity hound,Goddard's rocket flights for thebeen somewhat lost in the glare of those efforts. who played the press likeHendrix played guitar. Youbenefit of the general reader. NIRAHe attempts to dig beneath the surface gloss tofind the truth. I found his book quite convincing will find a man of great ego who refused coopmembers know to turn to Peter Alway's Retroin this regard.eration because he wanted to maintain his priRockets for this information. This is a book youmacy in the field and who was very abusive ofwill want to check out of the local library or buyfor your own.his relationship with Clark University. Yet youEsther Goddard, immediately on his death, bealso find a warm, personable man who wasgan a campaign to portray her husband as a reclusive pioneer who single handedly invented allof liquid fueled rocketry. Everything we see torocket for its size.Confused Stages - Stage 35day is directly derived from his work and theGerman V2 was a case of outright theft. TheBy Jonathan CharbonneauThe model takes less time to travel it's ownGoddard's long time friends, Charles Lindberghlength than the real rocket takes for its ownand Harry Guggenheim, gave Esther considerlength.able help with this effort. For a long time thisA scale model of a Black Brant II takes off on anotion carried the day in public opinion and isD12-7 engine. "Wow is that fast!" Tom chatters. To calculate scale speed multiply the model'sstill with us.actual speed by the factor of scale. Example:"Not as fast as the real thing," Syed exclaims.Scale speed of a 1/12 scale model is 12 times it'sThe dispute continues between Tom and Syed.A reaction against this eventually set in and pro- Tom shows Syed video of the model and the real actual speed.duced the almost equally exaggerated counterBlack Brant II pointing out how much "faster"story that while Goddard's work produced theScale acceleration is calculated in the same way.the model took off versus the real rocket.If the actual acceleration of the model is 10 to 20"But.," exclaims Syed. "No if's, and's, orG's and the model is 1/12 the size of the realbut's!" Tom screams, interrupting Syed.thing the scale acceleration is 120 to 240 G's.This argument could drag on for who knowshow many hours or even days. Can you resolve Editor's note: fortunately our eyeballs and legsare not required to move along with these scalethe conflict? Think carefully and don't be toohasty. If you have the resolution, good for you. speeds.If you're stumped, read on.Answer: The real rocket is faster than themodel, but the model appears to be faster. How,you ask? The paradox lies in scaling. Scalingisn't just in the size of the model. It's in thespeed and acceleration too.The real speed and real acceleration of the modelare slower than the speed and acceleration of thereal rocket. The "scale speed" and "scale acceleration" are faster than the real rocket's speedand acceleration. the factor by which the modelis slower is smaller an the factor by which themodel is smaller. In the above examples, thereal Black Brant II has an acceleration of around30 G's. The model which is about 1/12 the sizeof the real rocket, has an acceleration of 10 to 20G's. Even 10 G's is 1/3 of the real rocket's acceleration. One third is four times as great as onetwelfth. Therefore, the model, while slower thanthe real McCoy, is faster for its size than the realPage 4A real Black Brant II gets a checkout.The Leading Edge, Vol 26, No. 6PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com

Spacecraft NewsThe Stardust spacecraft, seen blasting off at right in 1999,completed a flyby of Asteroid Annefrank on November 2, 2003.During this part of the mission a full dress rehearsal was performed for Stardust’s flyby of Comet Wild 2 in January 2004.“We couldn't have asked for better performance from Stardust,”spacecraft engineer Allan Cheuvront said. Stardust will collectcometary matter and return them to Earth in 2006.Model of the Month WinnersHere’s the October and November winners. We’d printmore, but this is all we’ve got. If you have any that haven’tbeen printed yet, let us know.October - Greg Cisko carefully holds hisCox Saturn V which he found at anonline auction. This is where determination pays off because he really wantedto have this model. It’s old. We don’tremember exactly how old, but we doremember how much he paid. And wearen’t telling. )Hopefully Greg will bring it to the firstlaunch in the spring and have a safe andclean flight!November - Mark Knapp caresses his1:33 scale Cosmodrome Vostok. Thisis a rather large model with lots ofparts.Miscellaneous ThoughtsBy Mr. FiberglassComposite Construction-- Building something by combining 2 or more materials. Thiscould be glass fabric held in place by a matrix. The matrix could be epoxy or anotherplastic or could even be concrete. A steelmesh or rebar in concrete is a composite.Common to our hobby is glass, Carbon(Graphite) or Kevlar (Aramid) fabric in a matrix of epoxy. Epoxy is a thermoset plastic,so is Polyester resin plastic. Thermoplasticis like polystyrene, PVC or Plexiglass, etc.Glass is the most common fabric used. It’scheap and can do a very good job ofstrengthening and stiffening. There are several glass compositions used including Eand S. E is used commonly but also in Electrical/Electronics work. S is a higherStrength (30%) composition. Carbon(Graphite specifically) is used when muchmore stiffness and strength is needed without adding much weight. Graphite fabric inan epoxy matrix is 3 times as stiff as thesame weight of glass fabric in epoxy. Unfortunately, Graphite can cost several times asmuch as of glass. One drawback of Graphite is it’s stiffness while applying it. It doesn’tbend around curves as good as glass orKevlar. Kevlar (Aramid) is normally usedwhen toughness is needed. It can bepunched and poked without breaking likeglass or Graphite.Fabric comes in different weaves. The mostcommon is plain weave. It’s like a commoncloth that clothes might be made of. Theplain weave is very stable but is not verypliable. For body tubes and fins, it’s normally just fine. The second popular weave isthe HS (Harness Satin). This comes in 4HS(also refereed to as Crowsfoot), 5HS, 8HS,etc. The main characteristic here is that itcan conform to compound curves much better than other weaves. Leno weave is amuch more open weave. Twill weave isused when fabric drapability and stabilitybetter than HS is needed. Another characteristic of reinforcing fabrics is the weight.Normally, it’s specified in oz/sqyd (ouncesper square yard) or g/sqm (grams persquare meter). Generally weights runfrom .5oz/sqyd to 40 oz/sqyd. Fabrics alsohave what’s known as balance. This refersto how much strength there is in each direction of the fabric. Generally, it’s about 50%in the roll direction and 50% in the width ofthe roll direction. Some fabrics might haveup to 90% and 10%. A unidirectional fabricwill have 100% of the strength in one direction.Mr Fiberglass products can be ordered fromhttp://www.mrfiberglass.comNovember/December 2003PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.comPage 5

PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.comThis may be your last newsletter! Check your label for the expiration date.Adam Elliott, Editor54321 Rocket WayLaunch Complex 39IMPORTANT NOTICENIRA will NO LONGER be meeting at the Glen Ellyn Civic Center. Ournew meeting place is at the Helen Plum Memorial Library inLombard, IL. At least for now.Circumstances and decisions by everyone involvedhave resulted in a move from our old home in Glen Ellynto the Lombard Library, now known as the Helen PlumMemorial Library, 110 Maple St, Lombard, IL. Theirphone is 630-627-0336.Our first meeting there will take place Friday, January 2,2004 at 7:30pm. Look for a sign or ask at the desk forwhat room we might be in.

Challenge mentor, and the Fermilab Asso-ciation of Rocketry are working together to make sure their groups get their rockets off. The dates scheduled at Fermilab are: March 6, 20, 27, 28, 12-2pm April 3 and 4, 12-2pm Hours for TARC will be short, so be sure you're ready to go at start time. TARC Launches at Fermilab Bring back any memories?