Art Applewhite Rockets - Qubit 13mm

Brief:
Another breakthrough kit from Art Applewhite. Art steps out of his saucer designs for something more square. If you thought Art's saucers were easy to build, he has outdone himself with the Qubit design! It still relies on his draggy ascent and aerobrake recovery though. Best of all, this kit is available for free to download from his website.

Construction:
The rocket is made from one piece of cardstock.

The PDF file is downloaded from Art's website. Art doesn't recommend a particular weight of paper but I happened to use (letter sized) 8.5" x 11" 110# paper that I had lying around. Also there is not a scale on the page to make sure that you print the pattern out properly, but it does mention in the directions that the squares should be 2.5" x 2.5".

The build instructions walks you through the simple construction. I thought it was very helpful that different dashed lines were used to help explain how the paper is to be folded.

I used white glue (Aleene's Tacky Glue) throughtout the build.

With the 3 main flat surfaces that make up the "body" of the rocket, I think that this would be a great design for small children to color, decorate, and build. Another benefit to building this design with small children is that it only takes a couple of minutes (literally!) to glue it together.

PROs:

• Understated simplicity in its design.
• It's free!
• Definitely has a unique look.
• You can build and fly one in a very short amount of time.

CONs:

• Absolutely none.

Finishing:
I didn't bother finishing or coloring mine. You could certainly choose to print the pattern on colored paper and/or color it by hand.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
The only recommended motor for the 13mm Qubit is the Estes Blurzz motor, the A10-PT. Unlike Art's saucers, the top of the motor mount is closed so using a non-plugged motor would result in a burned rocket.

The upside is that there is no recovery device and/or wadding to prep in the Qubit--just load up a motor and put 'er on the pad!

I have one of Art's 13mm Delta Saucers (that has 18 successful flights on it as of writing this review) and it tops out at around 60 feet on the A10-PT motor. I was expecting similar performance with the Qubit since the surface area of the design is about the same. It was surprising to say the least when I pressed the launch button and on its first flight it went a good 100 feet up! No problem really but I guess I can't launch the Qubit in my front yard on windy days like I can the 13mm Delta Saucer! (The extra height can be attributed to the more angled surface of the Qubit compared to the more flat saucer.)

I launched it twice more and even launched my Delta Saucer to truly see that the Qubit indeed flies quite a bit higher. The third flight of the Qubit found it landing in a nearby retention pond. The white glue and waterlogged motor casing ruined it, but I came back inside and had a replacement built within 15 minutes!

Recovery:
Recovery is "aerobraking" as Art likes to call it but it has minimal weight so "featherweight" recovery would apply here too. With greater altitude comes a greater distance that a rocket can drift but again, with a draggy design, drift is relative. You're not going to have to walk far to chase the Qubit down... Even on a day with 10-15mph winds, I had to walk less than 30ft to recover.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
PROs:

• Another small field rocket.
• Unique design.
• It doesn't get any more simple than this.
• It's free!
• No recovery device to pack.
• Great design for children to build and color.

CONs:

• None.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

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