RocketReviews.com - Estes - Scissor Wing Transport

Brief:
This classic has been reintroduced as a "limited edition" run for about a year now. It's a very unusual swing-wing design with the wing springing out at separation to convert the rocket into a glider. With colorful decals, it's a beautiful looking bird.

The instructions are typical Estes--fairly well illustrated and reasonably well written, although a bit confusing to follow with the combination of "major" numbered steps and "minor" lettered sub-steps. If you rush through construction, it's easy to overlook critical details buried in the sub-steps. Overall, this was rated a skill level 3 kit, which I think is a bit overstated as the construction really isn't that difficult.

Construction begins with the motor mount. It's a basic tube/hook/centering ring assembly, albeit using a fairly long (12") pod. The pod also offers extra stability during boost, and gets a couple of fins tacked on as well. They each get a brace too, which I thought was a little overly complex versus applying decent fillets. The pod gets one last overly-engineered detail: a dowel mounted on a 5-piece brace. The dowel winds up sliding forward to hold the wing in place during boost and when it (and the pod) slide back during ejection, the dowel releases the wing.

The wing "assembly" is comparatively simple thanks to a nice 3-piece plastic pivot assembly. There's a round base which slips into a pre-cut hole in the wing. A round top slips on from the other side of the wing, and the two parts are then held together by gluing in a plastic retainer cap. You need to be very careful with the glue, as excess can ooze out onto the pivot parts which need to be able to spin freely. The base of this assembly is molded to conform to the contour of the BT-50 body tube, so gluing onto the tube is also very simple.

Next up is tacking on the stabilizer at the rear, and taping on the elevators, which need to be able to flip up using some pretty wimpy elastic thread. On top of the stabilizer are a couple of trim braces to hold the proper elevator angle, a short BT-50 tube rudder, and a dorsal fin.

The nose cone gets a small clip bonded to it to keep the wing from breaking loose under boost. It should also only be friction fit initially until you've had a chance to adjust the nose weight, trimming based on actual flights rather than just hand-tossing.

Finishing:
While the paint scheme on this is simple, you'll need to be careful not to lay it on too thick. Too much paint adds performance-killing weight, plus it can gum up the movement of the swing-wing. Multiple light coats with sanding between coats is definitely in order here.

The pod should get some color to it to assist in tracking. The stock scheme is to paint the fins black and leave the rest unpainted. I masked off the rings, and painted most of the pod black, figuring that will help with spotting it on the ground and in the air if the chute doesn't deploy.

The glider is solid white. I used two light coats of white primer and two coats of glossy white finish. I followed up with one coat of clear.

Normally, I can't stand peel 'n' stick decals as they're hard to adjust and prone to fingerprint smudges. These decals though looked pretty sharp and I was careful to use tweezers to apply them. The decals really add nice accent trim and the result is an impressive beauty.

Flight:
Prior to building this, I'd heard lots of complaints about a number of problems with the scissor wing mechanism, the elastic line on the stabilizer, and the rubber band slipping off. I decided to come up with my own, less common problem. Despite a bulkhead and reasonably good friction-fit, the nose cone I'd tacked in place temporarily so that I could add/remove nose weight to trim popped off at ejection, resulting in more of a flopping maple-leaf "glide".

Recovery:
Given the nose cone snag, I can't really judge the recovery/glide portion of the flight yet. I'll have to replace the nose and add a comment later to update this review.

Flight Log

Date	Rocket Name	Motor(s)	Altitude	Notes
2005-05-04	Donald Laskey's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	pop the nose off and went downe fast
2005-07-19	Donald Besaw's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Excellent first flight, nice straight boost to maybe 300 feet and the glider performance...
2005-07-26	Donald Besaw's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Great flight, a bit squirrelly during boost but nothing major. However, the glider performance was...
2005-08-15	Donald Besaw's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Beautiful, just beautiful flight. Glider soared magestically overhead during descent and glided in...
2005-11-12	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Ebay win. Original one. No engine pod. Scratch built one and fixed rocket to fly. Good boost and...
2005-11-30	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-4	-	Late ejection but glider transitioned ok.WOW, the dang thing can fly!! Way too straight,almost...
2005-12-10	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Tried a C engine again.Good boost and transition but glider went into a death sprial. Hard...
2005-12-10	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Used some CA on body tube,got it straight enough to try again but I should have quit while I could...
2005-12-10	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Did field repair and tried it again with the same results!Really landed hard, major damage to...
2005-12-24	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Made major repairs to body tube with tube coupler. Delay seemed too long for a -2.Down it went...
2006-01-15	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Clean pod separation, popped nose cone off, maple leaf recovery.
2006-01-15	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Popped nose cone off, maple leaf glide
2006-04-22	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B4-2	-	Low altitude, but decent glide for high winds.
2006-04-22	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C5-3	-	Perfect boost, great glide!
2006-06-11	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Very long glide for such a short boost. Wings detached upon landing.
2006-08-13	Jerry Krueger's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B4-4	-	First flight. Boost was good, arched over a little. Glide was perfect, better ever expected. It...
2006-10-12	Geoffrey Kerbel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	OK,last try! Still can't fly. I'll fix it but it is now retired. I so much wanted to get it to fly...
2006-11-11	B. W.P.'s Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Arced over slightly in the climb. When ejection occurred at approximately 300ft, was perfectly...
2007-06-02	Steve Lindeman's Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Good Launch with rocket flying straight and true. Boost tube ejected properly and wing snapped...
2007-07-28	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Very straight glide but a bit nose-heavy, will add more tail-weight. One fin on power pod broke...
2007-08-24	Mark Van+Luvender's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-5	-	Wing on glider separated at ejection. Rest of glider streamlined in to chest high weeds. ...
2007-09-30	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Awesome flight, glider had a nice wide sweeping turn and landed perfectly level, runway-like. ...
2007-12-30	Chan Stevens's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-
2008-05-10	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Did not glide well this time--out of trim, and wing did not fully rotate into position. Nose...
2008-06-21	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Arcing flight put the scissor wing in perfect glide position at ejection. Nice sloping glide...
2008-08-09	Andy Turits's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Arced pretty seriously and acheived a maximum altitude of 150 feet. Nose down separation. Booster...
2008-08-23	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Great flight but got a little nervous as the glider headed for the treeline, luckily it flew right...
2008-09-20	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	At apogee; nice long, straight glide.
2008-10-26	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Added some weight to one wing to get it to turn a little. Got a steep, tight circular glide. Will...
2009-01-25	David Sindel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Fast but safe glide; will have to rebalance. The motor tube was crimped and I shortened it a hair.
2009-09-21	Jim Bassham's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Lifted off and arced over to horizontal flight at about 200'. Ejected pod perfectly and glided...
2009-11-22	Jim Bassham's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	Arched over on boost and flew into the sun. Ejected OK and glider flew back toward launch pad and...
2010-01-02	Jim Bassham's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-	The Scissor-wing got a lot of comments at this flight and flew flawlessly. Great flight.
2010-06-12	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Rubber band did not fully pull swing wing into place. Corkscrewed down and lawn darted. Tail...
2010-08-14	Edward Chess's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Poor glide path, spiraling in. Some damage to wing and body probably needs replacing. Decided to...
2010-10-23	Glenn Weiss's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	B6-2	-	Good flight until the glider flew right into a high tree. Tail unit broke off and was recovered...
2010-11-21	David Sindel's Estes Scissor Wing Transport	C6-3	-

Estes - Scissor Wing Transport (1265) [1974-1985]

Flight Log

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