Over the years Pat has tried several different flying gliders, starting with the X-RG 1, updating it to the X-RG 1.5 and potato-gun propelled X-RV, before getting into water propelled flight with the MAC Capsule and now the Mars Reconnaissance Glider (MRG). Here are various attempts at flight.
2016.07.13 Here are some pictures of my latest attempt at a rocket glider for MMM. Years ago I tried to make a water rocket propelled glider based on the XRG-1 but it was not successful:
I've been working with Frank at DynaSoar Rocketry and he gave me some tips. Here is the result:
The astronaut lays on his stomach so i thought about calling this the Mars Reconnaissance Glider (MRG).
Check out Dynasoarrocketry.com. The gliders are designed for E-size rocket motors with R/C. I already had the infrastructure to launch water rockets (built a launch pad and use scuba tanks to supply compressed air) so the cost of each launch is negligible compared to $3 or $4 for an E motor. The weight of the figure replaces the weight of the R/C hardware and battery. A Tomy timer controls the elevons.
My phone shoots at 24 frames per second. Here is a composite of the first 4/24's (0.17) seconds after liftoff:
I think I'm still a ways from offering one of these to sell. I'm still trying to get it trimmed so that it flies right. I don't think there is any way it could be shipped assembled. It would have to be a kit. The biggest single piece is 24" x 31" so shipping would probably be expensive. Let me work the kinks out. Thanks, Pat
2016.07.23 After much trial & error (and some bad crashes) here are four good flights:
And here are some of the crashes:
Stormy remarked "She's a bit of a handful but I've got the hang of it now". When asked about similar experiences with fellow test pilot Steve Austin, Storm said "He's OK but he's a bit of a p*ssy. No one offered to rebuild me."
2016.07.24 The fourth and fifth flights of the MRG this morning. I'm tweaking settings to try and improve performance. On flight "D" the homing beacon was set too strong.
Two more flights of the water rocket glider.
2016.07.31 Here is a video of the MRG with a reduced nozzle and an onboard camera. The reduced nozzle creates a longer boost but it is slower off of the pad which means this particular configuration with a 1.5L bottle mounted with the centerline above the wing tilts downrange. This flight is longer than the previous longest by about 2 seconds. I am going to install a 2L bottle with the centerline closer to the wing to try and get more flight time.
2016.08.07 The latest flight of the MRG, now with a 2 liter bottle:
Flight of the water rocket glider with 2 liter bottle mounted closer to the wing. Discovered the central fin is slightly crooked counteracting the elevons ability to cause the glider to bank to the left (as desired). It also caused the glider to roll during ascent. It's an easy fix. This is the longest glide duration to date (17.5 seconds).
2016.09.18 Another flight of the MRG. This is at 107 psig. I'm going to push it a little higher and see if the bottle can handle it.
Latest flight of the MRG. Altitude 123 feet, duration 18 seconds.
2017.01.10 For those of you new to the group, welcome and Happy New Year! Since last July, I have been working on a water rocket-propelled MMM glider which is a mashup of the old Reconjet (the astronaut lies on his stomach) and the X-20 Dynasoar.
I call it the MRG-1 for Mars Reconnaissance Glider (you can look up previous posts by typing MRG into the search box at the top of the page). Here is a link to the last flight (last clip above):
This was the longest flight to date. Since then I have been working on getting more altitude. Here is a link to a video of the latest booster flight with a 2L sustainer (the upper stage), a 4L booster and two 2L fall away boosters:
The plan is to replace the sustainer with the glider. Here is a picture of the stack up. If I can catch a day with no rain and no wind I'll be able to launch the darn thing.
You can reach Pat LeBlanc on Facebook, he's also an active member of the MAJOR MATT MASON Facebook group.
Should anybody reading this have any similar information, additions or corrections, then we would very much appreciate hearing about them.
All Mattel images and captions are copyright Mattel and used without permission. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2023 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton.
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